Violent home invasions have Tulare County residents on edge

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A series of violent home invasions has frightened residents in some rural areas of the south valley. The latest robbery happened Saturday evening near Pixley. It follows two other robberies: one on Friday morning outside Visalia -- and another Thursday morning near Earlimart.

Every single incident has involved a gun of some type. One victim told Action News she is afraid to even come outside her house at all after the terrifying ordeal. She says she was hit with a pistol by the suspects.

Early Saturday night, investigators say four suspects entered a home in Pixley and restrained a woman before ransacking her rural home. It's Tulare County's third home invasion during the holiday weekend.

As investigators piece together specifics of the robberies, they are revealing one key detail. They do not believe the terrorizing crimes are being committed by the same suspects.

Tulare County Sheriff's Dept., Chris Douglass said, "Right now the descriptions that we received for a few of them have different characteristics so it doesn't appear that they are related. But there has been three in the past weekend so that is a concern for us."

Miles away at a home in Visalia, another female victim was too shook up to talk on camera. She says she too was tied up, while four suspects spent about 10 minutes picking apart her home. They took everything from birth certificates to checkbooks, cash, jewelry and a pound of medical marijuana.

Tulare County Sheriff's Detectives say in all of the incidents the suspects were armed and not afraid to fire their weapon. "Two of the home invasions actually had shootings occur also, Earlimart and Pixley. The Earlimart incident also had a victim shot and it was a non fatal injury."

Tulare County detectives say the violent attacks are a reminder to everyone- comply with the robbers demands and pay attention to details so you can be a good witness.

In at least one of the home invasions, the victim and one suspect were acquainted. So far, no arrests have been made in any of the incidents.

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