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UPDATED: Man kills grandson, self at Palmdale home

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The incident happened Wednesday, May 14 at a home in the 37800 Block of 29th Street East in Palmdale. (Photo by LUIS MEZA)
The incident happened Wednesday, May 14 at a home in the 37800 Block of 29th Street East in Palmdale. (Photo by LUIS MEZA)

PALMDALE – A man shot and killed his grandson in an east Palmdale home Wednesday afternoon before turning the gun on himself, authorities said.

Palmdale Sheriff's deputies responded to the home around 2:49 p.m. after a call came in from the suspect's wife. (LUIS MEZA)
Palmdale Sheriff’s deputies responded to the home around 2:49 p.m. after a call came in from the suspect’s wife. (LUIS MEZA)

The victims have not yet been identified in the apparent murder-suicide, which occurred around 2:49 p.m. Wednesday, May 14, in the 37800 Block of 29th Street East in Palmdale, according to a press release from the Sheriff Department’s Homicide Bureau. Read it below:

Detectives have learned deputies from Palmdale Sheriff’s Station responded to a gunshot victim call, and when they arrived, they found the victim and suspect lying inside the location, each suffering from a gunshot wound.

The man shot his grandson to death after a heated argument and shoving match, detectives said. (LUIS MEZA)
The man shot his grandson to death after a heated argument and shoving match, detectives said. (LUIS MEZA)

While inside the location, the victim and the suspect were in a heated argument. The argument escalated into a shoving match when the suspect’s wife intervened and separated the two parties.

The suspect walked into another area of the residence to retrieve a handgun and returned to where the victim was standing. The suspect shot the victim once in the upper torso then turned the gun on himself and fired one shot into his upper torso.

The suspect was the victim’s grandfather.

There is no additional information at this time.

UPDATED 5/15/14: The names have been released by the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office. The grandfather/alleged shooter has been identified as 74-year-old Crawford Dueitt. The grandson/shooting victim has been identified as 25-year-old Brandon Dueitt.

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Filed Under: Crime/ Safety

37 comments for "UPDATED: Man kills grandson, self at Palmdale home"

  2. My long time friend Theresa also grew up with this family and its sad that the story end in this manner. The Grandfather must have felt he was saving the rest of the family from a bad seed. I know he loved his children and grand children very much and probably couldn’t live with himself for something he felt he had to do. People judge without knowing the facts. Love and light goes out to them and their families!

    • Why do you feel the need to comment, you don’t need to give you assumptions of why you think he was motivated, if you really cared you would have gone to the families faces and show love, not write it on the internet.

  4. Here’s something to consider.

    Why aren’t people in high-crime urban areas around the country, especially minorities, the biggest advocates for concealed carry laws and limiting gun regulations?

    They seem to be the highest for risk of injury or death compared to some while guy living in the Antelope Valley in a low-crime neighorhood with a ****load of guns in his house and even more paranoia.

    Something is backward here.

    • Paranoia? You don’t know a thing about it, you sad piece of feces. You can have your view, but don’t fabricate variables you have no proof or even know the people involved just to make your sad point you desperately want others to side with you. If you feel obliged to talk face to face let me know you spineless prick.

  5. there is a murder suspect on the loose in our safe city of palmdale 11th street and 12th street and palmdale blvd are close we are supposed to stay inside

  6. In the event that I needed to protect my family and myself from harm or death at the hands of another, a loaded gun in my hand is better than a cop on the phone.

    • The Supreme Court ruled in the ’70s that the police have no constitutional obligation to protect you. It is up to you to protect you, its is up to you to protect your family.

  7. GUNS DONT KILLED PEOPLE…
    disturbed individuals kill people…
    just like,
    CARS DONT KILL PEOPLE…
    drunk individuals that get behind the wheel kill people!

  8. Well another great day of murders in the great antelope valley oh well this place has become a murder place.

  9. There are many factors that this study are not taking into account. You have to read the last parts of the study to find them.

    http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/160/10/929.full

    “A number of limitations should be considered when interpreting the findings from this study.”

    1. There may be bias in assessing behavioral or psychological characteristics of the decedent prior to death.

    2. The gun in the home may not have been the gun used in the death. This possibility seems less likely with suicide, but, with homicide, it is certainly plausible that someone brought a gun into the home.

    3. It is possible that the association between a gun in the home and risk of a violent death may be related to other factors that we were unable to control for in our analysis. For instance, with homicide, the association may be related to certain neighborhood characteristics or the decedent’s previous involvement in other violent or illegal behaviors.

    4. Persons living in high-crime neighborhoods or involved in illegal behaviors may acquire a gun for protection. The risk comes not necessarily from the presence of the gun in the house but from these types of environmental factors and exposures.

    5.Our study focused on fatal outcomes for a sample of decedents. We were unable to ascertain the risk of a nonfatal outcome and were also unable to weigh the risk of a violent death against any protective benefits of gun ownership.

  10. All those first comments are stupid. Shut up about gun control and the like.

    My goodness, people lost their lives here! Prayers going out to this family as they deal with this tragedy.

    • They were very nice people I have known them for 18 years. I grow up on that street.

    • They are a huge part of our family, they are second parent to my husband and his sister. Brandon was like a little brother to him. The family is devastated at this tragic loss. Please don’t turn this tragedy into a political forum. Be respectful of our families feelings.

    • @ minty, why do gun proponents have to make every tradgy a gun promotion. If everyone’s after your guns how do you have any?? Gun rights are one thing paranoid psychos are something else. I would like

  11. Anyone who thinks they are safer WITH a fun needs to do some research. This sort of thing happens (impulsively) quite frequently in homes with guns.

        • The study itself is over 10 years old and the data used is over 20 years old. Not sure how accurate it is today.

          • Just think, without a gun we might have had a beheading. Sick, bodies aren’t even in the ground and you are already starting in with gun control rhetoric.

            Same sick bastards who saw the tragedy at Sandy Hook and started licking their lips.

        • You always bring up this study when an incident like this happens.

          Telling us that having a gun in your home creates a greater risk of dying from a gun related incident is just plain stupid.

          That’s like saying owning a car will put you at greater risk of dying in a car accident or playing football will put you at greater risk of an injury.

          I think you get the hint.

        • Correlation != causation.

          Simply because you have a gun in your home doesn’t mean you’re a law abiding citizen to begin with. You’re picturing Joe Law Abiding Citizen and Suzy B. Homemaker having a tiff and shooting each other with a gun to further your argument. Now think about the Walter White meth cooker, or the MS13 bangers that are legally not allowed to have a gun to begin with but will use one at the drop of a hat getting shot and robbed in their home. Paints quite a different picture, doesn’t it?

          Why don’t you look at a breakdown of people with prior convictions with a gun in the home and homicides as opposed to those with a clean arrest record and guns in the home? Or hey, don’t think about it objectively and just go about thinking you’re right and keep those blinders on.

          • Surprised people would try to dismiss the inference that having a gun the house means that a person is more likely to be killed by a gun. It’s like saying that children are more likely to drown in a home with a pool. Doesn’t mean that pools should be banned, just as it doesn’t mean that guns should be banned. All the responsible gun owners I know acknowledge the risk and act accordingly, just as responsible parents put gates up around their pools.

            This instinct to dismiss any perspective that may not mesh with what you want is the reason why sensible reforms fail to be instituted.

          • Say What?, I don’t get your comment, I think you are confusing me with the initial comment by GunController. I posted the study (the first time I’ve ever posted it) in response to someone asking for facts to support GunController’s argument that a person is more likely to be shot in a home with a gun.

            Its a simple fact, but people react like if you acknowledge the reality that you’re more likely to be shot if you own a gun that you saying we should get rid of the 2nd amendment. Despite what cable news networks try to say, it is possible to hold a view in between two extreme positions on an issue.

          • If you own a car, your more likely to be in a car accident. If you own a stove, your more likely to burn something. If you own a fishing pole, your more likely to fish.

            OK, you have a point. But is it a point that really needed to be stated?

      • @koui, how many facts do you need. I don’t want gun control, I would like a person with a legally purchased to pass the same requirements as the person who sells ice cream or I totally support smart guns. Why doesn’t the NRA support smart guns?? Then have all you want.

    • Well, a FUN sounds completely harmless. And yes, I do know, for a fact, that guns can and do save lives. This person would have killed using a knife, car, or anything else at his immediate disposal; the gun just so happened to be there. Don’t preclude all methods of killing from your narrow comments. Also, learn to proofread.

    • If you don’t believe in firearm’s and you honestly think that you are safer without one and really want to make a statement to all,put a sign out in front of your house reading “There isn’t a gun in this house,we don’t believe in gun’s”.Then I will think that you believe that crap you are shoveling.