An apparent domestic-violence shooting Wednesday afternoon in Lemon Grove left twin 15-year-old girls dead and a third victim wounded before sheriff’s deputies arrested the suspected shooter hiding in the backyard of a nearby home, according to officials and the victims’ mother.

The shooting happened around noon on Central Avenue near New Jersey Avenue, not far from Shiloh Baptist Church, authorities said.

Sheriff’s homicide Lt. Thomas Seiver said two females were killed and a man who was shot was injured, but expected to survive.

A woman told an OnScene TV reporter that her former boyfriend had gone to her home and fatally shot her 15-year-old twin daughters and shot and injured her 23-year-old son.


Seiver would not confirm details about the victims, but confirmed that the suspect and a woman who lived at the home had a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.

The woman said she and the man broke up about a week and a half ago. She said he came by on Easter Sunday to visit with her younger children, then showed up Wednesday with a gun.

“He’s not been talking to me. I let him come by on Easter to see the little ones,” she told OnScene TV through tears. “Then today he said he figured it all out. He finally knows what he needs to do. And he showed up at the house and shot my back window out.


“My 15-year-old daughter tried to close the door on him and he kicked the door open and he shot her in the head. And then he went after my other three older kids.”

Two teenage girls were reportedly killed and another person injured in a domestic violence attack in Lemon Grove. Sheriff’s officials said they had a suspect in custody. (John Gibbins / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The woman said her daughters’ bodies were inside the house and her injured son was taken away.

“I grabbed the little kids and ran out the back because I knew I couldn’t do anything for my daughters,” she said, holding a toddler on her hip.


The woman, who spoke to the reporter as deputies were still searching for the suspect, said her ex-boyfriend’s father lived nearby.

Seiver said deputies searched for the gunman with the help of a sheriff’s ASTREA helicopter. The aircraft crew spotted him hiding in a backyard a few houses down from the shooting. The man was not initially cooperative, but ultimately surrendered.

Seiver would not say whether the man was armed when deputies arrested him, but the lieutenant said he did not believe deputies used force while detaining him.

Deborah Tellez said she was home when deputies caught the man toward the back of her property, though several barn-like structures in her backyard blocked her from seeing what transpired.


“He supposedly came over the back fence, or maybe a side fence,” Tellez said when reached by phone Wednesday evening.

Tellez and her husband deduced that the man made it through the yards of several properties before deputies located him on their property a little after 2 p.m.

Tellez said she saw deputies with rifles walking through the neighborhood searching for the man, and Central Avenue had been shut down, before she heard the helicopter swoop low above her home and the one next to it. Tellez said her property was still bustling with investigators as of 6:45 p.m.

Sheriff’s officials tweeted shortly after the shooting that deputies had responded to “a critical incident with a possible outstanding suspect.” Residents were told to stay inside and lock their doors.


It all began a little after noon, when several 911 callers reported hearing gunfire, Seiver said during an evening news briefing at the scene. Subsequent 911 callers reported shooting victims and the suspected shooter fleeing the scene.

Watch Commander: UPDATE #1 @SDSOLemonGrove incident. A man has been detained. There is no threat to the community. Please continue to stay clear of the area. The scene is still active with witness checks and follow-up. — San Diego Sheriff (@SDSheriff) April 15, 2020

Shortly after 2:10 p.m., officials reported via Twitter that they had a suspect in custody.

About 3:15 p.m., a man showed up to the area, walked past the yellow crime-scene tape and began yelling repeatedly for authorities to let him see his children.


“Who the (expletive) killed my children?” the distraught man yelled. “Please let me see my children.”

The man’s relationship to those involved in the incident was not immediately clear, but deputies were seen trying to calm him as he doubled over with his hands on his knees.

“God please, God please,” he repeated.

Arissa Howard, who lives about a half-mile from where the shooting occurred, said she was driving through town around 12:45 p.m. when she saw a deputy carrying a rifle, standing at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Broadway. She heard a helicopter describing the man being sought, and went online to read reports about what had happened.


“That kind of concerned me,” she said.

Deputies converged on a Lemon Grove neighborhood after a report of an assault with a deadly weapon Wednesday afternoon. (John Gibbins / The San Diego Union-Tribune )

Sharon Worth-Hatlee, who lives near the family, said one of her granddaughters was about the same age as the twins. Worth-Hatlee said she would see the girls most mornings walking to school.

“I watched them grow up for years,” Worth-Hatlee said, calling them “really good kids.”


On Wednesday, she heard the girls’ mother standing on the corner screaming “help, he shot my daughters, he shot my daughters!”

Then a chaotic scene unfolded, with deputies swarming the street. Soon, fire trucks and patrol cars lined Central Avenue. Witnesses said the deputies, some in tactical gear with their guns drawn, held back medics for roughly 20 minutes as they worked to secure the area.

“I’m just so sad that they’re gone — innocent, good kids,” Worth-Hatlee said, breaking down in tears as she spoke through her screen door. "… I’m just heartbroken, so heartbroken.”