San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department investigators are struggling to get a fix on the motive and possible suspect or suspects in the murder of three family members discovered in a residential home on a cul-de-sac in the West End on January 30.
The victims have been identified as Sonia C. Ramirez, 68; her husband, George M. Ramirez, whose age was given as 66 but was actually 72, having been born on April 30, 1950; and their son, David Ramirez, also known as David Renteria, 43. The three were found shot to death in the home located at 4804 Ramona Place, in the unincorporated county area north of Chino, south of Montclair, west of Ontario and east of Pomona and the Los Angeles County line.
The sheriff’s department was called to the 1,350-square foot, two-story three-bedroom home at 9:09 p.m. by an unidentified individual, believed to be one of the three other residents of the house, who came upon the bodies shortly before the call was made.
Deputies working out of the Chino Hills Sheriff’s Station, which is roughly 6.4 miles from the home, were dispatched to the scene, arriving there after a driving time of about 11 minutes.
The murders had not been immediately discovered, but nearby residents did say they heard what they thought were fireworks going off earlier in the evening.
George Ramirez was a retired carpenter, furniture maker and woodworker.
Though the area where the murders occurred falls within an unincorporated county district, properties there bear Ontario mailing addresses, as the Ontario Post Office provides mail delivery to that area.
Located as it is between Pomona and Ontario and just north of Chino, the West End constitutes turf that has in the past been disputed between the Pomona 9th Street, the Chino Sinners and the Ontario Black Angels gangs. Nevertheless, the West End, which remained an agricultural zone even as portions of it were converted to single family residential properties in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and saw both Chino and Montclair engage in annexations that contracted its borders, has remained a rough area with some tough customers whom outside gang members are reluctant to cross.
There was an unconfirmed report that one of the residents of the 4804 Ramona Place address had not returned as of mid-day on January 31 and had thus become a person of interest in the investigation.
There was intense investigative activity in and around 4804 Ramona Place on the morning of January 31, and detectives at one point had gone into the yards and a garage of neighboring properties to carry out searches. Investigators found a handgun in the backyard/side yard of a neighboring property, but at press time there was no indication that ballistics tests on that weapon had been found to match up with the bullets that had killed any of the victims.
-Mark Gutglueck