Former CHP officer killed in Stockton shooting suspected of killing wife in Garden Grove
A former California Highway Patrol officer is suspected of killing his wife in Southern California before he died in a shooting that left one other man wounded on Thursday, officials said on Friday.
Officers responded to a CrossFit gym along the 800 block of W Eight Mile Road in Stockton for reports of a shooting shortly before 8 a.m. on Thursday. This is where police said they located two men who were shot.
At the scene, police said a 35-year-old man, later identified as Miguel Lopez, died at the scene. Another man, identified as Robert Nelson, 54, was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, police said. Nelson's son confirmed to CBS Sacramento that his father was a part-owner of the gym.
Police said a gun was recovered at the scene and it appeared to be a murder-suicide incident, with police identifying Lopez as the suspect.
Around the same time of the shooting, police in Southern California responded to a home on Morgan Lane in Garden Grove for a welfare check.
A girl at the home said her mother, 37-year-old Crystal Gonzalez of Lodi, needed help. Garden Grove police said Gonzalez was found dead inside the home.
Investigators identified Lopez, Gonzalez's husband, as a suspect. Lopez, who left the scene, was determined to be the father of the girl and her sibling who were at the Morgan Lane home, police said.
Family members notified Garden Grove police that Lopez's vehicle was found in Stockton, with police confirming the cases were related.
Garden Grove police said Lopez was seen leaving the Morgan Lane home "very early" Thursday morning and confirmed the residence was unrelated to Gonzalez, Lopez, and their extended family.
The CHP confirmed that Lopez was a former CHP officer. He was assigned to the Hayward area in 2017 and transferred to the Stockton area in 2020. He left the department in 2022.
