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Sacramento Man With Bay Area Ties Arrested in Killing of Two Adults, Two Juveniles

A 56-year-old man detained in San Francisco in connection with the killings of two adults and two juveniles in Sacramento, has been arrested, police said Friday.

Salvador Vasquez-Oliva was detained near Pierce Street and Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco on Thursday and is now in custody at the Sacramento County Main Jail. Sacramento police identified him in a 7 a.m. Twitter post.

The four victims were discovered Thursday morning when police broke into the home after a relative reported that something might be wrong.

Police did not immediately identify the victims or provide their genders or ages, and say they have not yet determined a motive for the killings.

Sources told NBC Bay Area's sister station KCRA that the four victims were a mother, her two daughters and a niece. And a woman said she is the mother of the victim.

"I don’t know anything about what’s going on; it’s my daughter," said Anne Marie Smith. "I don’t know what’s going on. I’ll find out when I get down there."

On Thursday, Vasquez-Oliva of Sacramento was quickly singled out by investigators. Sources said that Vasquez-Oliva is the woman’s estranged husband and the children’s father. However, police have not confirmed that information.

"This does not appear to be a random act," police spokeswoman Linda Matthew said on Thursday. "We believe the victims were known to the suspect."

A neighbor, Rita Munoz, told the Sacramento Bee that a couple with children ages 11 and 14 live in the South Land Park house.

A 35-year resident of the Sacramento neighborhood told KCRA that he had never seen such a large police presence in the area. 

"You don’t see stuff like this here," neighbor Luciano Fraga said.

The mayor issued a statement, calling the crime horrifying and extremely tragic.

The single-story beige home with sculpted shrubbery has a basketball hoop in a driveway that police blocked off with yellow crime scene tape. It's located in a tree-lined residential neighborhood of neatly maintained homes near a church.

It was unclear when the victims were killed, Heinlein said. Police also weren't saying how they were killed.

There were no reports of shots fired or other problems at the home until the relative called police to report concern, Heinlein said.

A few neighbors looked on curiously as homicide detectives and crime scene investigators made their way in and out of the home south of the state Capitol.

Don Sherrill, whose home shares a back fence with the victims' house, said he and his wife, Joanne Sherrill, often heard children playing in the backyard or using an inflatable pool.

"The young kids really enjoyed the backyard and swimming in the summer time," Joanne Sherrill told the Bee.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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