A California assemblyman's father was found dead in his Los Angeles home on Wednesday.
78-year-old Joseph Gatto, father of Los Angeles Democratic Assemblyman Mike Gatto, was discovered at his house in Silver Lake, according to Lt. Richard Parks, who spoke with the Associated Press.
Authorities were called to the home when a family member arrived and found Gatto crumpled over his desk. Parks told the Los Angeles Times that it appeared Gatto, a retired art teacher and jeweler, was shot in the abdomen by a small-caliber gun. Some belongings were strewn about the residence, making the scene an apparent home invasion.
"The residence had been ransacked to a certain degree," Parks told the Times.
Gatto, who represents the Silver Lake, Burbank, Glendale and La Crescenta foothills region, was told of his father's death on Thursday morning. His sister reportedly called him in Sacramento to tell him that she'd found their deceased father after not hearing from him for an entire day.
"She went over there and found him dead," Gatto told the Times.
The assemblyman caught a flight to Los Angeles early Thursday to meet family members who were already mourning at the residence.
An extensive investigation into the death of Joseph Gatto is currently underway. This is Silver Lake's first reported homicide in 2013, according to the L.A. Times' Homicide Report.
