Police have identified the three found dead in a Rancho Penasquitos home as a 6-year-old boy and his parents. His father was identified as the gunman. NBC 7’s Omari Fleming reports.
A San Diego-area man shot and killed his wife and a child before turning the gun on himself, homicide investigators confirmed.
Mark Mata, 54, Min Haung, 42, and 6-year-old Hank Mata were found dead inside the home on High Park Lane in Rancho Peñasquitos Tuesday morning.
Investigators say Haung and Mata were married and living as a family before the shooting.
A friend of the victims had requested a welfare check on the residents.
When San Diego Police arrived, no one answered the front door, so they moved to the back of the house. Peering through a window, police saw the body of a woman downstairs, according to SDPD investigators.
The officers forced their way through a cracked sliding glass door and discovered the bodies of the man and the child upstairs.
SDPD Lt. Paul Rorrison said the man shot the woman and child and then turned the gun on himself.
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"We don't know what kind of demons he has or what drove him to this. That's something we'll look into in the future," Rorrison said.
One neighbor said she was shocked at the news.
"I don't understand that. I don't think any of us will ever understand how someone could bring violence on a child," said Kerri Wisniewski.
Anyone with information related to this incident is encouraged to call the San Diego Police Department’s Homicide Unit or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
