Investigators were looking into the possibility that Lance
Anderson, 60, shot his sister to relieve her suffering after she
spent four years in the care home since coming out of a coma,
said Los Angeles Police Detective Juan Santa.
He was suspected of also killing his wife in their shared home
before shooting his sister, police said. Anderson was arrested
and bail has not been set.
"Mr. Anderson made a unilateral, fateful decision to take two
lives and forever alter his and so many others who loved his
wife and his sister," Los Angeles Police Lieutenant Paul Vernon
said in a statement.
"The motives and rationale for this kind of shooting can never
be justified legally," said Vernon, who heads the detective
division investigating the killings.
Police said Anderson shot his sister, Lisa Nave, as she lay in
her bed at the Country Villa Sheraton Convalescent and
Rehabilitation Hospital in the suburban North Hills section of
Los Angeles.
He then announced that he was walking to the adjoining patio to
wait for police, and ultimately surrendered without resistance,
the police statement said. He left a small caliber revolver
believed to be the one used to kill his sister on the table next
to her, the statement added.
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies went to the man's home in
Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, and found Anderson's wife
shot to death, the agency said in a statement.
The sister's husband had earlier expressed concern about the
wife's fate, Vernon said.
Television station KNBC, an NBC affiliate, reported that
neighbors in the area say they heard what sounded like fireworks
on Tuesday night but no one called police. Neighbor Grace
Madrigal told the station Anderson doted on his wife, who police
said had health problems.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis;
editing by Cynthia Johnston and
Lisa Shumaker)
[© 2013 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2013 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|