Three children managed to escape a hostage situation just before their father allegedly shot their mother and sister dead and then turned the gun on himself.
Henry Bates, 39, killed his wife Brianna, 31, and their daughter Zenzia, 6, inside their home in Portage, Michigan, on Tuesday night, according to police.
Before the killings, three more children aged 3, 11 and 13 were able to flee the residence, officers said. They have since been taken under the care of relatives.
Four children were believed to be in the home as neighbors reported hearing five gunshots around 9pm, authorities said.
Police tried to make contact with people inside the home which was divided into four apartments. Cops tried to negotiate for Bates for almost two hours, but he did not respond.
‘You’re wishful that everything’s going to turn out alright, but it was totally silent right when we arrived,’ said Portage Department of Public Safety Director Nick Armold.
‘We were able to glean some information by use of the drone and the robot, and we made entry and unfortunately found all three deceased.
‘We found an adult male. I don’t know the age. An adult female, and what we believe to be a six-year-old all dead from gunshot wounds.’
All of the individuals lived in the home.
‘So certainly it’s clear that they were all familiar to each other with what was going on and what led up to it,’ Armold said.
Bates faced domestic violence charges in the past, including twice this year and in other instances in 2004, WOOD reported.
At least five law enforcement agencies responded and are still investigating the events around the crime and the motive.
‘We did everything we could to make sure that all the officers stayed safe, all the medical personnel stayed safe, and yet we were trying to see if we could get in there and rescue whoever was in there,’ Armold said. ‘Unfortunately, we were too late for them.’
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