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Wednesday, Nov 21, 2012 8:00 AM UTC

Senior center staff had complained about shooter

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Topics: From the Wires,

Senior center staff had complained about shooterTorrance police and fire respond to a call at Golden West Tower on Maricopa Street in Torrance, Calif., Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 20, 2012. Three people died Tuesday in what appeared to be a double murder-suicide at the senior citizens' high-rise south of Los Angeles, police said. (AP Photo/The Daily Breeze, Robert Casillas) MAGS OUT; NO SALES(Credit: AP)

TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) — Residents and staff at a Southern California senior citizens’ high-rise had complained about an elderly man’s erratic behavior and wanted him evicted before he apparently killed two women and then himself, authorities and employees said Tuesday.

The man, in his 80s, apparently shot the two women shortly after noon before turning the gun on himself in the lobby of the Golden West Tower apartments in Torrance, said Sgt. Robert Watt.

One of the women was an employee of the apartment complex, but victim identities are being withheld until next of kin is notified, Watt said.

Witness Arturo Ramirez, who works at the Golden West Towers, told the Los Angeles Times he locked himself in an office to call 911 after seeing a man who lived in the facility holding a gun.

Ramirez told the newspaper he heard one of the women killed say, “Please, no! Please!” and then heard two gunshots. A final gunshot came a few minutes later.

Police are still investigating the man’s motive, but residents and staff from the senior center told NBC4 that the man had been behaving erratically, and many of them were seeking to have him kicked out of the complex.

“People knew that he was a little bit off,” Golden Tower employee Alex Galindo told the TV station. “People were warned, but nobody did anything, so I know there’s going to be blood on a lot of people’s hands. That’s all I can say at this point.”

A handgun was recovered at the scene.

Watt said the building’s management had received complaints about the alleged shooter but police were never alerted.

Police were trying to obtain surveillance-camera recordings of the shooting, Watt said.

According to the city of Torrance’s website, Golden West Towers is a 180-unit, privately owned and operated facility. The low- and moderate-income housing is for seniors who can live independently.

A call to building management wasn’t answered Tuesday night, and the voicemail box was full.

The incident was the latest in a string of murder-suicides at Southern California senior centers in recent years.

In a shooting last month, investigators suspect 45-year-old Colin McGrattan shot and killed his ex-wife and her two nieces at O’Connor Woods Senior Living center in Stockton before killing himself.

In 2010, 77-year-old Arthur Baar shot and killed his wife, Caryl, 72, before turning the gun on himself in Laguna Woods, the south Orange County retirement community formerly known as Leisure World.

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