A father is suspected of having shot dead his five children at a trailer park in Washington state, then himself, after hearing his wife was leaving him.
Police were called to the mobile home on Saturday after a visiting relative found nobody answered the door and saw a child’s body through a window.
Reports say the mother walked out during a row with her husband hours before the shooting.
The youngest of the three girls and two boys was aged seven, and the eldest 16.
 |
WEEK OF SHOOTINGS
Sat 4 April: Father is suspected of shooting dead his five children, then himself, near Seattle
Sat 4 April: Gunman kills three policemen in Pittsburgh before being wounded and captured
Fri 3 April: Gunman kills 13 people at an immigration centre in Binghamton, New York state, then apparently shoots himself
Sun 29 March: Gunman kills seven elderly residents and a nurse at a nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina, then is shot and wounded himself
Sun 29 March: Man kills five relatives and himself in Santa Clara, California
|
Four children were found shot in their beds and one in the bathroom inside the mobile home outside Graham, Pierce County.
Their father, James Harrison, 34, was found dead from an apparent rifle-shot to the head in his car, with the engine still running. No note was found in the vehicle.
“This was not a tragedy. It was a rotten murder,” said Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor.
“This appears to be the terrible work of the biological father. If that doesn’t break your heart, I don’t know what does.”
By BBC