Parents and child, aged 6, die in ‘murder-suicide’ but three other children manage to escape
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Parents and child, aged 6, die in ‘murder-suicide’ at their home but three other children aged 3, 11 and 13, manage to escape
- Both parents and six-year-old daughter found dead in apparent murder-suicide
- Dead confirmed as Henry Bates, 39, Brianna Bates, 31 and Zenzia Bates, 6
- Three other children aged 3, 11 and 13 lived in the home but managed to escape
- Police say that Henry shot his wife and daughter and then shot himself
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Both parents and their six-year-old child have been found shot dead at their Michigan home in what local police believe to be a murder-suicide.
The dead have been confirmed as 39-year-old Henry Bates, 31-year-old Brianna Bates and Zenzia Bates, 6.
Police believe the father killed his wife and daughter before shooting himself.
There are three surviving children aged 3, 11 and 13, who lived in the same home in the town of Portage in Kalamazoo County.
They managed to get out before the slayings commenced and have now been placed with relatives.
Portage Department of Public Safety said they responded to reports of shots fired around 9.20pm Tuesday evening and approached what they believed to be a potential hostage situation.
Police responded to an apparent murder suicide in Portage, Michigan. The dead have been confirmed as 39-year-old Henry Bates, 31-year-old Brianna Bates and 6-year-old Zenzia Bates. The father killed his wife and daughter before shooting himself, according to police (stock image)
Authorities believed there were four children inside the home and a hostage. A nearby neighbor said that they had heard five shots fired.
Negotiators from Portage DPS tried to make contact with the individuals for two hours but all efforts failed.
After failing to make contact with those inside the house, which was split into four apartments, police turned to high-tech methods to appraise the scene.
‘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,’ said Portage Department of Public Safety Director Nick Armold.
‘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,’
‘They all lived there, so certainly it’s clear that they were all familiar to each other with what was going on and what led up to it.’
A slew of agencies responded to the scene, fearing what could be a long and drawn out hostage situation.
These included the Portage Department of Public Safety, Western Michigan University Police, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, Kalamazoo Township, and multi-jurisdictional SWAT members.
‘You’re wishful that everything’s going to turn out alright, but it was totally silent right when we arrived,’ said PDPS Armold.
‘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. Unfortunately, we were too late for them,’ he added.
The teams were on the scene for over twelve hours. Investigators are still trying to piece together a motive for the crime and the events leading up to it.