California gunman kills woman and himself in apparent custody dispute

Emergency vehicles are seen near the scene of a shooting investigation at a medical office in downtown Fresno, Calif. on March 31, 2015. (@woo_cdro via Instagram)

By Madeline Shannon FRESNO, Calif. (Reuters) - A gunman walked into a medical office in Fresno, California, and opened fire on Tuesday, killing a woman believed to be his wife or girlfriend before shooting himself to death in a murder-suicide apparently sparked by a custody dispute, police said. Police converging on the office after gunshots were reported heard several more shots as they arrived and entered the building to conduct a search and evacuation, breaking open one window to help a group of people escape, police said. Officers conducting a sweep of the single-story building later found the gunman, aged 43, and a 34-year-old woman thought to be his spouse or girlfriend, shot dead, police Lieutenant Joe Gomez said. He said police believed the man killed the woman before shooting himself to death. Fresno Deputy Police Chief Pat Farmer said the couple were believed to have been embroiled in a dispute over custody of their children. He said they had five children together, and the woman, who worked as a receptionist at the medical office, had two other children from a previous relationship. No one else was injured in the late-morning violence in downtown Fresno, a central California city about 170 miles southeast of San Francisco. One woman who said she was inside the building when the violence began, Saroen Eng, told Reuters she saw a man armed with a shotgun walk into the lobby and open fire all over the office as she and her two children ran for cover. They were not hurt. (Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sandra Maler and Peter Cooney)