Husband Guns Down Estranged Wife, Boyfriend In Fresno Church Parking Lot
FRESNO (AP) -- A man shot and killed his estranged wife and her boyfriend outside a Catholic church in central California and then shot himself at his home, authorities said.
Manuel Garcia, 64, waited Sunday for his estranged wife and her boyfriend to leave Mass at St. Alphonsus Church in Fresno and shot them in the head, the Fresno Bee reported .
Martha Garcia, 61, died in the church's parking lot. Her boyfriend, 51-year-old Raul Herrera, died later at a hospital.
The couple's daughter called police after receiving text messages from her father saying he had killed her mother and was going to kill himself, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said.
Dyer said that when Fresno police and SWAT officers arrived at the couple's home they heard a gunshot. A robot entered the home and found Manuel Garcia dead of a gunshot wound to the head with a gun in his hand.
Manuel Garcia and Martha Garcia had been married for 43 years but she had filed for divorce about a month ago.
The woman continued living in the family home, Dyer said, and had recently told relatives that she had a boyfriend.
The killings in central California came hours before a gunman opened fire in a small Texas church, killing 26 people during Sunday services. Authorities said Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, had sent threatening text messages before the attack to his mother-in-law, who attended the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
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