Police: 2 adults and 2 children, including an 18-month, found dead inside Fresno apartment was murder-suicide (UPDATE)

Police in Fresno, California, responding to a disturbance call Sunday morning found two adults and two children dead.

When officers arrived at the gated complex they found a man outside suffering from stab wounds who told them that his “wife was inside causing a disturbance”.

Before officers were able to enter the apartment they heard gunshots.

Once inside the apartment they found a woman in her 20s suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and a 20-something year old man, believed to be the suspect’s cousin, dead. They also found two children, aged 18 months and 3 years old, dead.

A neighbor told reporters around 7:00 a.m. Sunday he heard gunshots coming from the unit next door and then shortly thereafter someone came pounding on his door.

He said when he opened the door a man “fell in front of me and I take him and I pull him inside.”

Jesus Gonzalez said before he was able to get the victim completely inside his apartment a woman tried to pull him outside.

Gonzalez said he shouted at the woman, who was later identified as the wounded man’s girlfriend and not his wife, and she ran off.

Officers found the wounded man outside the apartment, who told them that his “wife” was causing a disturbance inside the apartment.

The victim was taken to a hospital, where as of press time he was listed in critical condition.

Neighbors said prior to Sunday’s murder-suicide there was no indication of violence between the couple.

Update: 1/17/12
Police said 23-year-old Aide Mendez videotaped herself smoking methamphetamine prior to killing her two young children and her cousin before committing suicide.
Mendez had been arguing with her children’s father, Eduardo Lopez, shortly after taping herself on her iPod smoke meth.
She then pulled out a knife and stabbed 33-year-old Lopez before shooting Lopez’s cousin, Paul Medina, 27, and her two young children, Aliyah Echeverria and Isaiah Echeverria.
She then went into the bathroom of their Siler Lakes Apartment, where she had killed her two young children, and committed suicide.
Lopez was able to flee the apartment and run next door. He is at Community Regional Medical Center where he remains in critical condition.