Less than a week after a similar incident occurred in Utah, a man shot and killed his wife and three children before taking his own life in North Carolina.
The authorities reported this Monday that the events occurred on Saturday morning at the family home in High Point.
That day, Robert J. Crayton Jr., 45, fatally shot Athalia A. Crayton, 46; and their children, Kasin Crayton, 18, and two others, 16 and 10, police said.
The alleged attacker had a history of mental illness.
“In my 27, almost reaching 28 years in this police department, we have never seen anything like this happen,” High Point Police Chief Travis Stroud told the media.
“Clearly a shock case for us as a police department and as a city,” the spokesperson described.
Two people, ages 25 and 22, who were in the house at the time of the events, fled the scene shortly after 7 am and knocked on the doors of neighbors crying out for help.
One of the two was a relative of those involved while the other was known.
At the moment, the authorities have not established the motive for the crime.
Last Tuesday, Michael Haight, 42, shot and killed his wife Tausha, 40; her mother, Gail Earl, 78; and her five children, one of 4, two of 7, one of 12 and another of 17. Later, the man committed suicide.
The authorities have not established the motive either. Although in this case, the couple was in the process of divorce.
The deceased were Mormons or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.