Police: Killing of 16-year-old, 10-month-old baby implies killer's 'high-ranking gang affiliation'

A California sheriff said this week that the brutal slaying of a group of family members—including a 16-year-old girl and her 10-month-old infant—bears the marks of organized criminal activity, though the sheriff qualified an earlier claim that the mass killing was cartel-related. 

Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said during a news conference that the shooting in Goshen, Ca., early on Monday morning may not have been linked to the Mexican cartel as he had earlier suggested, but that the massacre of the six people inside the small Goshen home may still be linked to organized crime of some kind. 

“I am not eliminating that possibility,” he said during the conference. “These people were clearly shot in the head and they were also shot in places where the shooter would know that a quick death would occur.

The killer or killers in the incident stood directly over the mother and her child and shot them repeatedly in the head, Boudreaux said.

The killing is "similar to high-ranking gang affiliation and the style of executions that they commit," he claimed. 

Police have offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension of the two suspects in the case.