murder-suicide
Buffalo man kills girlfriend, holds children hostage before turning gun on self
Buffalo, NY – A 29-year-old man apparently shot his 21-year-old girlfriend to death late Tuesday night and then held police at bay for four hours with three young children in the house, before he shot and critically wounded himself, Buffalo police say.
The standoff, which occurred in the 300 block of Millicent Avenue, began just before 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, after neighbors heard shots and other loud noises coming from the house. The home is three blocks north of the Kensington Expressway, just west of Eggert Road.
“Police say that during the standoff, the boyfriend continued to threaten police that he would harm them and the kids in the house,” Buffalo police spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge said today.
Shortly before 3:30 a.m., after an approximately four-hour standoff, police heard what appeared to be another shot inside the home. More on Buffalo News
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Father, Son Found dead in apparent murder-suicide
GARLAND, Texas ― Neither a Sachse family nor Garland police know what motivated a father to shoot his 10-year-old son and then commit suicide. Their bodies were found Friday morning near Firewheel Golf Park in Garland.
Police say they may never know why 37-year-old Matthew Knapp, an outwardly stable family man with no known legal or medical issues, would suddenly turn a gun on his son, 10-year-old Brody, and then kill himself.
A man walking his dog made the grizzly discovery – two bodies lying near a creek bed. Arriving police found a pistol near Matthew Knapp’s body. They believe he shot Brody and then himself. More onCBS11tv.com
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Couple, toddler son found shot to death in apparent murder-suicide
ORANGE, Calif. — A couple and their toddler son have been found shot to death in their Orange County apartment in an apparent murder-suicide, police said Wednesday.
An apartment manager who hadn’t seen the family in several days called police, who arrived Tuesday afternoon to find a 44-year-old man, his 42-year-old girlfriend and their 2- or 3-year-old son each dead with a single bullet wound to the head, Orange police Sgt. Mike Monjaraz said.
Investigators found a gun near the man and a suicide note he had apparently written, Monjaraz said.
“It appears that all three had been shot by the male,” he said. More on The Gaea News
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )man who killed his estranged wife was shot by police
O’FALLON, IL — Police were called to what they thought was an apartment burglary Monday night but once inside, they were confronted by a man who refused to put down his rifle and by the body of his estranged wife.
An officer shot three times at James Jenkins, 44, of East St. Louis, hitting him once and killing him, Illinois State Police Lt. Jim Morrisey said during a press conference Tuesday afternoon. His estranged wife, Adrinne Jenkins, 40, was shot twice in the chest and was already dead about 9:15 p.m. Monday when officers entered apartment B at the Chevy Chase Apartments, 207 Estate Drive.
James Jenkins called police from his cell phone at about 9:05 p.m., reported a burglary and officers spent time in the neighborhood looking for the suspects Jenkins described.
Two O’Fallon Police officers knocked on Adrinne Jenkins’ apartment door while a supervisor remained outside. The officers opened the unlocked door, walked in and saw Adrinne Jenkins lying on the floor and immediately called for an ambulance.
They then saw James Jenkins, who held a rifle pointed at them, and they ordered him several times to put down the gun. He refused and one officer shot him. Jenkins did not fire the rifle. The officer’s bullet hit him in the left arm and the bullet passed into his chest. More on bnd.com
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Man kills ex-girlfriend and self in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA, PA – Philadelphia court clerk taking her 11-year-old daughter to school was slain this morning when her ex-boyfriend opened fire on her car in West Oak Lane before killing himself with a bullet to the head, police said.
The victim’s daughter was not physically harmed but her screams echoed through the neighborhood of neat two-story rowhomes long after the gunfire fell silent.
Neighbors identified the slain woman as Angela Jefferys, 35, a hard-working single mother of three.
City records show that she worked as a $39,000-a-year court clerk.
The 45-year-old gunman, whose name was not immediately released, had been the woman’s boyfriend until a recent break-up, investigators said. Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )
Man killed girlfriend over breakup, then committed suicde
Maple Grove, Minn –
In a bloody end to a domestic dispute, a young woman’s on-again, off-again boyfriend shot her to death Sunday afternoon outside a Maple Grove McDonald’s restaurant, then committed suicide on a nearby freeway, police said.
Just before 2 p.m., Maple Grove police received several frantic 911 calls about a woman being shot in the parking lot of the McDonald’s on Sycamore Lane N. Witnesses saw her stumble at the curb and fall onto a sidewalk by the restaurant as she was shot the first time, said Maple Grove police Capt. Tracy Stille. The male suspect then approached the woman and shot her again at “very close range,” Stille said.
The man then fled in a white vehicle.
The man and woman had arrived separately at the restaurant to break off a year-old relationship, Stille said. The identities of the two, whom police described as metro-area residents in their 20s, had not been released by late Sunday.
Armed with a vehicle description and a partial license plate number, a Brooklyn Park police officer was waiting for the suspect, who was driving 20 to 30 miles over the 55 miles-per-hour speed limit, on Interstate 694, Stille said.
About six minutes after the initial 911 calls, the officer pulled the suspect over on 694 at the border of Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center. He approached the parked vehicle and found the man dead inside from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Stille said. More on Star Tribune
Man Shot Wife and 3 kids in their Maryland Home
MIDDLETOWN, Md. – A father killed his wife and their three children before fatally shooting himself in a northwest Maryland home, leaving a gruesome scene that was discovered Saturday by the youngsters’ grandfather, authorities said.
When investigators arrived, the couple’s two sons, ages 5 and 4, lay dead in their beds, while the bodies of a 2-year-old daughter and the mother, Francis Billotti Wood, were in the master bedroom of the two-story home, Frederick County sheriff’s office spokeswoman Jennifer Bailey said. On the master bedroom floor by the foot of the bed was the father, 34-year-old Christopher Alan Wood, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Bailey said.
The 33-year-old mother and three children suffered “traumatic cuts,” Bailey said, but the causes of their deaths weren’t immediately confirmed.
The woman’s father found them dead around 9 a.m. He had grown concerned after not hearing from them for several days, Bailey said.
Investigators also found a shotgun and other items they believed were used to slash the victims. Several notes were found, but authorities didn’t say what was written in them. More on Yahoo! News
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Man, woman dead in murder-suicide in Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Police say the weekend shooting deaths of a man and woman in a central Colorado Springs home were the result of an apparent attempted murder-suicide.
Colorado Springs police Sgt. Steve Noblitt on Monday said the two had been identified as 38-year-old Fidencio Ordaz Gonzalez and 36-year-old Paula Ordaz, both of Colorado Springs.
A SWAT team responding to a report of shots fired found a Gonzalez dead and Ordaz critically injured Sunday afternoon. Ordaz was hospitalized in critical condition but died Monday.
Authorities haven’t said which person was the shooter. But police say a woman at the home told officers she believed her father had a gun and that her mother was with him inside. More on KRDO.com
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Man, woman found shot to death in Frisco home
Dallas, Texas – A man and a woman were found fatally shot inside a Frisco home late Saturday, hours after a police tactical team responded to a report that a man with a gun was inside the home.
Their names were not released, pending notification of relatives. The relationship of the man and the woman was also not released.
The situation began about 5:30 p.m. in the 9100 block of Apollo Court when a girl alerted a neighbor.
Officers surrounded the house and tried unsuccessfully to make contact with the people inside, a police spokesman said.
About 9 p.m., officers entered the house, where they found the bodies.
Police declined to say whether the case was a murder-suicide, but they do not believe there is a gunman on the loose. More on Dallas News
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )2 Dead In College Murder-Suicide
DEARBORN, Mich. – Two people were killed at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn Friday afternoon in what police are calling a murder-suicide.
Deputy Police Chief Gregg Brighton said Henry Ford Community College was locked down in the early afternoon, but the campus has since been secured and the lockdown was lifted.
Police said they got a call around 12:30 p.m. on a report of an assault. En route, they got another report of shots being fired at the college’s fine arts center.
When police arrived both victims, a 20-year-old female theatre student and a 28-year-old male student were dead.
The 28-year-old gunman used a shotgun to shoot the woman and himself. Local 4 has learned the two students were in a relationship, and had been in a theater class together.
Crime scene investigators said the shooting was in room F111. Police said the 20-year-old was rehearsing a scene in the empty room when the shooter barged in. More on MSNBC
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Divorced pair dead in murder-suicide
Tucson, Arizona – A divorced couple who still lived together ended up dying together Thursday night in an apparent homicide-suicide, a Pima County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman said.
Ana Delia Rios, 44, and her ex-husband, Martin Rios Gonzales, 44, were found shot to death in their Southwest Side home about 10:30 p.m., Deputy Dawn Barkman said.
Deputies were called to the home, in the 7100 block of South Hildreth Avenue, southwest of West Valencia and South Mission roads, after family members heard gunshots and ran from the house to use a neighbor’s phone to call for help.
Barkman said the couple had been arguing in the bedroom before the shots were fired.
Homicide detectives believe Gonzales shot his ex-wife and then turned the gun on himself, Barkman said. More on Tucson Citizen
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Couple found dead in their mobile home from murder-suicide
Roanoke, Indiana – The couple found dead in their Roanoke mobile home Thursday died in a homicide-suicide, presumably from a domestic dispute that turned violent, according to the Huntington County coroner.
Investigators concluded that 26-year-old Jeremy Stroh shot his girlfriend, 25-year-old Nicole Scheiber, multiple times inside their home at Castle Hill Mobile Home Park in Roanoke and then turned the gun on himself. He died from a single gunshot wound, Coroner Leon Hurlburt said.
When Scheiber didn’t show up for work Thursday, the Roanoke marshal went to the couple’s trailer at 15 Duke Blvd. to check on her. He found the pair dead at 11:30 a.m., about an hour after the shooting, Hurlburt said.
No autopsy was necessary because an Indiana State Police crime scene technician determined how the pair died based on their wounds and the physical evidence, Hurlburt said.
No one can be certain what led to the killing, but Hurlburt said the violence likely stemmed from a domestic dispute.
Scheiber’s death was ruled a homicide and Stroh’s was a suicide, Hurlburt said. More on Journal Gazette
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Alabama man kills wife, 3 others and self
Green Hill, Alabama – A man facing a divorce trial shot and killed his estranged wife, their teenage daughter and two other relatives in rural north Alabama before returning to his home in a nearby town and killing himself, authorities said Tuesday.
Kevin Garner’s body was found Tuesday afternoon near his Priceville home, which burned to the ground overnight. His divorce trial was to start Wednesday. Garner apparently shot himself in the chest, said Travis Clemmons, chief investigator for the sheriff’s office in Lauderdale County, where the four bodies were found earlier in the day in a home in Green Hill, a small community near the Tennessee line.
The victims were identified as Garner’s estranged wife, Tammy, 40; their 16-year-old daughter, Chelsie; Garner’s sister, Karen Beaty of Illinois; and Beaty’s 11-year-old son, whose name was not released.
Investigators said the four were shot, apparently with a handgun, around midnight Monday. They did not know if Kevin Garner was licensed to carry a firearm.
It was one of eight mass shootings around the country — and the third in Alabama — in the last month that have left grief-stricken communities in shock.
Clemmons said a neighbor visiting the Green Hill house Tuesday morning saw a body through the door and called authorities.
Court officials said the Garners were in court Monday in advance of the trial and nothing seemed unusual.
“I just can’t understand it,” said Clemmons, “and with a 16-year-old and an 11-year-old kid, there’s nothing rational about it.”
In the divorce file, Tammy Garner sought custody of their daughter and alleged that her husband “has been both physically and emotionally abusive.” Kevin Garner accused her of adultery and of taking $38,000 out of their joint bank account when they separated May 27.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Mother shot son, then turned the gun on herself
Casselberry, Florida – Marie Moore, a 44-year-old woman from Florida, has fatally shot and killed her 20-year-old son before killing herself at a shooting range.Marie Moore and her son Mitchell Moore were at central Florida gun range ‘Shoot Straight’ Sunday sharing a firing when Marie killed her and then herself.
According to Casselberry police, a security video at the range shows Moore, who seemed to be getting along fine with Mitchell, walk up behind her son and point a rented revolver to the back of his head. Marie then is seen firing a single shot, instantly killing her son.
She then turned the gun on herself. She put the revolver in her mouth and fired. She died later at a local hospital.
According to the family, Moore had a history of mental illness.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )3 found shot dead inside West Kendall home
Jose and Nolvia Salazar lived quiet lives in their shady West Kendall neighborhood.
The silence was shattered early Sunday when the couple and Nolvia Salazar’s daughter, Karla Valle, 27, were found shot dead in a scene that Miami-Dade police called “domestic in nature.”
Police would not call the deaths a case of murder-suicide, but said they were not looking for a shooter.
Neighbors in the 7400 block of Southwest 159th Place said they believed it was a murder-suicide, with Jose Salazar, 68, shooting his 57-year-old wife and stepdaughter.
If true, Sunday’s killings would continue a morbid streak of murder-suicides, following two others and a third attempted in Miami-Dade County since February.
The shootings at the Salazar home took place shortly before 2 a.m. Neighbor Steve Murphy, 51, said he woke up to the sound of fighting.
”We heard five shots, pretty close together, then about two minutes later another gunshot,” Murphy said. “And then silence.”
Murphy ran outside to pull his barking dog indoors, and called 911.
Police officers flooded the neighborhood, residents said. The sirens and the helicopters buzzing overhead were the first clues most had that something was wrong.
Inside the house, officers found all three people dead.
Sunday afternoon, neighbors said they had no idea what provoked the shootings. Jose Salazar never spoke of any financial problems and bragged about having paid off his cars and the house, said Belkis Barrios, 44, who lives a few houses down the street. More on Miami Herald
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )5 children, father die in murder-suicide
GRAHAM, Wash. – A father apparently shot to death five of his children, ages 7 to 16, at their mobile home and then killed himself near a casino miles away, police said Saturday.
Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff, called it a domestic violence situation and a murder-suicide.
“We believe they all died of gunshot wounds,” Troyer said.
Police early Saturday found the father slain from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was in his car, parked near the Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn, about 30 miles south of Seattle. Later in the day, Pierce County deputies checked the mobile home, which is about 20 miles southeast of the casino, and found four of the children dead in their beds and the fifth in the bathroom.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Man shot his wife and himself in their home
Miami Lakes, Florida – The Miami Lakes Chamber of Commerce is mourning the violent and disturbing death of its president, David Waud.
According to media reports, police said Waud shot his wife, Carol Waud, and himself on Saturday in their Hialeah home.
Waud was also identified as president of local company Profit Inc.
The chamber released a statement to members Monday, saying directors of the organization were deeply saddened by his death.
The statement called Waud a “mentor, leader, champion of the children’s education and a wonderful human being,” and asked for prayers for the family.
More on South Florida Business Journal
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Family of 6 died from Murder-suicide
Santa Clara, California – Police found was one of the worst shooting scenes in Santa Clara history: six bodies were scattered around the three-story townhome, four were dead, including a42-year-old man whom police suspect was the shooter. Two handguns were found nearby. Paramedics performed CPR on a 4-year-old girl, but she too died at the scene. More on Mercury News
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )3 dead in suspected murder-suicide in Firestone
The incident, which led to a three-and-a-half hour standoff and prompted the partial evacuation of the Eagle Crest subdivision in Firestone, ended after members of the Weld County Regional SWAT team entered the residence at about 9:15 a.m. on Saturday to find the three people involved already dead.
Firestone police first learned of the incident at 5:37 a.m. Saturday morning when the 24-year-old daughter of Sharla Acker, 41, called 9-1-1 after hearing a single gun shot while in her mother’s house on the 10000 block of Barron Circle in Firestone, according to Weld County Coroner Chris Robillard. Less than 10 minutes later, Firestone police were on scene working to get Sharla Acker’s daughter and 3-year-old grandson out of the house through a window, Robillard said.
The daughter and grandson were unharmed.
Police then evacuated a quarter of the subdivision and closed entrances into the subdivision until 11 a.m. in the event that a man had barricaded himself inside the residence.
Robillard, however, said the incident likely ended shortly after it began — with Sharla Acker’s ex-husband Michael Acker, 47, of Commerce City, suspected of using a shotgun to kill Sharla Acker and her boyfriend Michael Frederico, 38.
Michael Acker and Sharla Acker divorced in fall 2008, Robillard said. The incident is still under investigation and autopsies are planned for today. More on Greeley Tribune
Man killed elderly wife, overwhelmed by caretaking
ROCK HILL, S.C. – On Nov. 19, 2008, Hartner held a .25-caliber pistol behind 90-year-old Mildred Hartner’s head and shot her while she slept.
He then turned around and tried to shoot their 10-year-old dog, but the gun jammed. He went and grabbed a .9-millimeter pistol and killed the dog, but admitted he was too much of a coward to shoot himself. Instead, he downed 80 prescription pain pills and passed out.
The couple’s friend and hairdresser, Debra Sanders, found both of them hours later and called 911. Gus Hartner went into cardiac arrest, but he later recovered and has been in jail charged with murder. Close friends and defense attorney Harry Dest said Hartner did everything for his ailing wife. He bathed her, dressed her, bought all the food and cooked all the meals. When he brought her to the hair salon every week, he made sure her makeup and nails were done.
“The day before this incident, he told (the Department of Social Services) he could no longer take care of his wife,” Dest said.
In fact, Hartner had put his wife in nursing homes and then taken her home at least half a dozen times in 2008. He said he wanted to be with her, and didn’t think the nursing home staff treated her with dignity. Dest said Hartner realized once he got her home that he couldn’t care for her, but the cycle kept going. “This is a mercy killing,” Dest told the judge. More on WSOCTV.com
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Gun Deaths in the United States 