FRESNO, Calif. _ Three men are dead and one has been wounded after a gun battle at a Fresno home Tuesday morning, police said.
Officers responded about 8 a.m. to reports of shots fired at a residence in the east-central part of the city.
Police Chief Jerry Dyer told reporters that as the first officers arrived, they found an African-American male in a vehicle with a gunshot wound. A second African-American man was outside the vehicle, also with a gunshot wound.
A second team of officers arrived at the home and went inside to find a Southeast Asian man in his late 50s or early 60s who had been shot in his upper body. A 30-year-old Southeast Asian male had also been shot in a shoulder, Dyer said.
The African-American men died at the scene, as did the older Southeast Asian man, Dyer said. The 30-year-old was transported to a hospital for treatment of his wound.
Dyer said investigators are still determining what sparked the gun battle. It could have been a home-invasion robbery or a drug deal that went bad.
He said the African-American males went into the residence, and the 30-year-old began shooting at them with an AR-15 when they were in the living room. One of the African-American men returned fire with a handgun. The gun battle continued out to the front of the home.
Both weapons were recovered at the scene, Dyer said.
