A weekend shooting in which three women were killed at a short-term rental home in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood was a targeted attack, the city's police chief said Tuesday as investigators continued to search for suspects.
Four other people were wounded, two critically, when gunfire erupted around 2:30 a.m. Saturday at the property in the Beverly Crest area, the Los Angeles Police Department said.
Chief Michel Moore said detectives believe the shooting was "not in pursuit of a robbery, or some random act, but instead a targeted assault and … a vicious expression of violence and a terrible loss of life.”
The Los Angeles County coroner’s office on Sunday identified those killed as Iyana Hutton, 33, of Chicago; Nenah Davis, 29, of Bolingbrook, Illinois; and Destiny Sims, 26, of Buckeye, Arizona.
Police officials said the three victims were inside a vehicle when they were fatally shot.
Moore said Davis was a single mother with three young children — an 8-year-old girl, a 7-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl. He said Sims also had three young children under the age of six. And Hutton was an aspiring actress, rap artist and music promoter, the chief said.
Investigators were trying to determine if there was a party at the rental home or what type of gathering was occurring, officials said.
The ages and genders of the wounded victims were not released and their conditions were not known Tuesday.
The chief said the shooting “shattered a sense of calm and peace in that neighborhood,” where large and expensive houses are nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains. The home, estimated at $3 million, is on a cul-de-sac and described in online real estate platforms as modern and private with a pool and outdoor shower.
The shooting followed a Jan. 21 massacre at a dance hall in a Los Angeles suburb that left 11 dead and nine wounded, and shootings at two Half Moon Bay farms on Jan. 23 that left seven dead and one wounded.
