4 people, including 2 children, found shot to death at Rancho Cordova home
A chilling 911 call from a man claiming he had opened fire and set booby traps at his Rancho Cordova home preceded the discovery of four people — including two children — shot to death Tuesday morning, Sacramento County sheriff’s officials said.
Deputies responded just after 9 a.m. to the 5400 block of Mill Water Circle, where homicide detectives later remained on scene to take over the investigation. Late Tuesday, as coroner’s officials continued to work at the scene, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. Ed Igoe said detectives characterized the shooting as a murder-suicide based on evidence at the scene and witness statements.
Deputies said during the initial call that neighbors had reported gunshots being fired and that a second caller, who claimed to have fired the gun, had placed booby traps around a home in the Kavala Ranch development.
Dispatchers received the chilling call just after 8:30 a.m.
“’I’m the shooter. I’m setting up booby traps and turning off the cellphone’,” a dispatcher said, relaying the caller’s message to responding deputies.
Minutes later, sheriff’s units descended on the Kavala Ranch neighborhood, evacuating at least five houses, ordering other residents to shelter in their homes as drones flew overhead. A tactical vehicle stood ready and deputies found vantage points into the Mill Water Circle house from neighboring homes.
Igoe said the man who lived at the home “did have several firearms registered in his name, as well as prior military service and possible military equipment.”
By 10 a.m., a tactical vehicle was stationed outside the home with another on the way to Mill Water Circle.
Just before noon, deputies received the order to collapse their perimeter to Mill Water. At 12:01 p.m., came the call for homicide deputies to respond to the scene. Booby traps were never found, Igoe said.
Inside the home, deputies found four people who had died, the Sheriff’s Office said. The victims’ identities and their relationship to one another were not immediately known though neighbors had said it was a family of four that occupied the two-story, Mediterranean-influenced tract home.
Kavala Ranch is a development of about 600 homes in the far southern tier of the city, near the intersection of Kiefer Boulevard and Rancho Cordova Parkway.
Alicia Perry, who lives in Kavala Ranch not far from the cul-de-sac home, said that when she bought her lot about 12 years ago, the husband from the family came out and spoke with her.
“He came and talked to us,” Perry said. “He seemed really nice. He said, ‘Ours will be the house that looks like crap all the time.’ But he said, ‘I just want to let you know that we’re your neighbors.’”
Perry said she never met the man again after that day, but that she saw two children play outside the home once or twice. They drew with chalk on the sidewalk, though this stopped about three years ago.
Another neighbor, Amber Udasco, said the family had a large dog that barked and that the family kept chickens on the side of their house.
“It’s just a very sad situation,” Udasco said. “I’m heartbroken for the children and the wife.”
As detectives continued to piece together what led to the shooting, deputies said the property had not received any calls for service before Tuesday’s incident.
Suzanne Hanrahan, who lives about two blocks from the home where the shootings occurred, said while she walked three dogs around dusk that she knew the family.
“I didn’t know the father hardly at all,” Hanrahan said. “I’d see him walking this German shepherd sometimes. But the kids play on that court and so when I walk the dogs, the kids from that court would always run over and pet the dogs.”
She said the mom and daughter sometimes brought over eggs from their chickens, free of charge, six at a time in a small container. Hanrahan estimated the girl to be about 9.
“They were very nice,” Hanrahan said.
Hanrahan said the boy was around 13 and “very smart.”
“He’d talk about the constellations and the stars,” Hanrahan said. “He just seemed to have a wealth of knowledge for the child his age.”
Hanrahan, who said she had the impression the children were homeschooled, had never heard or seen signs of trouble in the home on Mill Water.
“I just think it’s a tragedy,” Hanrahan said. “The kids are nice. The mother was nice.”
This story was originally published January 27, 2026 at 2:20 PM with the headline "4 people, including 2 children, found shot to death at Rancho Cordova home."
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