A Michigan mother and her three children were killed over the weekend at their home and their deaths are now being investigated as a homicide, local authorities reported.
The Mecosta County Sheriff’s Office said they received a dispatch to attend to reports of a man with a gun and multiple shots being fired to a home in the Austin Township of Michigan, located just south of Big Rapids, at about 2.30pm on Saturday.
After arriving at the home, they located the bodies of three children, all under the age of 10, and one woman, their mother, all of whom were declared dead.
One man at the scene, Mecosta County Sheriff Brian Miller confirmed to MLive.com, was suffering from a gunshot wound to the head and was determined by the sheriff to be the deceased woman’s husband.
“To have something so tragic happen in your community, it’s very heartbreaking,” Sheriff Miller told MLive.com on Saturday. “There are no words that can explain what happened.”
A superintendent for a school district in the region wrote in a letter to parents confirming that one of the children killed in the fatal shooting incident at the Austin Township home attended Morley Stanwood Elementary School.
“How it happened, why it happened, is not the focus of this letter. The loss of a life is always difficult, but when that loss is tragic, and yes senseless, it is that much harder to deal with,” wrote Morley Stanwood Community Schools Superintendent Roger Cole.
A vigil to commemorate the victims killed on Saturday is scheduled to take place on Monday at 7pm at the town’s football field, Morely Standwood stadium.
The husband, who has not been identified, was taken to Spectrum Health Big Rapids Hospital and was then airlifted to Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids where he was later transferred to be treated at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor.
Authorities have not provided details about the motivation behind the incident, but have ruled that they are investigating it as a homicide.
Police have informed the public that there is no ongoing threat to the public.
