Sunnyvale Aids Deadly Brother Shooting Probe

Santa Clara police said on May 14 that a fatal shooting and house fire on Enright Avenue a week earlier was a targeted killing involving two estranged brothers. Investigators said Matthew Heflin, 49, of Bloomington, Indiana, traveled to Santa Clara, rented a house next door to his brother, then shot and killed Mark Heflin, 52, before setting the rental home on fire and dying there. The shooting on May 8 prompted a large police response, evacuations and shelter-in-place orders in the neighborhood, according to local reports and police statements. Authorities said the motive remains under investigation. ### How did police say the attack unfolded? May 8 was the day officers were called to the 600 block of Enright Avenue at about 12:30 p.m. after reports of gunfire, Santa Clara police said. Officers found a man outside a home with gunshot wounds, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. A nearby house then caught fire, turning the shooting scene into what police described that day as an active crime scene that included a structure fire. (svvoice.com) Matthew Heflin shot Mark Heflin as Mark was getting items from his car outside his home, according to Santa Clara Police Chief Cory Morgan, as reported by local outlets. After the shooting, Matthew Heflin went into the neighboring rental house, set it on fire and died there, police said. The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner identified Mark Heflin as having died from multiple gunshot wounds, while authorities initially said the cause of Matthew Heflin’s death was still being determined. (cbsnews.com) ### Why were Sunnyvale and other agencies involved? Dozens of officers from several jurisdictions responded on May 8 as police searched for a possible active shooter in a residential neighborhood, according to contemporaneous coverage. Firefighters could not immediately move directly onto the burning property because of the unresolved police situation, and used ladder trucks to attack the fire from some houses away, CBS Bay Area reported. (svvoice.com) Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety personnel were among the outside agencies that assisted during the emergency response, according to the account cited in the card summary and follow-up local reporting. Santa Clara police have been the lead agency on the homicide investigation, while the scale of the response reflected the initial uncertainty over whether the gunman was still at large. (cbsnews.com) ### What did investigators say about the planning? Matthew Heflin rented the house next door to Mark Heflin about three days before the killings, Chief Morgan said, according to KTVU, KRON4 and the Silicon Valley Voice. Police said he told a friend in Indiana he was taking a trip to Colorado, but instead drove to California in a rental vehicle with multiple firearms. (svvoice.com) Bloomington, Indiana, is about 2,300 miles from Santa Clara by road, Morgan said, according to KRON4’s report on the briefing. Investigators also said Matthew Heflin stayed in San Jose before the crime, NBC Bay Area reported. Police have described the killing as isolated and targeted, not a random attack on the neighborhood. (ktvu.com) ### What was known publicly in the first hours? Santa Clara police said on May 8 that the shooting scene and fire were being investigated together, but they did not initially say whether the two incidents were connected. Officers searched homes in the area, and neighbors described heavily armed police moving through yards while residents were told to stay inside or leave parts of the block. (kron4.com) May 9 brought confirmation that a second body had been found inside the burned home, after investigators were able to safely search the structure. ABC7 later reported that surveillance video from across the street showed two men speaking in a driveway before one opened fire. ### What remains unresolved? Santa Clara police said on May 14 that detectives were still working to determine a motive. (cbsnews.com) The department has publicly identified the case as a homicide-suicide involving brothers, but investigators have not described any prior legal dispute, protective order or other documented trigger in the materials cited here. (sfgate.com) The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner had identified both men by May 13, and further case updates are expected from Santa Clara police as the investigation continues. The city’s police department publishes incident information and public updates through its regular communications channels, while fire and police records can be requested through city public-records systems. (abc7news.com) (svvoice.com)