This picture from video supplied by KTLA exhibits legislation enforcement automobiles the place a number of individuals had been discovered shot to dying in El Mirage, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. Deputies discovered the our bodies of six individuals at a distant dust crossroads within the Mojave Desert in Southern California.

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This picture from video supplied by KTLA exhibits legislation enforcement automobiles the place a number of individuals had been discovered shot to dying in El Mirage, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. Deputies discovered the our bodies of six individuals at a distant dust crossroads within the Mojave Desert in Southern California.

AP

EL MIRAGE, Calif. — Deputies discovered the our bodies of six individuals at a distant dust crossroads within the Mojave Desert, a scene described as so grisly that Southern California TV stations blurred a few of the pictures captured by their helicopters overhead.

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies responding to a request for a wellness examine reached the world off Highway 395 outdoors the neighborhood of El Mirage round 8:15 p.m. Tuesday and located 5 of the our bodies. The sixth was discovered Wednesday morning, sheriff’s spokesperson Mara Rodriguez mentioned.

Authorities had been nonetheless gathering proof to find out what occurred, and Rodriguez mentioned they might not say even how the individuals died or whether or not they had been shot. The space, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles and about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Victorville, is so distant that the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department referred to as in assist from the California Highway Patrol’s Aviation Division to search out the scene, Rodriguez mentioned.

“It’ll be several hours still before we are ready for any body to be removed from the scene,” she mentioned, including that the coroner’s investigators will likely be referred to as in then.

TV crews arriving Tuesday night time reported seeing two automobiles on the crime scene. Overhead footage from TV stations confirmed a darkish blue SUV with a passenger window blown out and one other door open, with a part of the picture blurred.

The footage confirmed quite a few yellow proof markers close to the dust crossroads, in scrubby desert land that stretched for miles. Yellow tape blocked entry from the closest paved highway.

Members of the division’s specialised investigations division had been introduced in to conduct a murder investigation, in keeping with an electronic mail from sheriff’s spokeswoman Gloria Huerta.