Germarcus David Charged With Murdering Family in California Home, Infant Child Among Dead

Authorities have charged a father who has been accused of killing five members of his family on Monday.

Germarcus David was taken into custody by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department after his four children and mother-in-law were found shot to death in his Lancaster, California, home. After being questioned by homicide detectives for several hours, he was arrested and charged with the killings, according to Fox 11.

Authorities initially arrived at the home while responding to a "Rescue Responding" call at around 10:30 p.m. on Sunday. The phone call stated that someone at the home had stopped breathing. The identity of the caller has not been revealed.

Upon their arrival, they found a woman, later determined to be David's mother-in-law, with a gunshot wound on her upper body. Further investigation of the home turned up David's children, three boys and a girl all under the age of 12, with gunshot wounds in the same area. One of the children was reportedly an infant. The names of the deceased have not been released by police.

All five family members were pronounced dead at the scene. David was detained after turning himself into authorities sometime later. He is currently being held on a $2 million bail.

Newsweek reached out to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department for comment.

A similar case occurred in South Carolina recently when 29-year-old Ny'Jshore J. Green was arrested for allegedly beating to death an infant boy left in his care. An autopsy of the three-month-old child revealed that a "large skull fracture" resulting from blunt force trauma was the most likely cause of death.

Green was arrested on November 22 following an investigation into the death. Police first found the infant "unresponsive and cold to the touch" after responding to a call in Manning, South Carolina, on November 16. Green now faces one charge of homicide by child abuse.

It is unknown at this time what Green's relationship with the child was or why he might have subjected it to physical abuse. All that police have been able to determine at this stage is that Green was considered the sole caretaker of the infant on the day that it died. The infant's identity and the identities of his usual caretakers have not been released.

"The defendant caused the injuries resulting in [the baby's] death, and the injuries occurred under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life," the warrant issued for Green's arrest stated.