Police responded to a welfare check at an apartment near Atlanta and discovered five people shot dead, including a 5-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy, in an apparent murder-suicide.
According to an emailed statement from Lt. Shane Smith of the DeKalb County Police Department, officers responded to the grisly scene on Saturday shortly before 7:30 p.m.
They discovered the bodies of two young children, as well as a 43-year-old woman, a 32-year-old man, and a 26-year-old woman, who all appeared to have been shot. The victims have not been identified, and it is unclear which of them was the shooter.
“We are still attempting to notify the next of kin for everyone,” Smith informed the crowd. “Once done, we will be able to release the names.”
The DeKalb Police Department stated that investigators believe the killings were domestic in nature and that the residence where they occurred was located on the 2100 block of Vineyard Walk, which, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is an apartment complex called the Vineyards at Flat Shoals.
DeKalb County, Georgia’s fourth most populous, is approximately 20 minutes northeast of Atlanta.
The investigation is ongoing, but preliminary evidence suggests a murder-suicide. The precise relationship between the five dead is unknown.
According to the nonprofit Violence Policy Center, murder-suicides are a “shockingly common form of gun violence in the United States,” occurring an estimated ten times per week.
According to the center, approximately 1,200 Americans commit suicide each year, with a firearm being used in nine out of every ten cases.
Approximately two-thirds of all murder-suicides are committed by the victim’s intimate partner.