The incident happened shortly before 4:30 a.m. Area residents said they heard shouting before gunshots and dialed 911. Detectives have ruled out murder suicide as a possibility and say it is a homicide investigation.
Two men and two women were found dead face-down along an outer walkway at a home on the 17400 block of Devonshire Street. What led up to the shooting remains under investigation. Police say at least one or two of the victims lived at the house and may be related.
Authorities say it appears to have been an unlicensed boarding house in very poor condition. LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said the house was divided up into many smaller apartments with outbuildings in the back.
Eight people were inside the home at the time of the shooting. Investigators were in the process of questioning those residents, as well as others in the neighborhood.
L.A. City Councilman Mitchell Englander, who represents the area, said the house had several bedrooms, kitchenettes and mattresses on the floor. However, Englander said the house wasn't a problem-prone home since it did not attract many police calls.
Englander said there's been a proliferation of such boarding or rooming homes in Los Angeles, and the city is trying to crack down on such homes. The councilman said the area is one of the safest communities in Los Angeles County, describing Sunday's shooting as an isolated incident.
"These kinds of crimes just typically don't happen in these kinds of communities," he said.
Police searched the immediate area surrounding the home but turned up no suspects. They plan on broadening their search to catch the suspect or suspects involved. A description was not immediately available.
A section of Devonshire Street near the crime scene was shut down during the investigation. Police have been searching the property. A murder weapon, believed to be a handgun, has not been recovered.
The victims' names have not yet been released. Police say one man was in his 30s, the other man was in his 40s and the two women were in their 20s.
If you have any information that can help investigators, you're urged to contact LAPD at (877) LAPD-24-7 or (877) 527-3247.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
