Six people — including a 17-year-old mother and her 6-month-old baby — were killed in a shooting early today at a home in central California, and authorities are searching for at least two suspects, sheriff’s officials said.

Deputies responded around 3.30am to reports of multiple shots fired at the residence in unincorporated Goshen, just east of Visalia, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office said.

“Actually the report was that an active shooter was in the area because of the number of shots that were being fired,” Sheriff Mike Boudreaux told reporters.

Sheriff Mike Boudreaux speaking to reporters at the scene. Photo / AP

Deputies found two victims dead in the street and a third person fatally shot in the doorway of the residence, Boudreaux said.

Three more victims were found inside the home, including a man who was still alive but later died in hospital, he said.

The sheriff said investigators are searching for at least two suspects. They believe there is a gang connection to the killings. The sheriff’s office conducted a narcotics-related search warrant at the residence last week, Boudreaux said.

“We also believe this was not a random act of violence. We believe this was a targeted family,” he said.

Two of the victims, the young mother and her child, were shot in the head, the sheriff said.

Samuel Pina said today that his teenage granddaughter, Alissa Parraz, and her baby, Nycholas Nolan Parraz, were among those killed.

“I can’t wrap my head around what kind of monster would do this,” he told Associated Press.

Pina said Parraz and her baby were living with her father’s side of the family in Goshen, and that her dad’s uncle, her dad’s cousin, and her grandmother and great-grandmother were also killed.

He said the family is in shock.

“It comes in big waves,” he said.

Goshen is a semi-rural community of about 3,000 residents 56km southeast of Fresno in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley.