LA attorney fatally shoots wife and son before killing self, daughter slips out through bathroom window to escape horrid attack
An attorney from Los Angeles has reportedly shot and killed his wife and son before turning the gun on himself. He reportedly also attempted to kill his daughter before she made a timely escape through the bathroom window.
The attorney, identified as 60-year-old Eric Lertzman, allegedly opened fire inside his family home in Northridge, California at 9 am on September 11. The authorities are treating the case as a murder-suicide.
Lertzman's daughter, who has not been identified, reportedly saw her father with a handgun before she fled out of a bathroom window to seek help while her brother, 19-year-old Michael, and her mother, 60-year-old Sandy Lertzman, were killed in the house. Lertzman, a deputy city attorney, then turned the gun on himself, taking his own life. Reports state that two guns were recovered from the scene of the suspected murder-suicide.
A neighbor, talking to ABC 7, said: "The daughter came running to my door saying her father took a shot at her. I went with her to the door and I knocked on the door, yelled. Nothing. We went to the back."
"She said 'my mom and my brother are still inside.' We pummeled on the door, yelled for her dad, yelled her mother's name and brother's name. No answer. And that's when we called the police," the neighbor added.
Lertzman's sister-in-law, Cindy Stern, told the New York Daily News that the lawyer had undergone surgery six weeks ago and was possibly under strong pain medication ahead of an upcoming hernia operation.
"This is a tragedy. This is a case of somebody snapping. He was in pain and on pain medication. It's so out of character for him," she said. "He was a mild-mannered man."
Stern, while talking of her niece, said: "It was totally incomprehensible to her how this could happen. She heard a bunch of shots and was able to make it from her bedroom to the powder room to escape out of the window." She also talked about her sister, saying: "She was just a very positive, caring, thoughtful person. She was just so loving and full of life."
Meanwhile, City Attorney Mike Feuer said details were still evolving in the case, and called the incident a "horrible tragedy." "Details are evolving, though early reports indicate police were called to the family home because of a domestic disturbance," Feuer said.