One Dead, Three Injured in Fire, Stabbings at El Monte Home
A woman was killed and three adults were injured, two critically, during a house fire and stabbing Wednesday morning involving various members of an El Monte family.
Initially the call went out to the fire department about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday as a structure fire, but when officers and fire personal arrived they found a despondent male holding his burned wife at knifepoint.
Officers responding to the incident on the 3900 block of Glen Way shot the suspect once in his upper torso, critically injuring him, according to the police reports.
The El Monte Police Department received a call of a house fire at 7:37 a.m. When officers arrived at the home, they found a man holding a woman, believed to be his wife, at knifepoint. The woman had burns over 90 percent of her body. The man was also burned to an unknown extent, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Dept.
El Monte officers ordered the man to drop his knife but, after that order was ignored, an officer fired one shot at the suspect, hitting him in the upper torso.
Both the suspect and the victim, believed to be in their 50s, were taken to the hospital and are in critical condition.
A woman in her 70s was found dead in the house with a stab wound in her neck.
Police later found another man, 48, with a stab wound to the arm.
Arson investigators say the cause of the fire is under investigation and “suspicious.”
The fire was knocked down at 8:10 a.m., according to a Nixle alert sent out.
