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Five members of a family from Phoenix, Arizona, were found dead yesterday afternoon in their home in 4300 block of East Anderson Drive, in the residential neighborhood near 44th Street and Bell Road. Their death might have been caused by a family dispute, according to the police officer, Sergeant Trent Crump, who gave a statement to Daily News. Their feud might have been related to one of the family businesses that they had. Among them, there was at least one car-related local business.
On Thursday, the 16th of April, the mother and her three sons, along with one of her daughters-in-law were found dead. They had all died from gunshot injuries. Their ages vary from 28 to 75. The police believe one of the brothers pulled out a gun and shot the four members of the family and then committed suicide using the same weapon. A member of the family – one of the men’s wives escaped with her two children (a months-old and a three-year-old) through the back door and alerted the police. The dispatcher who took her call mentioned he heard gunshots in the background.
The police arrived shortly after the call was made, at 2 p.m. and surrounded the area. They communicated with the people who were still in the house using a megaphone. An hour passed before another woman – one of the brothers’ wives came out of the house and was clearly in great distress. The police sent in a robot before entering the house, to check the perimeters and see if there were any armed people inside. Afterwards, a SWAT team entered with their dogs.
The police remained in the area until late at night, documenting the evidence and having detectives talk to the witnesses. The neighbors told investigators the family were practically invisible until that afternoon when they heard the gun being fired. From what they knew they owned a transportation service and had recently purchased a home in an area nearby area because they needed space to park their fleet. This was due to the fact that HOA only allowed two vehicles at the time to be parked in a driveway.
The police are trying to determine if there was any history of domestic violence in the family before the incident. They have been talking to other members of the family. Some of them only speak Arabic, so they needed a translator to carry out the interviews. However it is very unlikely that the investigators are looking for other suspects at the moment, even if it is not yet certain whether or not only one person fired the gun.
Image Source: Guim
