At their Michigan home, both parents and their six-year-old kid were discovered shot to death in what the local authorities suspect to be a murder-suicide.
The deceased have been identified as Henry Bates, 39, Brianna Bates, 31, and Zenzia Bates, 6.
Police said the man shot himself after killing his wife and children.
Three of Henry and Briana’s children, ages 3, 11, and 13, are still alive and still reside in the same house in the Kalamazoo County town of Portage.
They were able to flee before the killings started. They are now living with family.
According to the Portage Department of Public Safety, they went to reports of gunfire at 9.20 p.m. on Tuesday and approached what they thought was maybe a hostage scenario.
Authorities thought there was a captive and four children inside the house. A close neighbour reported hearing five rounds fired.
For two hours, Portage DPS negotiators made every attempt to get in touch with the people, but they were unable.
After trying unsuccessfully to reach anybody inside the four-apartment home, authorities used high-tech techniques to survey the situation.
Director of Portage Department of Public Safety Nick Armold stated, “We were able to get some information by use of the drone and the robot, and we made entrance and regrettably discovered all three dead.”
“We discovered a male adult.” The age is unknown to me. An adult female and a child, who we believe to be six years old, were all shot to death,’
Since they all resided there, it is obvious that they were all aware of what was happening and the events that had preceded it.
Numerous authorities arrived on the site in anticipation of a potentially protracted hostage scenario.
These included the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, the Portage Department of Public Safety, the Western Michigan University Police, the Kalamazoo Township, and multi-jurisdictional SWAT personnel.
You’re hoping that everything would work out, but when we came, everything was completely silenced, said PDPS Armold.
“We did everything we could to ensure the safety of all the officers and medical staff, but at the same time, we were attempting to see if we could enter the area and rescue whoever was inside.” Sadly, we arrived too late for them,’ he continued.
The teams spent more than twelve hours on the scene.
Investigators are still working to put together the circumstances around the crime and its motivation.