SAN DIEGO — A nine-year-old boy injured in what police called a murder-suicide earlier this month died Saturday, according to relatives.
The boy died late Saturday night at Rady Children's Hospital after his family made the difficult decision to take him off life support.
"He's probably been gone from us for a while," said Karl Albright, the boy's uncle. "We were just using the machines to keep his body with us. But he has been upstairs with his family, watching us."
Police say the boy's father, Jose Valdivia also shot and killed his three other sons, aged 3, 5 and 11, and his estranged wife, Sabrina Rosario, 29. Valdivia then turned the gun on himself, according to police.
The incident happened on Saturday, Nov. 16, at the family's home in Paradise Hills.
San Diego Police arrived at the home that Saturday morning at about 7 a.m. Police said the dispatcher could not communicate with the caller but could hear an argument and someone being asked to leave in the background.
Officers received another call en route to the home from a neighbor who said they heard arguing and what they believed to be a "nail gun firing."
The boys lived in the home with their mother and other relatives, but not Valdivia, who was in the process of divorcing Rosario. Police had been called to the home earlier in the month to break up a fight between Valdivia and Rosario but said no crime was committed.
The Paradise Hills community and the Twin Hills Little League came together to host this month's "Cruise Reo Car Show" as a fundraiser to help the family.
"The whole community of Paradise Hills came out today, and the Twin Hills Little League. They are our family forever," Vanessa Pash said. She, like Sabrina Rosario, is a Twin Hills Little League mom.
Albright said all the boys poured their love for baseball into the Twin Hills Little League.
"The little one was only three, and he wasn't old enough to play, but the coaches would let him go out there and practice, and make him feel like he was part of the team," Pash said.
To honor the three players, the league decided to retire each child's jersey number. They also agreed to play in the boys' honor for all future games.
Albright says he is overwhelmed with what the community continues to do for their family.
"It's amazing how many people are coming together to do all of these things for complete strangers," Albright said.
The family is now in the process of donating the nine-year-old's organs. The boys and their mother will be buried together.
"There's no pain, there's no suffering, no anguish, no anxiety. There's nothing. Pure peace," Albright said.
This story was originally published by Allison Horn and Rina Nakano on
KGTV
in San Diego.
