An out-of-work father with no known criminal past is the sole suspect in the triple stabbing deaths of his three young sons in the backseat of the family car this week in Los Angeles.
No motive has been provided yet for the gruesome mass slaying -- and attempted suicide -- which occurred inside a vehicle parked near the entrance of an elementary school.
The 30-year-old suspect, who’s been identified by some media sources as Luis Fuentes, is being treated at an area hospital for self inflicted injuries and is currently listed in stable condition.
Police said he’ll be arrested and charged for three counts of murder when, and if, he recovers.
Fuentes’ three slain boys were between the ages of eight and ten, and each was pronounced dead at the scene of multiple stab wounds on Wednesday morning.
A local merchant noticed the blood spattered car and its bleeding passengers parked close to his store and phoned in the crime scene to a 911 dispatcher.
"I saw this man behind the steering wheel covered in blood," he said. "I got a little bit closer and I saw a young child in the back seat and his eyes were half open and he was covered in blood -- it's still etched in my mind.”
As with many major cities nationwide, murder is on the rise in LA, but the fact that minor children were brutally slain and the killer was their own custodian makes this highly-public parricide especially troubling.
Such family slayings “are horrific incidents,” LAPD’s chief of police Charlie Beck acknowledged yesterday. “These are incidents that have scarred not only a community, but the first responders that have to handle them.”
