Central California sheriff ties cartels to home shooting “massacre”

Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux on Wednesday continued to investigate and wrestle with what he called a “horrific massacre” tied to drug cartels. At least two shooters are suspected of murdering six people Monday at a home in the farming community of Goshen. The victims ranged in age from 10 months to 72 years. On Tuesday, Boudreaux seemed to partially walk back his first comments that the killings were likely a cartel hit. But on Wednesday, he appeared on Fox News to slam “our unsecured open border,” and said he believed a “high-ranking gang structure” was involved in the shooting.

How do police know gangs were involved? Boudreaux said gang activity had “routinely occurred” at the home in the past, even though not everyone in the home at the time of the shooting was affiliated with a gang or was a drug dealer. He added that the killings were committed in a manner consistent with high-ranking gang executions.

Dig deeper: Read Addie Offereins’ report in Compassion about ministries wrestling with how to offer effective compassion at the U.S.-Mexico border.