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A mass shooting April 30 in Mojave left four people dead. The victims were shot outside an RV in an abandoned lot near the town's center.
In this May 1 file photo, bullet holes are visible along the RV where a mass shooting happened the night of April 30 in Mojave.
An abundance of forensic evidence has drawn out the investigation of a shooting that killed four people April 30 in Mojave, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said Wednesday as he offered reassurance the incident does not appear to be the work of a serial killer.
No motive has been established “per se” more than two weeks after the shooting, he said, but drug paraphernalia found at the scene suggest the location where the killings occurred was a drug house where “bad things happen.”
Youngblood offered few if any new details while speaking with reporters during an early afternoon question-and-answer session in his Oildale office, where he said his detectives don’t share information with him that they don’t want released to the news media. He instead took the opportunity to dial back any hopes for a speedy resolution of the investigation.
“There’s a lot to this case that’s going to take time,” he said. Specifically mentioning the need to process fingerprints, blood spatter and blood samples, he added, “You have all kinds of forensic evidence and it takes time to weed through that.”
Two women and one man were found dead on the night of April 30 in an abandoned lot containing a bullet-riddled RV in the 15900 block of H Street. A third woman who had been at the site died shortly afterward, early on May 1, after being taken to Antelope Valley Medical Center in Lancaster.
Little information about the shooting has been released since then, and no arrests have been made or suspects announced.
The sheriff’s office has not sought help from other agencies, Youngblood said, though he later added he was unsure whether detectives have reached out for help from the California City Police Department.
He said basic information in the case remains to be determined, including any relationship among the victims and whether there was more than one assailant. He declined to disclose any information investigators have on any firearms used in the shooting.
Among few firm statements Youngblood was able to offer was that residents of Mojave have no reason to fear a recurrence. That’s because the event appears to be drug-related and therefore not the work of a killer who targets random people, he said.
Investigators have no reason to believe the perpetrator or perpetrators have left the state, he said, but if such an indication arose he would contact another agency with wider jurisdiction.
Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call his office, Youngblood said. That includes people who may have been interviewed yet still have information to offer.
He said he could provide no timetable for further releases of information on the case.
“You can’t rush these investigations,” he said. “You only get one chance at it.”
Business editor John Cox can be reached by phone at 661-395-7404.
