A shocking murder-suicide in DeKalb County, Georgia, left five dead, including a 5-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy, raising serious concerns.
DeKalb County: Police were called for a welfare check at an apartment near Atlanta and found a heartbreaking scene. Five people were shot dead, including a 5-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy. It looks like it was a murder-suicide.
Lt. Shane Smith from the DeKalb County Police said they arrived just before 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. They discovered the two kids along with a 43-year-old woman, a 32-year-old man, and a 26-year-old woman, all shot. The identities of the victims haven’t been released yet, and it’s unclear who the shooter was.
Smith mentioned they’re still working on notifying the next of kin. Once that’s done, they’ll share the names of those involved.
Investigators believe the incident was domestic-related. It happened in an apartment complex called the Vineyards at Flat Shoals, located on the 2100 block of Vineyard Walk.
DeKalb County is about 20 minutes northeast of Atlanta and is the fourth-most populous county in Georgia. The investigation is still ongoing, but early reports suggest it was a murder-suicide. The exact relationships between the victims are still unknown.
The Violence Policy Center highlights that murder-suicides are alarmingly common in the U.S., occurring about ten times a week. They estimate that around 1,200 Americans die from murder-suicides each year, with firearms involved in nine out of ten cases. Interestingly, nearly two-thirds of these tragedies are committed by an intimate partner.
As of Sunday afternoon, authorities haven’t released more details, and a spokesperson for the DeKalb County PD didn’t respond to requests for comments.
