Rodrigo De Leon Granada Hills man shoots wife & two adult children dead then self in murder suicide at upscale Los Angeles area home. No known motive.
‘They were a quiet family. No parties, no problems…’ A retired NASA engineer in California is alleged to have killed his wife and two adult children in a Granada Hills home before killing himself Saturday night, in a suspected murder-suicide, Los Angeles police said.
Officers responded to a call about a shooting at 6:50 p.m. in the 11600 block of Lerdo Avenue, where they found three victims — a woman in her 80s and a man and a woman in their early 50’s — said LAPD Lt. Blanca Lopez. Officers also found the body of a man in his 80s who appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the LA Times reported.
Late Sunday, the Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner identified the alleged shooter as Rodrigo De Leon, and his victims as his wife, Arabella De Leon, 80, and their two children, Merceditas De Leon, 49 and Rodrigo De Leon, 53.
Patriarch killed family members with multiple gunshots with legally purchased gun
‘They all appear to be family,’ Lopez said. ‘This is an isolated incident.’
A fifth person who was inside the residence, a sprawling Spanish style home, who had survived unscathed directed responding officers to another part of the house where they found several bodies. Lopez couldn’t say whether the woman was also a family member.
The survivor was barricaded in a room during the shooting and called police, but details on who that person is were not immediately released, ABC News reported.
‘The only positive point is that you at least have one witness that has survived this incident,’ police Capt. Kelly Muniz said during a press briefing.
Rodrigo De Leon is thought to have used a used a .38 caliber revolver that he had legally purchased in 2018. The patriarch left no note or message explaining his actions.
Police believe that Rodrigo De Leon killed his family members in their bedrooms, one by one, before killing himself in the living room. The victims all died from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and head.
NASA Mechanical engineer
The police have not found any evidence of a domestic dispute, a financial problem, a health issue, or any other factor that could have triggered Rodrigo De Leon’s violent behavior. They are still investigating the case and interviewing the relatives and neighbors of the De Leon family.
Rodrigo De Leon was born on April 12, 1943, in Manila, Philippines according to a report. He immigrated to the United States in 1968, after graduating from the University of the Philippines with a degree in mechanical engineering. He worked for NASA for over 30 years, contributing to various projects and missions, such as the Apollo, Skylab, and Space Shuttle programs. He retired in 2005 and received several awards and honors for his service.
Rodrigo De Leon married Maria De Leon, a nurse, in 1970. They had two children, Glenda and Van, who both followed their father’s footsteps and became engineers. Glenda worked for Boeing, while Van worked for Lockheed Martin. They both lived with their parents in Granada Hills, where the family had moved in 1980.
‘They were a quiet family. No parties, no problems…’
The Lerdo Avenue home where the slayings took place is in a neighborhood of large, upscale houses in the foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains, just above the 118 Freeway near Zelzah Park.
It’s a section of Granada Hills that is quiet and safe, where people largely know each other, community members said. But neighbors in adjacent and nearby houses said the slain family largely kept to themselves, the LA Times reported.
‘They were a quiet family,’ a local neighbor told the LA Times. ‘No parties, no problems.’
Reflected another local neighbor, ‘This is a nice neighborhood. To think that a triple homicide or a shootout can happen, that’s not what we moved here for.’
