Details are emerging this weekend about a man “who owned hundreds of guns” and allegedly shot and killed two women and one man at a Rowland Heights home before he was shot to death by his own son.
Los Angeles County Sheriff‘s deputies were called to a home in the 2200 block of Batson Avenue at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday on a report of a gunshot victim, said Lt. John Saleeby of the sheriff’s Walnut Station.
“There was moaning heard in the background,” Saleeby said.
Investigators said it appears that a 54-year-old man, identified as Michael Morey, shot and killed three people: 27-year-old Ernesto Calzadilla, 46- year-old Linda Merrell and 54-year-old Betty Morey.
“According to witnesses, all but one of the victims was staying at the residence,” Deputy Trina Schrader of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau told City News Service.
A semi-automatic handgun, which police believe is the murder weapon, was recovered at the scene, she added.
Following the initial three murders, the shooter’s 33-year-old son, Christopher Morey, allegedly shot and killed his father, Schrader said.
“Sometime during the evening, the 54-year-old male took a handgun and shot the other victims,” she said. “The suspect’s 33-year-old son was able to wrestle the gun away from his father and shot him one time, killing him.”
Morey was arrested for suspicion of murdering his father, booked at the Walnut Sheriff’s Station and was held in lieu of $1 million bail, she said.
Homicide detectives were not able to comment on the relationship between all of the victims.
The Los Angeles Times, however, reports that the father killed his son’s bedridden mother, girlfriend and friend for unknown reasons. Investigators told The Times that everyone in the group had been drinking prior to the shooting, and there was a dispute earlier in the day between the father and his son’s girlfriend over her use of a washing machine.
Calzadilla’s father, Ronald Calzadilla, was interviewed by ABC7 at the scene of the shooting.
“That’s his backpack. This is the beer that we bought to celebrate New Year’s Day,” he said about his son’s belongings. “We were supposed to go celebrate.”
The elder Calzadilla lives about a block away from the crime scene, and told ABC7 that the shooter owned hundreds of guns and would walk around the house with an AK-47 after having several beers.
He added that the shooting spree happened after a verbal argument.
— City News Service