LOS ANGELES — Yorba Linda’s peaceful affluence crumbled to its knees over the weekend when a father fatally shot his wife and three of his children before gunning himself to death late Saturday night. His stepson, 14, survived. Police identified the gunman as Orland Cho, 41; the wife, Maricel, 39; daughters Nicole, 9, and Kathleen, 8; and son Christopher, 5. The stepson was identified as Ian Mercado.
Philippine News sources confirmed that Maricel and Ian, her son from a previous relationship, are Filipinos. Press reports say Cho, who grew up in the Philippines, was “overworked and frustrated with a troubled marriage.â€Detectives talked to Mercado at a hospital as he recovered from a gunshot wound to the lower torso and then obtained a second search warrant for the family’s condominium, located across the street from the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, police said Sunday. The late former President was born and raised in the city.
“Based on the interview with Ian, they decided they were going to go back in and look for additional evidence,†a police spokesperson said. “Everything points so far that it was (the stepfather) who pulled the trigger, but we want to be sure the physical evidence supports what his testimony is.â€
Investigators said that more than five shots were fired and one of the children may have been shot twice, based on the interview with the teen and conversations with the medical examiner. Police added that Mercado had a wound to one of his hands, but gave no details.A neighbor reported shots fired late Saturday and two minutes later Mercado called 911, saying his father shot him and his brother.
Police found the five people, including three children, dead of gunshot wounds. The teen’s mother was discovered on the doorstep. It appeared he was unaware when he called 911 that his mother and sisters also had been shot, police said.
Inside the home, police found the bodies of two girls in a bedroom. The body of a boy was discovered in another bedroom, along with the body of a man with a shotgun beneath him.
According to Los Angeles County and Orange County court records show, Orland Cho had a few brushes with law enforcement. In 1994, he was charged with fraud and possessing a gun whose identifying marks had been removed, but both cases were dismissed. He was also charged with speeding and driving under the influence in 1995; he was convicted on the speeding charge but the DUI case was dismissed.
Since 2004, when the couple separated, the Chos’ marriage has been problematic. Right after the split, Maricel applied for welfare assistance, according to a spokesman at the Orange County Department of Child Support Services. Authorities, however, determined that Orland was able to pay child support, and the agency sued him.In 2005 the couple reunited, and Maricel Cho asked the county to close the case. Orland Cho agreed to pay back the payments the county had made to his family.
The Cho children Nicole, Kathleen and Christopher are all students at Mabel Paine Elementary School in the city. According to district spokeswoman Rosemary Gladden, Nicole, a fourth-grader, had excelled in every subject but was especially strong in math. She also played the cello and performed at a school concert last week, days before her death.Kathleen, a straight-A third-grader, excelled in art. Christopher, a kindergartner, had just learned to read and had recently received a certificate for good behavior.
Ian, an eighth-grader at Yorba Linda Middle School, is a good student with many friends, Gladden added.Meanwhile, a relative said Orland worked long hours, first in the cargo department at Los Angeles International Airport, then sold cell phones and life insurance, but felt he could never make his wife happy.
“He loved his kids,†Jun Cho told the “Los Angeles Times.†“They were the most precious things that ever happened to him.â€
Neighbors said they never noticed any outward signs of strife in the Cho household and that the father was generally nice and did not show signs of a cold-blooded killer.
“I just pray for all of them... why all this happened,†said neighbor Debbie Bellerose to KCLA9 TV. “How bad can life be, but there are things that you can do to help yourself, it doesn’t have to come to this.â€Yorba Linda is a well-off, almost crime-free suburban community in Orange County, approximately 40 miles southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. Police noted the city rarely records a single homicide in a year, let alone five deaths in a single incident.
The city is listed by CNN as the 21st best place in the U.S. to live, making it the second highest-ranked California city in the survey. Yorba Linda was also the richest U.S. city as reported by the Census data showing median household income of $121,075 higher than any other city in 2006. Asians (11.10 percent), mostly Filipinos, make up the second largest racial makeup in the city, next to White Americans (74.80 percent), and slightly higher than Hispanics or Latinos.
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