Five people are dead after a feud in Santa Maria, California, turned violent, the city’s police department said in a news release Monday.
Police said the incident stemmed from an ongoing dispute between mobile home resident Claude Adams, 64, and two men identified as Kurt Bracke and Richard Hanen. On Friday, Adams was evicted from the mobile home park, police said. Adams is accused of fatally shooting Bracke, 70, and Hanen, 78, at the park’s clubhouse area, police said.
Santa Maria Lt. Paul Van Meel told CNN it is not clear if Bracke and Hanen had a landlord-tenant dispute. Investigators told CNN affiliate KEYT-TV that they believe Adams may have killed the two men as an act of revenge.
Police say a fire at Claude’s mobile home left him, his wife Sherry Adams, 65, and son Seth Adams, 33, dead.
Santa Maria investigators believe Claude killed his wife and son, police said, but their exact causes of death are unknown. Police also said it is unclear whether the shooting or fire took place first.
Claude’s home and three other homes were destroyed in the fire, according to CNN affiliate KSBY-TV. Another home was seriously damaged.