CANOGA PARK (CNS) - A manhunt is underway for an “armed and dangerous” man who police believe shot and killed his father and brother in an apartment in Canoga Park this morning, then fatally shot a woman acquaintance at a gas station in North Hollywood.
Gerry Dean Zaragoza, 26, was identified by the Los Angeles Police Department as the killer of his 50-year-old father and his 20-year-old brother in Canoga Park and a woman in North Hollywood who may be a former girlfriend, according to media reports.
The first shooting occurred about 2 a.m. at an apartment in the 21000 block of Roscoe Boulevard, the LAPD reported.
Paramedics pronounced the two men dead at the scene and took a wounded woman -- Zaragoza's mother -- to a hospital in stable condition, the LAPD said. The woman was shot in the arm, according to reports from the scene.
The second shooting occurred about 2:45 a.m. at a gas station in the 6700 block of Vineland Avenue, where a man and a woman were wounded, according to the LAPD.
Both victims were taken to a hospital, where the woman died and the man was in critical condition, police said.
The names of the dead were withheld, pending family notification.
LAPD spokesman Josh Rubenstein said police believe Zaragoza and the two victims at the gas station were “acquaintances.”
A person was detained for questioning in connection with the gas station shooting but was later released and is not a suspect in the case, Rubenstein said.
About 7:45 a.m., an attempted robbery possibly committed by Zaragoza occurred outside a bank at Sherman Way and Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Canoga Park, police said.
Anyone with information on Zaragoza's whereabouts was urged to call 911.
Photo: Los Angeles Police Department