When people think of mass shootings, they often think of random violence in a public setting.
But just one day after America was torn by consecutive massacres in Texas and Ohio, a man shot and killed three family members before committing suicide in a Texas home. First-responders found the victims Monday while responding to a house fire.
No motive has been established for the murders or the fire.
Mass shooting at Texas home kills four
Police spokeswoman Romana Lopez said that the authorities got a call about a disturbance Monday at a southwest San Antonio home just south of Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. Authorities arrived to find two people in their 60s dead on the front lawn with gunshot wounds.
The house was on fire. When firefighters got inside, they found the suspect and his grandmother were also dead.
The suspect was identified as 28-year-old Ruben H. Gonzalez. His death was ruled a suicide. The victims were the suspect’s uncle, Jose Guadalupe-Hurtado, his mother, Josefina H. Gonzalez and grandmother, Felicitas Guillen-Hurtado.
San Antonio police said that the suspect’s uncle and mother were probably taken out by neighbors who saw the fire. Neighbors ran outside when they heard the gunshots.
When authorities arrived, they told the neighbors to stay back while firefighters worked to put out the flames from outside the house. They couldn’t go inside until the suspect was no longer considered a threat.
There is no known motive for the fire or the murders, but the suspect’s sister, who was not home at the time, had called the police about a domestic disturbance. The suspect was reportedly flipping over tables and breaking things in the house.
Shooter was reclusive
Family members described the suspect as a gloomy, reclusive man. A neighbor, Chris, told ABC-affiliate KSAT said that there were signs that the suspect was a little off. “The guy carried an AK-47 inside the house. He was not a social guy,” he said.
Neighbors described Josephine as a kind, friendly woman. “She was sweet to everybody,” said Bruce Best, 55, a neighbor. “She was real nice. I’m going to miss her.”
The horrific attack came days after mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio killed more than thirty people this weekend. The shootings have provoked a firestorm of political division as Democrats blamed President Donald Trump for the violence and demanded gun control.
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