By . Associated Press . PUBLISHED: . 01:20 EST, 25 February 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 10:52 EST, 25 February 2014 . A woman is accused of killing four people, including her 19-year-old niece who was cradling her baby as well as two other family members and one unrelated victim. Cherie Louise Rhoades had been evicted from tribal housing because she was suspected of stealing from the tribe, the tribe's lawyer said Monday. Cedarville Rancheria attorney Jack Duran said Rhoades was suspended as tribal chairwoman just three weeks before the gun and knife attack, pending a federal investigation into allegations that she embezzled at least $50,000 in federal grant money. Scroll down for video . This Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014 photo released by Alturas Police Department shows Cherie Lash Rhoades who allegedly killed four and injured two . Rhoades' son, Jack Stockton, was ousted . as vice chairman and evicted from tribal housing on the same grounds, . Duran told The Associated Press. Stockton was not at Thursday's hearing when the shooting broke out. He does not have a listed phone number. Duran said the meeting in Alturas, California, was being held to consider Rhoades' appeal of her eviction. But at some point, Rhoades opened fire, killing her brother Rurik Davis, 50, who had been named interim chairman by the tribal council, authorities said. Also killed in the attack were Rhoades' niece Angel Penn, 19; her nephew Glenn Calonicco, 30; and Shelia Lynn Russo, 47. They were all members of the tribal council that evicted Rhoades, and Russo was the tribal administrator. Duran said Penn was holding her newborn infant on her lap when she was shot, but the baby was unhurt and will be placed with a sister. Davis' two daughters, Monica and Melissa Davis, were critically wounded, court documents said. Responding officers arrested Rhoades outside the building, where a declaration of probable cause says Modoc County Undersheriff Ken Richardson saw Rhodes stabbing one of the victims in the parking lot and handcuffed her after another person tackled her. The document adds that police talked to six people who witnessed the shooting. The two women who survived bullet wounds were also cut with a knife. A criminal complaint filed Monday in Modoc County Superior Court charges Rhoades with four counts of murder with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, and two counts of attempted murder. She was to be arraigned Tuesday morning. District Attorney Jordan Funk said she will face the death penalty if she's convicted, because the complaint carries the special circumstance of multiple victims. Rurik Davis (left), 50, was the killer's brother and Angel Penn (right), 19, was her niece . Funk said it wasn't immediately clear . if attorneys had been appointed for Rhoades yet, because they would have . to be qualified to handle a capital case. The . Cedarville Rancheria is a federally recognized tribe with 35 registered . members. The Rancheria owns 26 acres in Cedarville, where most members . reside in nine small, one-story houses built in the 1950s on the . outskirts of town. In . 2012, the tribe received an Indian housing grant for $50,399 from the . U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to a news . release on the agency's website. Duran said he couldn't confirm whether that was the money in question, adding the amount could be less 'or a lot more.' Though . police have said they are still working on a motive, a nephew who lived . with Rhoades, Jacob Penn, said she snapped under the pressure of her . brother's attempt to evict her. Eviction . from tribal housing is among the most serious punishments for American . Indians. However, Rhoades and Stockton were not being removed from . tribal rolls and would continue to receive their share of $1.1 million . in gambling revenue shared by casino tribes with the Rancheria, which . does not have a casino, Duran said. Alturas . Police Chief Ken Barnes said that as the shooting erupted, young . children were inside the building and on the property, and a judge from . another tribe was listening to the eviction proceedings over the phone. After . running out of bullets, Rhoades grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed a . woman, police said. She chased one of Davis' daughters out of the . building and into the parking lot while brandishing the knife. Sheila Russo, 47, an administrator for the Cedarville Rancheria Indian tribe, was one of four people killed when Cherie Lash Rhoades opened fire . The small town is home to the Cedarville Rancheria, a small tribal organization . There, she was tackled by the tribal headquarters maintenance man, Duran said. Both . of Davis' daughters were wounded. Officials said one was alert and . talking, while the other remained in critical condition Friday. The . tribe's headquarters - a ranch-style building with a pitched brown . metal roof and solar panels - is in a residential area about a block . from the police station. Police were alerted to the attack by a woman . covered in blood pounding on a side entrance to City Hall, which also . houses the police. The . tribe is busy cleaning the building, and it is uncertain whether it will . resume using the facility because of the slayings, Duran said. 'She . bullied her way through life,' said Sandra Parriott, a lifelong . resident of Cedarville and owner of two downtown markets, of Rhoades. 'But I would never think she would start blowing people away in a . meeting.' Eviction from . tribal housing is among the most serious punishments for American . Indians. Though police have said they are still working on a motive, a . nephew who lived with her, Jacob Penn, said she snapped under the . pressure of her brother trying to evict her. The brother, Rurik Davis, . who lived down the street on the Rancheria, had apparently taken over as . tribal chairman and was among the dead. Investigators . had been looking into whether Rhoades took federal grant money meant . for the rancheria she once led, a person familiar with the tribe's . situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke only on condition . of anonymity. Alturas Police . Chief Ken Barnes said they were looking into whether the embezzlement . allegations spurred the tribe's efforts to evict Rhoades but they had . not established any definitive motive. An unidentified California Highway Patrolman leaves the home of former Cedarville Rancheria chairwoman Cherie Lash Rhoades on Friday . The . investigation was no secret around town, where several people . interviewed by the AP mentioned it, though they said they had not been . contacted by investigators and did not want to give their names. Though . Rhoades was always ready to share a joke, 'you did not want to get on . her bad side,' said Penny Nash, Parriott's sister. 'She has a powerful . personality.' It was not immediately known if . Rhoades had a lawyer. She was being held at an undisclosed location . because the husband of one of the dead, the only non-relative to be shot, . works at the Modoc County Jail, Sheriff Mike Poindexter said. Rhoades . has yet to appear in court, where she would be given a lawyer if she . could not afford one herself. Her father, Larry Lash, declined to . comment. Penn, who lived with Rhoades and was raised by her after her . sister gave him up as a child, had little to say but a shrug of the . shoulders about his aunt, whom he called, 'my mom.' He said two of the . dead were his brother and sister, Rhoades' nephew and niece. Police leave the home of a former leader of the Cedarville Rancheria in Cedarville after serving a search warrant . Most . of the 35 registered members of the rancheria appear to have been . related to Rhodes. Parriott ticked off 20 people on her fingers she knew . were relatives of Rhoades. Parriott . said her late mother had known Rhoades' late mother, Virginia Sweeney, . who lived in town as a child, but not on the rancheria. Rhoades came . back about 20 years ago with her young son, mother and brother, Davis, . and worked her way into leadership of the tribe. Parriott said Rhoades 'was always loud. She kept pushing and plowing to get her way.' 'I . sure wouldn't have wanted to be her neighbor,' Parriott added. 'She . took pretty good care of her kid, but I don't know that she had any . friends. She had family, but family aren't always your friends.' Rhoades' brother, Rurik Davis, was easy to get along with, Parriott said. The . U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs sent a team to Alturas on Saturday to . provide grief counseling for anyone wanting it, agency spokeswoman . Nedra Darling said in an email. Cedarville . is a small town of about 1,500 people in the Great Basin, where the . Paiute people once roamed with the skills to live in hard country. Now . there are cattle on the range. The town is tucked between the foothills . of the snowcapped Warner Mountains to the west, and a string of alkali . lakes to the east. This 2007 photo released by Michael Stubblefield, Stubblefield poses for a photo with his sister, Shelia Russo . This Feb. 21, 2014 photo shows the entrance to the Cedarville Rancheria, in Cedarville, Calif . The best . jobs are working for the Modoc National Forest, the U.S. Bureau of Land . Management or the schools. A lumber mill lies rusting and quiet on the . edge of town. Downtown has several empty storefronts, but there are nice . cafes where one can get prime rib, pizza or an enchilada, a bank, a . bookstore, two small markets, a real estate office, a weaver's shop, a . gas station, the library, a gunsmith, and other small businesses. In . the residential areas, nicely kept two-story homes mix with vacant . houses. There is also a small hospital and dentist offices. The . rancheria is on the western edge of town, by the fairgrounds, announced . by a simple wooden sign. Nine small one-story homes are grouped around a . small playground. Streets are paved, with new concrete sidewalks. A . few blocks away is the Rabbit Traxx gas station and convenience store, . where Rhoades worked. It opened a couple years ago, about the time she . was tribal chairman. It sells liquor, cut-rate cigarettes and packaged . foods. Rancheria . headquarters, where the shooting took place, is 25 miles away on a . winding two-lane blacktop over the Warner Mountains in a residential . area of Alturas, a town of 2,500.
Cherie Louise Rhoades shot dead four people last Thursday, including three family members .
One was her 19-year-old niece, who she shot dead as the woman cradled her baby .
The baby was unhurt in the attack .
Rhoades was said to have 'bullied her way through life'
She was being evicted from tribal housing for stealing when she opened fire .
Eviction from tribal housing is among the most serious punishments for American Indians .
When she ran out of bullets she chased two other nieces and seriously injured them with a knife .
If convicted, she will face the death penalty .
By . Associated Press . PUBLISHED: . 01:20 EST, 25 February 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 10:52 EST, 25 February 2014 . A woman is accused of killing four people, including her 19-year-old niece who was cradling her baby as well as two other family members and one unrelated victim. Cherie Louise Rhoades had been evicted from tribal housing because she was suspected of stealing from the tribe, the tribe's lawyer said Monday. Cedarville Rancheria attorney Jack Duran said Rhoades was suspended as tribal chairwoman just three weeks before the gun and knife attack, pending a federal investigation into allegations that she embezzled at least $50,000 in federal grant money. Scroll down for video . This Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014 photo released by Alturas Police Department shows Cherie Lash Rhoades who allegedly killed four and injured two . Rhoades' son, Jack Stockton, was ousted . as vice chairman and evicted from tribal housing on the same grounds, . Duran told The Associated Press. Stockton was not at Thursday's hearing when the shooting broke out. He does not have a listed phone number. Duran said the meeting in Alturas, California, was being held to consider Rhoades' appeal of her eviction. But at some point, Rhoades opened fire, killing her brother Rurik Davis, 50, who had been named interim chairman by the tribal council, authorities said. Also killed in the attack were Rhoades' niece Angel Penn, 19; her nephew Glenn Calonicco, 30; and Shelia Lynn Russo, 47. They were all members of the tribal council that evicted Rhoades, and Russo was the tribal administrator. Duran said Penn was holding her newborn infant on her lap when she was shot, but the baby was unhurt and will be placed with a sister. Davis' two daughters, Monica and Melissa Davis, were critically wounded, court documents said. Responding officers arrested Rhoades outside the building, where a declaration of probable cause says Modoc County Undersheriff Ken Richardson saw Rhodes stabbing one of the victims in the parking lot and handcuffed her after another person tackled her. The document adds that police talked to six people who witnessed the shooting. The two women who survived bullet wounds were also cut with a knife. A criminal complaint filed Monday in Modoc County Superior Court charges Rhoades with four counts of murder with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, and two counts of attempted murder. She was to be arraigned Tuesday morning. District Attorney Jordan Funk said she will face the death penalty if she's convicted, because the complaint carries the special circumstance of multiple victims. Rurik Davis (left), 50, was the killer's brother and Angel Penn (right), 19, was her niece . Funk said it wasn't immediately clear . if attorneys had been appointed for Rhoades yet, because they would have . to be qualified to handle a capital case. The . Cedarville Rancheria is a federally recognized tribe with 35 registered . members. The Rancheria owns 26 acres in Cedarville, where most members . reside in nine small, one-story houses built in the 1950s on the . outskirts of town. In . 2012, the tribe received an Indian housing grant for $50,399 from the . U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to a news . release on the agency's website. Duran said he couldn't confirm whether that was the money in question, adding the amount could be less 'or a lot more.' Though . police have said they are still working on a motive, a nephew who lived . with Rhoades, Jacob Penn, said she snapped under the pressure of her . brother's attempt to evict her. Eviction . from tribal housing is among the most serious punishments for American . Indians. However, Rhoades and Stockton were not being removed from . tribal rolls and would continue to receive their share of $1.1 million . in gambling revenue shared by casino tribes with the Rancheria, which . does not have a casino, Duran said. Alturas . Police Chief Ken Barnes said that as the shooting erupted, young . children were inside the building and on the property, and a judge from . another tribe was listening to the eviction proceedings over the phone. After . running out of bullets, Rhoades grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed a . woman, police said. She chased one of Davis' daughters out of the . building and into the parking lot while brandishing the knife. Sheila Russo, 47, an administrator for the Cedarville Rancheria Indian tribe, was one of four people killed when Cherie Lash Rhoades opened fire . The small town is home to the Cedarville Rancheria, a small tribal organization . There, she was tackled by the tribal headquarters maintenance man, Duran said. Both . of Davis' daughters were wounded. Officials said one was alert and . talking, while the other remained in critical condition Friday. The . tribe's headquarters - a ranch-style building with a pitched brown . metal roof and solar panels - is in a residential area about a block . from the police station. Police were alerted to the attack by a woman . covered in blood pounding on a side entrance to City Hall, which also . houses the police. The . tribe is busy cleaning the building, and it is uncertain whether it will . resume using the facility because of the slayings, Duran said. 'She . bullied her way through life,' said Sandra Parriott, a lifelong . resident of Cedarville and owner of two downtown markets, of Rhoades. 'But I would never think she would start blowing people away in a . meeting.' Eviction from . tribal housing is among the most serious punishments for American . Indians. Though police have said they are still working on a motive, a . nephew who lived with her, Jacob Penn, said she snapped under the . pressure of her brother trying to evict her. The brother, Rurik Davis, . who lived down the street on the Rancheria, had apparently taken over as . tribal chairman and was among the dead. Investigators . had been looking into whether Rhoades took federal grant money meant . for the rancheria she once led, a person familiar with the tribe's . situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke only on condition . of anonymity. Alturas Police . Chief Ken Barnes said they were looking into whether the embezzlement . allegations spurred the tribe's efforts to evict Rhoades but they had . not established any definitive motive. An unidentified California Highway Patrolman leaves the home of former Cedarville Rancheria chairwoman Cherie Lash Rhoades on Friday . The . investigation was no secret around town, where several people . interviewed by the AP mentioned it, though they said they had not been . contacted by investigators and did not want to give their names. Though . Rhoades was always ready to share a joke, 'you did not want to get on . her bad side,' said Penny Nash, Parriott's sister. 'She has a powerful . personality.' It was not immediately known if . Rhoades had a lawyer. She was being held at an undisclosed location . because the husband of one of the dead, the only non-relative to be shot, . works at the Modoc County Jail, Sheriff Mike Poindexter said. Rhoades . has yet to appear in court, where she would be given a lawyer if she . could not afford one herself. Her father, Larry Lash, declined to . comment. Penn, who lived with Rhoades and was raised by her after her . sister gave him up as a child, had little to say but a shrug of the . shoulders about his aunt, whom he called, 'my mom.' He said two of the . dead were his brother and sister, Rhoades' nephew and niece. Police leave the home of a former leader of the Cedarville Rancheria in Cedarville after serving a search warrant . Most . of the 35 registered members of the rancheria appear to have been . related to Rhodes. Parriott ticked off 20 people on her fingers she knew . were relatives of Rhoades. Parriott . said her late mother had known Rhoades' late mother, Virginia Sweeney, . who lived in town as a child, but not on the rancheria. Rhoades came . back about 20 years ago with her young son, mother and brother, Davis, . and worked her way into leadership of the tribe. Parriott said Rhoades 'was always loud. She kept pushing and plowing to get her way.' 'I . sure wouldn't have wanted to be her neighbor,' Parriott added. 'She . took pretty good care of her kid, but I don't know that she had any . friends. She had family, but family aren't always your friends.' Rhoades' brother, Rurik Davis, was easy to get along with, Parriott said. The . U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs sent a team to Alturas on Saturday to . provide grief counseling for anyone wanting it, agency spokeswoman . Nedra Darling said in an email. Cedarville . is a small town of about 1,500 people in the Great Basin, where the . Paiute people once roamed with the skills to live in hard country. Now . there are cattle on the range. The town is tucked between the foothills . of the snowcapped Warner Mountains to the west, and a string of alkali . lakes to the east. This 2007 photo released by Michael Stubblefield, Stubblefield poses for a photo with his sister, Shelia Russo . This Feb. 21, 2014 photo shows the entrance to the Cedarville Rancheria, in Cedarville, Calif . The best . jobs are working for the Modoc National Forest, the U.S. Bureau of Land . Management or the schools. A lumber mill lies rusting and quiet on the . edge of town. Downtown has several empty storefronts, but there are nice . cafes where one can get prime rib, pizza or an enchilada, a bank, a . bookstore, two small markets, a real estate office, a weaver's shop, a . gas station, the library, a gunsmith, and other small businesses. In . the residential areas, nicely kept two-story homes mix with vacant . houses. There is also a small hospital and dentist offices. The . rancheria is on the western edge of town, by the fairgrounds, announced . by a simple wooden sign. Nine small one-story homes are grouped around a . small playground. Streets are paved, with new concrete sidewalks. A . few blocks away is the Rabbit Traxx gas station and convenience store, . where Rhoades worked. It opened a couple years ago, about the time she . was tribal chairman. It sells liquor, cut-rate cigarettes and packaged . foods. Rancheria . headquarters, where the shooting took place, is 25 miles away on a . winding two-lane blacktop over the Warner Mountains in a residential . area of Alturas, a town of 2,500.
four people, including her 19-year-old niece who was cradling her baby as well as two other family members and one unrelated victim. Cherie Louise Rhoades had been evicted from tribal housing Rhoades opened fire, killing her brother Rurik but the baby was unhurt and will be placed with a Jordan Funk said she will face the death penalty housing is among the most serious punishments for phone. After . running out of bullets, Rhoades alerted to the attack by a woman . covered in bullied her way through life,' said Sandra American . Indians. Though police have said they