3 killed in shooting on Indian reservation

Suspect also shoots, wounds his two young daughters.

PORTERVILLE, CaLIf — A man shot and killed three people and wounded another on a California Indian reservation, and was fatally wounded himself several hours later in an exchange of gunfire with sheriff’s deputies as he tried to flee in a vehicle, authorities said Sunday.

The suspect, 31-yearold Hector Celaya, also shot and wounded his two daughters, ages 5 and 8, who were with him in the vehicle when he was apprehended about 2 a.m., officials said. It was unclear exactly when the girls were shot.

A motive for the attacks also wasn’t immediately known.

Authorities apprehended Ceyala about six hours after Tulare County sheriff’s deputies were called at about 8 p.m. Saturday to a trailer on the Tule Indian Reservation. Inside, they found the body of a man and a woman. The body of another man was nearby.

Deputies also discovered a wounded young boy, whose condition and age were not known.

The boy, believed to be about 7, was taken to a hospital in Visalia, then on to a second hospital in Fresno, said Shelby Charley Jr., an engineer and supervisor with the Tule River Reservation Fire Department.

On Sunday afternoon, the sound of church bells echoed through the rustic valley, an indication that somebody had died, Charley said.

Police tape stretched out across the driveway leading to the shooting scene — three modular homes built on a hillside in a remote area of scattered oak trees and rock outcroppings — that appeared to be a family compound.

Two people approached on a dirt road leading to the homes acknowledged they were related to the suspect, but declined to comment.

Deputies found Celaya by tracking his cellphone and pulled him over in a rural area outside the tiny community of Lindsay around 2 a.m., about 20 miles from the reservation. Celaya fired his weapon, prompting deputies to return fire, sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Douglass said.