(January 2) 2013 closed out and 2014 embarked with a spate of murderous mayhem across San Bernardino County. From approximately mid-day on December 30 to just after 1 a.m. January 1, there were at least six homicides, one suicide and one attempted murder in the cities of San Bernardino, Highland, Chino and Fontana. Five of those involved murders by close family members.
At about 8:30 p.m. Monday December 30, Fontana police officers were summoned to a residence in the 7300 block of Palmetto Avenue, where they discovered the bodies of Ramon Miranda, 38, and Silvia Miranda, 34, and their son Ramon Jr., 12, and daughter Rayna, 10.
Investigators had been alerted to the situation by Silvia Miranda’s 16-year-old son, who did not live with his mother and stepfather and half-brother and half-sister. The 16-year-old had discovered the bodies after he came to the house that day after being unable to reach his mother by phone.
Investigators believe that all four died at the hand of Ramon Miranda. A handgun was found at the scene. Silvia Miranda and the two children sustained multiple gunshot wounds, and Ramon Miranda expired from a single gunshot wound to the head, according to Fontana Police.
No motive in the suicide murders has been established.
Around 9 p.m. on December 31, Robert Sanchez and another unidentified man were wounded in a hail of gunfire near the 2800 block of Benson Avenue in Chino, proximate to Chino High School. Officers responding to a call found Sanchez and the other man prone in an alley with multiple gunshot wounds. Both were transported to Chino Valley Medical Center, where Sanchez, 28, was pronounced dead.
The other man remains in critical condition at press time.
The Chino Police Department has released photos of what are described as three suspects. Those photos were taken from a security camera at a nearby business at a time just prior to the shootings. The three men in the photos are described by police as adult Hispanics who were said to have fled  on foot northbound on Benson Avenue.
Detectives  investigating the case appealed to  anyone with information regarding the shootings to  contact the Chino Police Department at 909-628-1234.
At about the same time that Sanchez was gun down, an as-yet unidentified 38-year old man in San Bernardino narrowly escaped with his life when he was confronted by 22-year-old Jose Lopez outside the Stater Bros. grocery store at 977 W. Kendall Ave in North San Bernardino.
According to police, Lopez was driving a red Chevrolet Suburban and fired upon the victim multiple times before driving off. Shortly thereafter, a Cal State San Bernardino police officer spotted the Suburban and pulled Lopez over. A weapon was found in the vehicle. Witnesses subsequently identified him as the shooter. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder and is being held at Central Detention Center in San Bernardino on $1 million bail.
Less than two hours after 2014 had commenced, a 26-year-old woman was found dead with upper body trauma in Highland after police were notified of a disturbance in the area. .
The sheriff’s department was called at 1:54 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1, and told of an incident in the 7000 block of Elm Avenue. Upon arrival, deputies discovered 26-year-old Tysha Carrell dead from upper-body trauma.
The sheriff’s homicide division is investigating her death.
In San Bernardino, Jordan Sartorio phoned  police Wednesday morning to inform them he had cut his own wrist after killing his wife and daughter.
Sartorio, 42, had gotten into an argument with his ex-wife, Miraflor Sartorio, 51, and then used a knife to stab her multiple times. The commotion roused the one-time couple’s 6-year-old daughter, Jira. Jordan Sartorio then stabbed her to death before seeking to kill himself by slashing his own wrist.
Sartorio was alive when at 5:40 a.m. police arrived at the home located in the 300 block of West 29th Street, and he was transported to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center for medical treatment.