Breakup May Have Triggered Slaying

A dispute over the breakup of a relationship apparently triggered a shooting in which a North Hollywood woman and her mother were killed in front of three children, Los Angeles police said Monday.

Police said Kimberly Vandenberg, 25, and her mother, Elizabeth Vandenberg, 46, were fatally shot at the mother’s home in the 11100 block of Acama Street about 5 p.m. Sunday. The man Kimberly had been living with, Luis Palacio, 34, was later arrested in Hawthorne and is being held without bail on suspicion of murder, police said.

Palacio was suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest and police believe he was shot during a struggle with the Vandenbergs.

Detective Mike Coffey said the incident in the home was witnessed by Kimberly Vandenberg’s two children, a 4-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy, who is Palacio’s son; and by Elizabeth Vandenberg’s other daughter, Kimberly’s 12-year-old sister.

The children have been taken into custody by the Division of Youth Services until authorities can place them with relatives.

“They were scared to death,” Coffey said of the children.

Coffey said Palacio and Kimberly Vandenberg lived together in North Hollywood but were in the process of breaking up.