Officials Describe Appalling Living Conditions In Northridge Home Where 4 Found Killed
NORTHRIDGE (CBSLA.com) — Officials are still searching for a suspect in the murders of four people found fatally shot over the weekend in Northridge.
The bodies were discovered in the yard of a home in the 17000 block of Devonshire Street.
Investigators said they uncovered some appalling living conditions at the murder scene.
The owner of the house allowed CBS2/KCAL inside a few of the rooms Monday. He said he was disturbed by the murders.
Investigators said the two men and two women killed were in their 20s and 30s. Some of them were possible related and at least one was a resident in the home. They said they're still searching for a motive and a suspect.
Detectives said all four victims were shot within 12 feet of one another. Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander said he believes they were all targeted and shot execution-style.
City leaders said the house was operating as an unsafe and unlicensed boarding home.
"We're not only working with the LAPD investigators and Robbery Homicide [division], we're also working with Building and Safety to go after the homeowner," Englander said.
Englander said it appears that at least a dozen people were living in the house, which had been subdivided with several kitchens built in rooms, and several other code violations and fire hazards.
"There was urine and feces all over the house. It was almost like hoarders were living there, as well," Englander said. "One of the units, in the bedroom, you could not access from inside the house, at all. You had to crawl through a window, [that] was their access point."
The council member has spent a long time working on an ordinance that would require boarding homes to be licensed in L.A. He said it's currently difficult to inspect and enforce safety. Englander said the use of single-family homes to board up to 40 people is an increasing problem across the Southland.
RELATED STORY: 4 People Found Fatally Shot In Front Of Northridge Home
