Man Shoots Daughter, Her Friend, Then Himself After Argument

A man shot his daughter and her friend, then turned the gun on himself after getting into an argument last night, authorities say.The first shootings happened in the garage of a home in El Monte after an argument, Lt. Eddie Hernandez of the sheriff’s Homicide Bureau told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. The man was described as a man in his 50's and the women were in their 30's, but their names have not been released.

Neighbors say that they saw the man run down the street and shoot himself. One neighbor, who did not want to be identified, told KTLA that after shooting the two women, he started running down the street after shooting the women: "Apparently, after that, I guess he was going to try and shoot his wife. She got away and, I guess, ran down the street and apparently saw the cops and he decided to shoot himself."

It's not clear what the argument was about, but another neighbor Dianna Salinas told ABC 7, "He was just getting tired of it, going constantly and constantly just arguing, so he just got tired and he just shot his daughter on the side once, and he shot his daughter's girlfriend twice, and then he started going down the street and he shot himself."

Authorities say that one eyewitness to the shooting was a daughter of one of the slain women, the Tribune reported.

The sheriff's homicide bureau held a press conference that angered the relatives of the victims. They wanted authorities to inform them of what happened in the apparent murder-suicide before going public with their story, according to the Tribune. One of them interrupted the press conference, saying, "That's kind of rude."

UPDATE 10/17: Detectives told The San Gabriel Valley Tribune that they're looking into the possibility that the shooting started out as an accident. Harry Maldonado whipped out a semi-automatic handgun during an argument and shot his daughter Evie Maldonado. Hernandez told the Tribune: "It could have been an accidental discharge." The shots that killed her friend Diana Amaya and then himself, however, were believed to be intentional.

Evie Maldonado and Amaya had been dating for eight years and Hernandez described it was a "tumultuous relationship." Amaya's 21-year-old daughter witnessed the shooting and may have tried to intervene. Amaya's nephew Eddie Ordonez told the Tribune that Harry Maldonado might have tried to shoot Amaya and hit his own daughter instead. Ordonez set up a fund to help pay for Amaya's funeral.

UPDATE: The identities of the people killed in the shootings were identified. Authorities tell City News Service that they believe Harry Maldonado, 65, of El Monte killed his daughter Evie Maldonado, 32, of El Monte as well as her friend Diana Amaya, 38.