Cops: Warrant out for man in Humboldt County double slaying
EUREKA — A 41-year-old man remained at large Tuesday after he allegedly killed two people and wounded two more in a Northern California home, authorities said.
Humboldt County sheriff's deputies rescued a 4-year-old, who was uninjured, from the home in Eureka shortly after midnight Tuesday. The child's screams were heard in the background of the 911 call that summoned deputies to the residence, the department said in a news release. The two dead adults were the child's parents, sheriff's spokesperson Stephen Brown said in an email.
Russell Martin Albers is being sought in connection with the shooting, the sheriff's office said in a news release.
Investigators have not yet determined Albers' relationship to Tuesday's victims. Witnesses identified him as the gunman, Brown said.
The deceased victims' names have not been released. The two surviving victims were in stable condition several hours after the shooting, Brown said.
Albers was previously booked into the Humboldt County jail Oct. 30 on suspicion of battery against a spouse or co-habitant, Brown said. The status of that case and details of the arrest were not immediately available, and it is not clear whether the victim in that case was connected to Tuesday's violence.
A man and a woman — the child's parents — died of serious gunshot wounds at the home, but another woman was taken to the hospital for emergency surgery, the sheriff's office said. Albers allegedly dropped off a third woman at the hospital, where she had surgery for a gunshot wound.
Albers then fled the hospital, authorities said. A warrant is out for his arrest on suspicion of murder.
The coastal city of Eureka is more than 250 miles (402.34 kilometers) north of San Francisco.