Two dead, one injured in apparent murder-suicide
A man and a woman were dead following an apparent murder-suicide at a camping trailer in the 6400 block of Park Avenue early Friday morning that left a second man hospitalized, the Garland County Sheriff’s Department said.
The names of the victims were not being released Friday. The sheriff’s department said in a news release that investigators were treating the incident as a murder-suicide, and are “confident that the community is safe and no other persons are involved.”
The male victim was transported to a local hospital and was undergoing treatment for his injuries Friday afternoon, the department said.
According to an earlier news release, the sheriff’s department received a call of shots heard and someone yelling for help at 3:49 a.m. Friday in the 6400 block of Park Avenue.
Deputies arrived at 3:56 a.m. and located an injured male, a deceased female, and a deceased male.
“All of the victims had what appeared to be gunshot wounds,” the release said. No other information was released about the victims.
The deceased male and female were sent to the state crime lab to determine the cause of death, the release said.
A neighbor who asked not to be identified told The Sentinel-Record that said she believed the shooting was related to a domestic dispute.
“I woke up because I was hot, because we had the heaters going and the next thing I know I heard five gunshots go off. It was around 3:45 in the morning. My brother-in-law and his fiancee were sleeping on the couch when the shots woke her up and she heard somebody yelling for help,” the neighbor said.
The neighbor said she believes the shootings were committed by a family member.
“I’ve met him a couple times and he didn’t seem like that kind of person, but you never know what kind of person anybody is. About a year ago we were living over there and when I first met him, him and his wife seemed really nice and they were OK,” she said.
“He apparently parked down the road and then walked this way towards the trailer, so they didn’t know he was coming. …
“It’s crazy how people are. There was a break in between the shots, there first were three and then there was two. So I think maybe he shot them, and was like, wait, what did I do? And then shot himself,” she said.
“Apparently he had posted some sad stuff on his Facebook before it happened.”
Anyone with information concerning the incident was being asked to contact Garland County CID at 501-622-3660. The department said the investigation is ongoing and “details will be forthcoming in the near future.”