POLICE searching for gunman who kills three people, wounds two at suburban Los Angeles home

Thursday, September 6th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) _ Police were searching Thursday for a gunman who walked into a suburban Los Angeles home and opened fire, killing a woman and two young children and wounding two others.

All the victims of Wednesday night's shooting were believed to be related, police Lt. Rex Jones said. The suspect, who police identified as Reynaldo Herrera Rodriguez, was thought to be an acquaintance of one of the victims.

``Somebody showed up, entered the home with a weapon and started shooting,'' Jones said.

Jones said investigators have determined a motive for the attack but he declined to say what it was.

Rigoberto Calderon, 16, was shot in the right thigh and a 19-year-old woman, whose name was not released, was hit in the abdomen. Both were hospitalized in stable condition. Rafael Calderon Jr., 18, who jumped from a second-story window and was treated for a broken wrist.

The names of the other three victims were not immediately released.

Simi Valley, about 35 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, was ranked by the FBI this year as the nation's most-crime-free city of 100,000 or more residents.

The neighborhood where the shootings occurred is only about 2 years old, and homes there sell for as much as $570,000.

Paul Morales, who lives next door to the home where the shooting occurred, said it is owned by Calderon's family, which includes his father, Rafael Sr., and his mother, Anna.

Jones said the mother and father were both at work when the shootings occurred.

''I came home, I turned on the radio and I was in total shock. I was shaking,'' Morale said.