Gunman kills 6, self at Colorado Springs birthday party

Seven people are dead after a man opened fire inside a birthday party at a mobile home in Colorado Springs overnight, according to police.

The killings happened just after midnight Sunday morning at the Canterbury Mobile Home Park on Preakness Way, on the east side of the city.

Officers, dispatched on report of a shooting, arrived at a trailer to find six dead adults and a man with serious injuries. That man later died at the hospital, Colorado Springs police said in a Sunday news release.

The suspect, the boyfriend of a female victim, drove to the trailer where the birthday party was being held, with friends, family and children in attendance.

He walked inside and shot party attendees before taking his own life, police said, adding that the children present “are now with relatives.”

In a statement Sunday, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis called the Mother’s Day shooting a “terrible act of violence,” occurring as “many of us are spending the day celebrating the women in our lives who have made us the people we are today.”

“Families torn apart, and at a birthday party, no less,” he said.

A woman who lives nearby said she awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of what she believes were gunshots, and crying outside. Two young crying children were put in the back of a patrol car.

“And on Mother’s Day,” said the woman, who did not wish to be named.

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers called the shooting a “senseless act of violence.”

“Today we find ourselves mourning the loss of lives and praying solemnly for those who were injured and those who lost family members,” Suthers said in a Sunday statement.

“We think too of the emergency personnel who responded to a horrific scene and we keep them in our prayers today.”

The investigation is ongoing. The names of the victims and the suspect will be released once the coroner has identified them, officials said.