Chula Vista Police outside townhome
Chula Vista Police outside the townhome where the shooting occurred. Courtesy OnScene.TV

A man suspected of fatally shooting his girlfriend and her aunt early Friday morning in the trio’s townhome near Lower Otay Lake turned up dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound hours later in Los Angeles County.

David Bell
David Bell. Photo courtesy of CVPD

David Bell, 38, called 911 shortly after 3 a.m., identified himself, told a dispatcher he had just killed two women at their residence in the 2700 block of Apricot Court in Chula Vista and then hung up, according to police.

Officers went to the three-story condo just south of Olympic Parkway in the Greystone at Eastlake Vistas community and found the garage open, Chula Vista Police Lt. Eric Thunberg said. They went inside and found the bodies of Aura Mancilla, 38, and 58-year-old Patricia Garcia in separate upstairs bedrooms. Both had been shot.

After confirming that it was Bell who made the emergency call and determining from relatives of the victims what type of vehicle he drove, police issued a regionwide alert to be on the lookout for him and his white Mazda3 sedan, Thunberg said.

Shortly before 9 a.m., Los Angeles-area law enforcement personnel found the car parked in the 12200 block of East Imperial Highway in Norwalk with Bell dead inside. He apparently had shot himself, Thunberg said.

Officials disclosed no suspected motive for the deadly shootings.

— City News Service

Chris Jennewein is founder and senior editor of Times of San Diego.