Tulare County Sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of active shooting at a home in Goshen, California on Monday, Jan. 16. Upon arriving at the scene, they found six victims, including a 10-month-old infant and the child’s 16-year-old mother.
Upon investigating the incident further, authorities believe that the six victims were killed in a targeted gang attack.
Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said, during a Jan. 16 press conference, that deputies were able to respond to the shooting within minutes of the emergency call, which was placed by one of the three survivors who hid inside the home during the attack. However, by the time deputies arrived, the attackers were “long gone.”
“This is methodical, well planned out, tactical, executed quickly,” Boudreaux said.
Boudreaux said he believes there were two shooters who carried out the slayings and a potential third in an escape vehicle. He said investigators determined the shooters stood over the teen mother, Elyssa Parraz, and fired into her head while she was sleeping and then used the same method to kill the infant.
“This is not a random act of violence. We believe that this was a targetted family,” he said. “We believe that there are gang associations involved in this scene as well as potential narcotics investigations.”
While Boudreaux described the killings as likely gang or narcotics-related killings, “not all these people in this home were gang members and not all of these people in this home were drug dealers.”
He said the teen mother, Elyssa Parraz, was an innocent victim, as was her infant child. He also said her grandmother, Rosa Parraz, was also likely an innocent victim.
The three other victims were identified as 52-year-old Eladio Parraz Jr., 50-year-old Jennifer Annala and 19-year-old Marcos Parraz.
Boudreaux said some of his deputies carried out a compliance check for a felony parollee at the home on Jan. 3, two weeks before the attack. He said during the compliance check, deputies found empty shell casings at the home.
A subsequent search warrant found that Eladio Parraz, who was already on parole for a felony, possessed ammunition, firearms and an unspecified controlled substance. Boudreaux said they charged Parraz with being a felon in possession of ammunition, a firearm, a short-barreled rifle, an “assault weapon” and in possession of controlled substances.
“This home is known to us,” Boudreaux said. “That’s how I’m able to say that this was a gang-related activity.”
Boudreaux also said he is not eliminating the possibility that this violence went beyond simply gang affiliations and into cartel-related activity. He said the way the victims were killed indicated that the gunmen know where to shoot where “quick death would occur.” He said the style of killings are similar to high-level gang executions.
