Detectives probe previous shootings near Southern California campsite

LOS ANGELES - Detectives investigating the death of a man shot while camping with his two young daughters are reviewing three prior shootings in the past year at the popular Southern California wilderness park.

Tristan Beaudette was shot in the chest before dawn June 22 as he slept in a tent at Malibu Creek State Park with his girls, ages 2 and 4.

"We have a lot of people on that investigation," Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell said Wednesday. "We're working it feverishly."

Sheriff's investigators are looking into shootings at the park on June 18 of this year and July 22 and June 6 of last year.

In one of the incidents, a person's car was shot and in another, a victim was shot but didn't report that to sheriff's deputies for a day and a half, McDonnell said.

Detectives are examining the shootings but haven't determined whether there are any similarities between those incidents and last week's fatal shooting.

"We're digging into it," McDonnell said. "There were a number of incidents but they were over an extended period of time. The pattern at this point certainly is not clear, if there is one at all."

Beaudette, a pharmaceutical scientist, had taken his daughters on a final camping trip in Los Angeles before the family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when he was killed in front of them, his family said in a post on GoFundMe. Coroner's officials said he died of a single gunshot wound to the head.

His wife was preparing to take an exam and wasn't with them.

Detectives are still examining "whatever trajectory indications they can find and a number of other tests that will be conducted on the victim," McDonnell said.

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Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed to this report.