A 41-year-old man apparently shot his 3-year-old son to death and then put a handgun to his own head to take his own life in an upscale Trabuco Canyon residence Wednesday evening.
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Orange County sheriff's SWAT deputies burst into the home at 15 Swallows Lane around 7:20 p.m. and discovered the bodies of Luis Arizmendi and his son Sebastian as well as a handgun, according to Lt. Jeff Hallock, the sheriff's spokesman.
Deputies, who had responded to the scene just before 6:10 p.m. because dispatchers had received a 9-1-1 hang-up call, were greeted by a woman who said she had fled her home with her 18-month-old child following a domestic altercation with Luis, who remained barricaded inside with Sebastian, Hallock said.
The father “refused to exit and was unresponsive to phone calls or attempts by deputies to contact him,” according to Hallock, who added Luis and Sebastian remained inside the home until the SWAT deputies entered.
“Based on the information obtained and evidence collected at the scene, the incident is being investigated as a murder-suicide,” Hallock confirmed.
Anyone with additional information is asked to call Orange County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Unit at 714.647.7055 or 714.647.7000. Anonymous tips may also be left with Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855.847.6227 (855-TIP-OCCS), via occrimestoppers.org or by texting to 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S) from a cell phone. (All text messages should begin with the letters “OCCS”.)
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.