Dispatches

LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz.

Gunman kills five, including mother of his two children

A gunman entered a western Arizona home and fatally shot five people, including the mother of his two children and her boyfriend, before fleeing to Southern California, where he killed himself, police said Sunday.

The shootings late Saturday occurred as Deborah Langstaff, 23, and friends were celebrating her boyfriend’s birthday, Lake Havasu City police Sgt. Joe Harrold said.

Police went to the Lake Havasu City home after dispatchers received an emergency call at 11:57 p.m. Saturday.

Lake Havasu City police traced the alleged gunman, Brian Diez, 26, to a Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., residence several hours after the shooting.

Around the same time, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies were sent to the Rancho Cucamonga home about a reported suicide. Deputies found Diez dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound about 3:30 a.m., authorities said.

The children — ages 4 and 13 months — were unharmed at the house with family members, police said.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

Suspect kills two officers, is barricaded at his home

A standoff was under way Sunday in a southeastern Alaska village after a man fatally shot two of the village’s four full-time police officers the night before, then barricaded himself in his home, local officials said.

Hoonah police officers Tony Wallace and Matt Tokuoka died after the shooting late Saturday, said Bob Prunella, acting city administrator. He didn’t know what led to the shooting.

The suspect, John Marvin Jr., 45, barricaded himself in his home, and state troopers and other law enforcement officials were at the scene.

KABUL, Afghanistan

Seven U.S. troops killed, death toll for August at 42

Seven U.S. troops have died in weekend attacks in Afghanistan’s embattled southern and eastern regions, while officials found the bodies Sunday of five kidnapped campaign aides working for a female candidate in the western province of Herat.

Two servicemen died in bombings Sunday in southern Afghanistan, while two others died in a bomb attack in the south on Saturday, and three in fighting in the east the same day, NATO said.

The latest deaths bring to 42 the number of American forces who have died this month in Afghanistan after July’s high of 66. A total of 62 international forces have died in the country this month.

Fighting is intensifying with the addition of 30,000 U.S. troops to bring the total number of international forces in Afghanistan to 140,000 — 100,000 of them American.

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