FRESNO APARTMENT SHOOTING THAT KILLED 4 LINKED TO METH

Fresno police on Monday said a woman had been smoking methamphetamine
shortly before she killed her two young children and her common-law
husband's cousin during a stunning spree of violence early Sunday
morning at an apartment complex in southeast Fresno.

Police said Aide Mendez, 23, also shot and stabbed her husband before
turning the gun on herself and committing suicide.

Police identified the three murdered victims as Aliyah Echeverria, 17
months old, Isaiah Echeverria, 3, and Paul Medina, 27.

Isaiah and Medina were dead when police arrived. Aliyah was barely
alive, but later died at Community Regional Medical Center, police
said.

Mendez's husband and the children's father, Eduardo Lopez, 33, is in
serious condition at CRMC, police said. He had been shot in the throat
and stabbed. A 7-year-old girl, the daughter of a friend of Mendez's,
was staying overnight in the apartment but escaped unharmed, police
said.

"By the grace of God, she's still alive," Deputy Chief Keith Foster
said at a news conference Monday.Police also found 10 grams of
methamphetamine, scales, nearly $8,000 cash and three handguns (two
used in the shooting spree, the third apparently inoperable) at the
apartment. They said they have no indication that the adults were
involved in narcotics trafficking.

Foster said many questions, including Mendez's motive, remain
unanswered. He said the investigation continues.

"I don't know what led up to this," Foster said. "I'm not familiar
with any incident where a mother kills her children, then commits suicide."

Foster and police investigators described a bloody, chaotic and tragic
scene at the Silver Lake Apartments on East Belmont Avenue, near
Clovis Avenue.

Foster said officers responded shortly before 7 a.m. to several 911
calls about a disturbance at the apartment where Mendez, Lopez and
their children had lived for about two years.

Medina had been living there for about six months, police
said.

Foster said the 911 calls had been sparked in part by a man who lived
in an apartment next to the Mendez-Lopez apartment. The man heard
several shots, then heard banging on his front door. He looked through
the peephole and saw Mendez stabbing Lopez with a steak knife.

Foster said the man yelled at Mendez to stop. At the same time, the
man saw the 7-year-old girl run screaming from Mendez's apartment.

Mendez returned to her apartment. The man opened his front door, then
Lopez collapsed inside the doorway. Police said Lopez told the man
that Mendez had killed his cousin and was trying to kill his son.

By this time, officers had arrived and were trying to talk to the
badly wounded Lopez, Foster said. They heard a single gunshot from
inside Mendez's apartment, then entered the apartment.

Officers found Medina dead in the kitchen. They found Mendez in the
bathroom, next to the bathtub, dead. Isaiah and Aliyah were in the
bathtub, where both had been shot, police said.

Police said their investigation shows that Mendez was the only
shooter. Foster said Isaiah, Aliyah and Medina had each been shot "at
least once." He said autopsies were still incomplete.

Police also recovered an iPad that included a video taken a few hours
before the 911 calls showing Mendez and Medina in the kitchen smoking
what appeared to be meth.

Foster said none of the three adults was employed, although Lopez
recently had been laid off from a job at a packingshed.

Foster said police have interviewed the 7-year-old, who had been
sleeping in the living room when awakened by a disturbance. He said
she has been a helpful witness.

"She may be young, but she's extremely bright, articulate and
courageous," Foster said.

Foster said police had been called to the Mendez apartment several
times over the past two years for family disturbances. He said the
incidents allegedly involved some pushing but no injuries.

He said the children hadn't been endangered to the point where Fresno
County child protective services had to be called in.

However, Foster added, disputes between Mendez and Lopez appear to
have been increasing in the past few weeks. He said he didn't know
why.

Foster said there have been five murders in Fresno in the first half
of January, compared to one in the same period last year.