3 Found Dead in Apartment

Police suspect a double murder and suicide in the shooting deaths Saturday of three people in a San Pedro apartment.

The victims were not immediately identified.

Found dead at the scene were an elderly woman, another woman believed to be her daughter and a man thought to be the daughter's boyfriend, said Lt. Faryl Fletcher of the Los Angeles Police Department's Harbor Division.

It was not clear who fired the shots, Fletcher said.

When gunfire erupted at about 9 a.m. Saturday, two young girls ran out of the apartment and escaped uninjured, police and neighbors said. The girls are believed to be the daughters of the younger woman who was killed.

According to neighbors, the three victims and the two girls shared the ground-floor apartment at the two-story stucco complex in the 1000 block of West 23rd Street. It is a well-maintained, hilltop street of mostly private houses with a view of the harbor. Residents described the family as very private.

Police responded to a call of shots fired and feared an armed assailant might still be inside the flat. Officers took cover and evacuated residents from nearby homes. A heavily armed Special Weapons and Tactics team entered the home and found the victims.