SAN BERNARDINO: 2 dead in murder-suicide (UPDATE)

Lt. Rich Lawhead pauses outside a San Bernardino board and care home at 1148 N. Hancock St,. where he found two men shot dead Tuesday, June 24, 2014, in what investigators believe may have been a murder-suicide. (RICHARD BROOKS, STAFF)

Two men died of gunshot wounds at a San Bernardino board and care home during what investigators say was a murder-suicide prompted by a fight the previous night.

Police were summoned at 12:29 p.m. Tuesday, June 24, to the single-story house on the city's west side.

"The other people who live in the residence appear to be mentally handicapped," said Lt. Rich Lawhead, who was the first officer to arrive. "They were sitting in the kitchen area. And there was blood coming out of a back bedroom."

Lawhead forced open the bedroom door and found two bodies on the floor.

Dead are 49-year-old Ephraim Lincoln of Fontana and a 38-year-old San Bernardino man whose name was not released.

A gun was found near one of the bodies.

"The victim was the tenant, and the suspect was his landlord," Lawhead said hours later in a written statement. "The motive for the shooting appears to stem from a (fight) that occurred between the suspect and the victim the night before the shooting."

That incident drew police to the house about 11 p.m. Monday.

A neighbor said he saw part of that confrontation.

"We called the cops about the fighting," said 19-year-old Ulises Barragan. "One of them -- the owner -- got knocked out three times. The ... person he got in a fight with is a worker."

Barragan estimated that the house usually is occupied by about six or seven residents and workers.

"There was always cops there (for) people fighting, arguing and stuff,"he said.

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