April 28, 1999

Los Angeles police say two adults and two children who were found shot to death in a Crenshaw District apartment in an aparent family murder-suicide. Police say 16-year-old Lorenzo Alvarado killed his 40-year-old father, 36-year-old stepmother and 5-year-old stepbrother, then turned the gun on himself.

The bodies were discovered at 9 a.m. when the teenager's 17-year-old brother and 10-year-old half sister returned home from school.

"Physical evidence at the scene indicated that the 16-year-old, found dead on the floor of his room with a revolver still in his hand, had shot and killed each of his three victims with a single gunshot wound to the head," said LAPD spokesman Jason Lee. "He had obtained the weapon about two months earlier and had additional rounds of ammunition in his pocket." 

Lee said the teen and his father "had been arguing recently over the son's flagrant use of marijuana inside the apartment. That looks like the motive."