California man suspected in deadly home shooting jailed after deputy’s bullet grazes head

Former boyfriend held in deadly LA-area shooting

HAWAIIAN GARDENS, Calif. — The man suspected of killing his ex-girlfriend and her brother after storming into their parents’ California home was only grazed by a deputy’s bullet and has not been hospitalized.

The Los Angeles County sheriff’s office says 27-year-old Joseph Mercado was taken to a sheriff’s station Thursday and booked for investigation of murder.

Sheriff’s Lt. Don Slawson says Mercado was grazed in the head by a deputy’s bullet during the confrontation in Hawaiian Gardens.

Authorities say Mercado was upset over a breakup with his girlfriend and went to her family’s home south of Los Angeles shortly before 4 a.m.

Investigators say he went room to room, killing the woman and her brother and wounding her parents.

Slawson says the gunman had brought gasoline and planned to burn down the home.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

HAWAIIAN GARDENS, Calif. (AP) — A gunman with an assault rifle stormed his ex-girlfriend’s California home early Thursday and shot four people, killing two of them, before a sheriff’s deputy confronted and shot the attacker.

The gunman burst in at about 3:40 a.m. and went room to room, killing his ex-girlfriend and her brother and critically wounding their parents while six others frantically fled the home, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said.

“People jumped from windows and off the roof to escape,” Undersheriff Larry Waldie said. “With those running out and the amount of shooting going on, he could have killed all 10 people.”

The gunman was outside the home with a gas can, apparently preparing to burn the home down, when an on-duty deputy who heard the gunfire confronted the man, Waldie said. The suspect then pointed his weapon at the deputy, Waldie said, and the officer responded by shooting him in the head.

There was no immediate word on the gunman’s condition. The deputy wasn’t hurt.

The deputy went inside the home in Hawaiian Gardens, south of Los Angeles, and found the bodies. The victims’ father and mother were hospitalized in critical condition with gunshot wounds.

Waldie told KTLA-TV the gunman was distraught over the breakup and upset with the family.

Authorities have not released any names, but a relative identified the dead as Serena Tarin, 23, and her brother, Alfredo. They were among 10 family members in the home, relative Angelica Rosales said.

“They were a real close family,” she said.

She said Alfredo was 21, although sheriff’s officials initially said he was 14.

A neighbor, Javier Leon, said he had been working a night shift and had just returned to his home about two blocks from the shooting scene when he heard four shots.

“I turned on my TV, and then ‘boom! boom! boom! boom!,’” he said.

Residents said there have been drive-by gang shootings but not an all-out attack in the modest neighborhood of small stucco and wood-framed homes.

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Associated Press Writer Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.