LAKEWOOD, CA – A 19-year-old woman escaped with her life after her father shot at her multiple times inside their Southern California home before killing her mother and teenage sister in a murder-suicide that has devastated their community.
The tragedy unfolded around 8 a.m. Thursday at a residence in Lakewood, roughly 20 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Hector Lionel Alfaro, 52, fatally shot his wife Roxana Rodriguez, 48, and their 17-year-old daughter Sienna before turning the gun on himself, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Deputies responded after receiving a frantic 911 call from the surviving daughter, who reported that her father had fired a gun at her. When officers arrived, they found Rodriguez in one bedroom with gunshot wounds to her torso. Sienna was discovered in a second bedroom, also suffering from gunshot injuries. Alfaro was found in the den with a wound to his upper torso.
The Sheriff’s Department pieced together the horrifying sequence of events through interviews and evidence at the scene. Alfaro apparently confronted his 19-year-old daughter while armed with a handgun and opened fire on her several times. Somehow, she managed to avoid being hit. He then shot himself while standing near her.
Two firearms were recovered from the home. Investigators have not identified a motive for the attack, and the case remains under investigation.
Those who knew Sienna remembered her as someone special. A soccer teammate described her as a girl whose “smile would bright up the room” and said her energy was “out of this world.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been established by Andrew, the husband of the couple’s eldest daughter Desiree, to help the family with funeral expenses and other costs as they cope with the unimaginable loss.
