Man Shoots Wife, 3 Sons Before Killing Himself

A man apparently distraught over the pending breakup of his marriage shot and killed his wife and three young sons early Saturday, then killed himself, police said.

The family’s two daughters escaped from the one-bedroom, 900-square-foot house, where at least 11 people from two families had been staying.

Officers responded to a frantic 911 call about a domestic argument just before 5 a.m., Yuba City Police Lt. Bill Ollar said. Inside, he said, they found a gruesome murder-suicide -- a 26-year-old mother and two of her boys killed with bullets to the head and another boy and the 31-year-old father barely alive. The third boy died before ambulances arrived and the father died later, Ollar said.

Two of the boys were 9-year-old twins. The other was 6.