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2 dead in shooting outside Salinas Social Security office
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SALINAS  (AP) — Police say a man is in custody after a shooting outside a Social Security Administration office Thursday that left his estranged wife critically injured and her aunt and uncle dead.

Salinas Police Department Cmdr. Vince Maiorana said that the suspect, 50, will be booked into Monterey County Jail on multiple counts of murder.

The suspect’s wife, 32, is in a hospital in critical condition. Her cousin, 28, is also hospitalized with gunshot wounds. At an afternoon press conference, Maiorana declined to identify the victims or the suspect until next of kin could be notified.

Maiorana said it appears the wife had left her husband in Southern California, but he tracked her down and confronted the family in the parking lot.

“This incident was purely domestic violence,” he said.

The shooting unfolded Thursday before 9 a.m. in a heavily trafficked industrial office park that included a Social Security Administration office. The family had stopped there because the cousin had business at the office.

They never made it past the parking lot. The suspect pulled up behind the family’s vehicle, and exchanged words with his wife before he opened fire. The uncle was 64 and the aunt was 51.

Both the suspect and his wife are from Garden. The aunt, uncle and their son are residents of Salinas.

Multiple witnesses called 9-1-1 as the shooting unfolded and quickly pointed out the suspect to police when they arrived. Police took the suspect into custody without incident and are questioning him to understand what happened and why.

Maiorana said the suspect had confessed.