Inset: Zackary Brodowski (Redlands Police Department). Background: The apartment complex where Brodowski allegedly killed his half-brother in Redlands, Calif. (Google Maps).
A California man is behind bars for shooting and killing his half-brother and trying to kill the victim's children using cooking gas, law enforcement in the Golden State says.
Zackary Brodowski, 32, stands accused of one count each of murder and attempted murder, according to the Redlands Police Department.
The underlying incident occurred early Tuesday at an apartment on Kansas Street in Redlands, a medium-sized city located in California's Inland Empire region – some 60 miles due east of Los Angeles.
On the morning of the day in question, police received a report of shots fired at the Rivera Apartments, according to a press release issued by the department on Christmas Eve.
There, responding officers found 36-year-old Aaron Richard Rivera dead from what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds, police said.
But the slain man was not the only problem inside the unit.
The gas burners on the kitchen stove had been left on by the defendant, police allege. Meanwhile, the victim's two children were alone and asleep inside the residence, according to law enforcement.
"Family members and evidence located at the scene indicated the suspect was the victim's half-brother," the police department said in the press release identifying Brodowski as the culprit.
Investigators later assessed surveillance camera footage from the apartment complex which showed the defendant immediately fleeing the scene after the shooting occurred, police said. Those video clips also allegedly showed Brodowski leaving the area in a silver 2008 Ford Focus, police added.
As the investigation went on, authorities located the defendant later that same day, according to the police department.
"Detectives were able to locate the suspect and the vehicle at his residence in the 900 block of California Street in Calimesa," the press release continues. "Detectives and members of the Special Weapons and Tactics team set up surveillance on the residence."
Eventually, the defendant was arrested without incident, authorities say.
Later, when executing a search warrant at Brodowski's residence, investigators recovered what they termed "a firearm believed to be the murder weapon and clothing matching the clothing worn at the time of the shooting," the press release says.
The defendant is currently being detained without bail at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.