3 dead, 4-year-old found hiding after murder-suicide allegedly over cleaning
A young boy has been rescued and three people are dead following a late-night hostage situation
TULARE COUNTY, Calif. -- Denise Moreno's prized possession - a Range Rover is still in her driveway. Family friends say it was a gift from her husband. Wednesday evening, for the second time in 24 hours Tulare County Sheriff's Deputies were called out to the family's home for a disturbance.
Inside the bedroom, Denise was dead. Detectives believe her son, 28-year-old Victor Ramirez was gunned down in the garage moments earlier.
Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux says other family members ran out of the home after a terrifying sight.
"The information that we received is that Anthony had ordered Denise onto her knees and last that witnesses had seen he was holding a gun to her head as everyone fled the residence," Boudreaux said.
Detectives are getting a few reasons why the suspect, 48-year-old Anthony Moreno was so angry and volatile.
One of them has to do with not getting an area cleaned up not having areas of the home cleaned up in the manner in which Anthony wanted to be cleaned up.
It's not clear yet if Ramirez had confronted his step-dad or was running away from him when he was shot and killed.
Deputies did not know if the suspect was alive and still armed when the SWAT team entered the home, and with the help of a robot, began searching it. But there was another big concern once they learned that Ramirez's 4-year-old son did not make it out of the house with everyone else.
"We did, in fact, find Levi safe inside the closet area, covering himself with a blanket. As you can imagine, he was very scared," said Boudreaux.
Moreno has lived in the Visalia area for more than a decade. Deputies say he is from Los Angeles and has a long criminal past that includes armed robbery and domestic violence.
