Man stabs his sister to death then kills himself

A MAN stabbed his sister to death and left his mother fighting for her life – before killing himself as police armed with stun grenades stormed the family’s flat.

The 36-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene after officers in riot gear used grenades to ‘distract’ him.

Two officers who were first on the scene yesterday suffered minor wounds after their Tasers failed to subdue the knifeman.

West Midlands Police declined to comment on local reports that the man had recently been released from a mental health unit. But the force referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission over its officers’ ‘contact’ with the killer shortly before he died.

The tower block in Penn, Wolverhampton, is just yards from

‘Number of lines of inquiry’

Penn Hospital, which has an inpatient ward for mental health patients.

The alarm was raised at 9.45am. The knifeman chased the two officers through the corridors, slashing one on the arm and stabbing the other in a leg, but neither was seriously hurt. He then returned to the flat and barricaded himself in, before armed units forced entry 15 minutes later.

As they did so, the knifeman stabbed himself. Officers found the body of his 33-year-old sister, and their 59-year-old mother was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, suffering life-threatening stomach wounds.

When asked about claims that the killer had been a mental patient, Superintendent Keith Fraser said: ‘There will be a number of lines of inquiry. I don’t want to put any particular emphasis on a line in relation to the perpetrator’s background in relation to this.’