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After a California fatherwas fatally shot in a tentwhile camping with his two young children in picturesque Malibu Creek State Park last week, authorities are investigating seven unsolved reports of gunfire in the area over the previous two years.
Tristan Beaudette, a 35-year-old scientist, died from a gunshot wound to the head on June 22 while camping with his daughters, 2 and 4, who were not injured. It remains unclear whether the shooting was random or whether Beaudette was targeted. No suspects have been named.
“The motive is unknown,” Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Rodney Moore tells PEOPLE. “Right now there are a lot of unknowns.”
There have been reports of at least three additional unsolved gunfire incidents in the vicinity of the park since last June, authorities say, with four additional shootings dating back to November 2016. But investigators have not determined if they are linked to the killing of Beaudette, and so far “there is no evidence to suggest they are.”
“However, as part of our investigation we are exploring those possibilities,” says Lt. Moore. “As of right now it is unknown if they are linked or not.”
The L.A. County sheriff is investigating three previous shootings that occurred outside of the park on June 6, 2017, July 22, 2017, and June 18, 2018 — a few weeks ago — spokeswoman Nicole Nishida tells PEOPLE.
No one was injured in those incidents, she says.
It’s not clear if the alleged shooting of the Tesla on June 18 and the reported shooting on June 18 are the same incident.
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Four other gunfire incidents have been reported in the area of the park since 2016, including one that injured a man. Those are under the jurisdiction of the California State Parks Department, which patrols the park.
“I heard a loud bang and then felt a burning sensation in my arm and fell to the ground,” he said. “Before I could look at my wound, I did a quick check of the perimeter and I saw nothing.”
Rogers said he suspects he was “shot at close range.”
Another camper said she heard gunfire in January 2017.
In a Facebook post, Meliss Tatangelo wrote that she and her boyfriend were camping in her car when she heard a “very loud noise” around 5 a.m. She said she found a bullet inside her car.
“Turns out it was a shotgun fired from maybe 20 [feet] away, if not closer,” she wrote. “If the bullet was fired even an inch higher, it would have hit me.”
Nishida, the sheriff’s spokeswoman, says investigators are working with the California State Parks Department to compare any “similar shooting incidents” that have occurred in the area.
The parks department said they have provided the sheriff’s department with “all reports from 2016 to present, regarding the illegal discharge of weapons at Malibu Creek State Park.”
Park spokeswoman Gloria Sandoval tells PEOPLE that no other homicides have occurred in the state park in the last two years.
source: people.com
