As funeral arrangements were pending Monday for an Oak Forest woman and her two adult children who were shot outside their home Friday following a domestic incident, police said they had responded numerous times in recent years to the home for domestic calls.
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page had been established by the father of the two children to help pay for burial expenses.
Police believe 44-year-old Carlos Gomez shot Emilio Rodriguez, 20, and Briana Rodriguez, 22, as well as their mother, 43-year-old Lupe Gomez, outside their home early Friday in the 5500 block of Ann Marie Lane.
Carlos Gomez apparently set the family’s home ablaze before shooting himself, Oak Forest police Chief Jason Reid said.
Carlos Gomez died of a gunshot wound to the head and his death was ruled a suicide, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Lupe Gomez had multiple gunshot wounds, and the two siblings died of gunshot wounds to the chest, according to the office.
Briana Rodriguez graduated from Oak Forest High School, just a few blocks north of their home, in 2018, and her brother Emilio Rodriguez graduated in 2020, according to Bremen High School District 228.
Police said they responded to a report of a domestic incident at 6:35 a.m. at the address and found two gunshot victims in the driveway and a third gunshot victim in the roadway south of the home.
Reid said he couldn’t say who was found in the driveway and who was found in the street. Police moved the shooting victims into squad cars before they were taken to hospitals, as officers set up a perimeter for a person barricaded in the home, later identified as Carlos Gomez.
The chief confirmed the two adult children who died were brother and sister and that Lupe Gomez was their mother.
Two other children lived in the home, and one was outside the house when police arrived and another was sent out of the home later, Reid said.
Police had previously responded to the address between six and eight times since 2016 for domestic issues, Reid said.
In a 2016 call, Gomez was arrested on a charge of domestic battery, with his wife being the alleged victim, the chief said. He said he did not know the outcome of the charge.
He said officers were most recently were called to the address for domestic matters this month.
Police have reviewed video footage from surveillance cameras at neighboring homes “that very clearly show the tragic event,” Reid said. Lupe Gomez and her children had been shot while outside the family’s home, he said.
Reid said the matter is still an open investigation.
“We are trying to put together all of the things that led up to this,” Reid said. “We are trying to establish the ‘why’ this occurred. We are still looking into several things.”
A memorial including flowers, candles and teddy bears has been set up outside of construction fencing erected along the perimeter of the heavily damaged home.
A school bus driver, Cathy Walker, stopped by the memorial Monday to say a prayer and place a bouquet of flowers in the fence.
She said the two girls who were unharmed were on her route for Arbor Park Elementary School District 145, although the older of the two was now attending Oak Forest High School.
“Emilio used to come to the bus stop” to pick his sisters up, Walker said. “They were the sweetest girls and always had smiles on their faces.”
Walker said she has been a bus driver for 21 years and “you get to know the families.”
“This shouldn’t happen to anyone,” she said.
According to the medical examiner’s office, Lupe Gomez was pronounced dead at 7:35 a.m. Friday at Advocate South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest.
Her two adult children were pronounced dead shortly after 7:30 a.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, while Carlos Gomez was pronounced dead at the scene at 3 p.m., according to the medical examiner.
mnolan@tribpub.com
