Two people have been shot dead and two others have been wounded near an office of the Internal Revenue Service in Salinas, California in what seems to be a tragic culmination of a domestic violence dispute.
A 64-year-old man and 51-year-old woman were shot dead and another woman, 32, and her cousin, 28, were wounded on Thursday, police officials said.
The shooter, a 50-year-old man, had followed his estranged wife, who had moved to Salinas from Garden Grove reportedly to get away from her ex-husband.
On Thursday, the wife and her family were in the parking lot of the Social Security Services building because the woman’s cousin had some business to do there.
The shooter, who had followed the woman into the parking lot, stopped his car and got out of his vehicle. As he was speaking with his ex-wife, he opened fire at close range, injuring the woman and her cousin and killing her uncle and aunt.
Police said that the two wounded victims were rushed to a hospital and the woman is in critical condition.
Officers managed to identify the suspect immediately and arrested him at the scene without any incident.
"Our suspect has completely confessed to what he did and we are 100 percent positive that we have the right person in custody," Salinas police commander of investigations Vince Maiorana said at a press conference.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, over 8,300 have been killed and 17,000 people have been injured in various US shootings since the beginning of 2015.