The State : Dispute Ends in 4 Deaths

A family squabble apparently prompted the owner of a restaurant in the San Joaquin Valley community of Firebaugh to fatally shoot his wife and two sons, wound a third son and then take his own life, police said. Investigators said Andres Patlan, 37, apparently used the same small-caliber gun on himself when officers stopped his van about 25 miles from the family’s mobile home, where Patlan’s wife, Carmen, 36, and two sons, Cesar, 4, and Andres Jr., 14, were fatally wounded. Also found in the home was a third son, Gerardo, 11, who was shot in the face, chest and back. He was in stable condition at a hospital.