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Home Of Rowland Heights Shooting That Left Four Dead Had Been Visited By Sheriff 25 Times For Previous Complaints

By Janice Malcolm
Published on: 06:03 PST, Jan 2, 2016

On New Years Eve, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department received a call to a home in Rowland Heights, California, that they had had to visit on numerous occasions previously, but this time proved to be a tragic circumstance. A man had killed three persons in the home before his own son was able to wrestle the gun from him and was forced to shoot and kill him as well.

In the last three years, the house on Batson Avenue had to be visited by the Sheriffs Department over 25 time before the night of the tragic shootings. The last call they received in 2015 came from 33-year-old Christopher Morey, who had called 911 to report that there had been a shooting at his family home that left four persons dead. One of those four dead had been the man who started the shootings, owned hundreds of guns and had ultimately been killed by Morey’s own hands – his father.

Sheriff’s Lt. John Corina relayed that the 33-year-old’s father had reportedly began firing on the family at about 8:30 p.m. on Thursday night, killing his son’s bedridden mother, his girlfriend, and a family friend. CBS 12 reported that Morey’s 54-year-old father was eventually tackled by his son, who after getting the gun away from his father shot him once, killing him.

In spite of the circumstances that forced Christopher Morey to kill his father he was still arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department because of suspicion of murder charges. He is currently being held at the Walnut Station in lieu of $1 million bail. Whether or not he will be charged with the crime depends on the prosecutor’s office but Corina says that the sheriff’s office had to do their jobs.

“We’ll see what the D.A. wants to do. We’re going to book him for what he did — he killed another human being.”

Reporters attempted to speak to the family members at the home on Friday, but they declined to comment. Detectives have, however, been speaking to neighbors in an effort to try and determine the truth of the shooting as told by Christopher Morey.

Sheriff Corina has stated that investigators are also trying to figure out a motive as to why the father would start shooting the three persons he killed that night in the Rowland Heights community. They were able to learn that all of the persons had been drinking heavily that night. The possibility that the shooting may have been influenced from an earlier altercation between Morey’s girlfriend and his father over her use of the washing machine is an angle that is being investigated. The father was well known to often carry a gun.

“We’re still trying to corroborate what exactly happened and his version of events. We’re trying to piece it all together.”

Christopher Morey’s mother had been bedridden following a series of strokes and he and his father were the ones taking care of her. Neighbors state that the father worked long hours and that caring for the mother was also taking its toll on the men.

The coroner’s office has still not released all the names of the victims involved in the New Year’s Eve shooting, but one woman revealed that the youngest victim of the Rowland Heights, 27, was her son Ernesto Calzadilla. Calzadilla’s family says that the man leaves behind a 10-month-old baby girl. Apparently, they had asked the young man to stop visiting his friend’s house as Morey’s father was not very welcoming to guests and had shot at him before. However, Morey and his girlfriend were very good to Calzadilla and he continued to visit the home, despite the seemingly unstable father. He had cut down on his visits but had made an exception for New Years Eve.

The LA Times wrote that the family and friends of the victims had gathered at the home to mourn, crying as they formed a memorial by placing candles and flowers in front of the home.

[Photo Courtesy of Stephen Maturen/ Getty Images]

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