Reports of recent shots fired at park where scientist was killed in front of daughters

Tristan Beaudette, 35, was fatally shot in front of his two young daughters while on a camping trip in Southern California. (GoFundMe)

Los Angeles County deputies were informed of recent shots fired near the popular California wilderness park where a pharmaceutical scientist was killed earlier in the summer by a single shot in front of his daughters.

The Los Angeles Times on Monday reported that deputies responded twice in the last week to reports of gunshots at the Malibu Creek State Park campground, which has been closed since the June 22 killing.

Tristan Beaudette was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head as he slept in a tent with his young daughters. There were seven shootings reported at the park prior to Beaudette’s killing.

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A spokeswoman from the sheriff’s office told the paper that responding deputies on Monday and Thursday last week found no evidence of a shooting taking place.

In one of the three previously identified incidents prior to the June 22 killing, a person’s car was shot. In another, a victim was shot but didn’t report that to sheriff’s deputies for a day and a half, county Sheriff Jim McDonnell said in June.

Beaudette, 35, took his daughters, ages 2 and 4, on what was supposed to be a final camping trip in Los Angeles before the family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, his family said in a post on GoFundMe. His wife skipped the trip because she was preparing to take an exam.

The park sprawls over more than 12 square miles in the rugged Santa Monica Mountains west of Los Angeles. It offers camping, hiking, biking, rock climbing as well as a look at locations used in filming Hollywood movies and TV shows, such as “MASH.”

Although a wilderness, it is easily accessed from greater Los Angeles via U.S. 101 to the north and Pacific Coast Highway on the Malibu coast to the south.

The Associated Press contributed to this report