CALIFORNIA police investigating the gangland execution-style killings of six people, including a young mother and her baby, arrested two people yesterday.

The arrests – one after a firefight with federal agents – came almost three weeks after gunmen burst into a home in rural Goshen, 280km north of Los Angeles, and shot dead members of an extended family.

The victims included a 72-year-old grandmother as well as a 16-year-old and her baby.

Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said the others in the household were known gang members.

The teenage mother, Alissa Parraz, was clutching 10-month-old Nycholas Parraz in her arms when she was shot in the back of the head as she tried to flee.

Suspects Noah David Beard, 25, and 35-year-old Angel Uriarte have both been charged with six counts of murder, among other allegations.

Both are gang members, authorities said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Boudreaux said Uriate was wounded during a gun battle with federal agents who had gone to arrest him, but was being treated in hospital and expected to survive.

Boudreaux said the arrests came after an extensive surveillance operation and raids at three locations, as well as in state prisons where inmates connected to a known gang were housed.

The January 16 killings, especially of the baby and his young mother, caused revulsion around Goshen, an area that has long been plagued by violence related to the drug gangs who ferry their deadly cargo from Mexico.

Tulare County lies in California’s Central Valley, the agricultural heartland of the state where many of the workers have migrated from south of the border. – AFP, February 4, 2023.