Suspect dead after three killed on California Indian reservation

Hector Celaya, 31, of Tule River Indian Reservation near Porterville, California is shown in this booking photo released by Tulare County Sheriff's Department in Visalia, California December 9, 2012. Celaya is a suspect involved in a shooting on the reservation about 60 miles northeast of Bakerfield, which left 3 dead and 4 injured, including two young children, according to police reports.

(Reuters) - The man suspected of a shooting rampage in California at the Tule River Indian Reservation in which three people were killed and three others wounded, including two young daughters of the suspect, has died, county officials said on Sunday.

Hector Celaya, 31, who lived on the central California reservation, fled the scene of the shooting with his daughters and was shot during a low-speed car chase as authorities attempted to take him into custody, the Tulare County Sheriff's Department said. They later declared him deceased.

The two girls, ages 5 and 8, also suffered gunshot wounds. One of the girls was being treated for life-threatening injuries, police said.

"During the preliminary investigation, detectives learned the suspect had shot the children," the sheriff's office said in a statement.

The incident began on Saturday night when the Tulare County Sheriff received a 911 call saying shots had been fired on the reservation, roughly 60 miles north of Bakersfield, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Officials discovered a man and a woman who had been fatally shot in a trailer, as well as a male youth who was wounded. Another man was found dead in a shed.

Detectives were able to locate Celaya, who was considered armed and dangerous, using data from his cellphone, the sheriff's office said.

(Reporting by Edith Honan and Mary Slosson; Editing by Barbara Goldberg, Mary Wisniewski and Todd Eastham)