According to police, a man in Missouri fatally shot his girlfriend and 3 of her children before turning the gun on himself, thereby killing the woman, 2 of the children, and himself.
Man fatally shot girlfriend, 2 children and injured another in murder-suicide, police say https://t.co/vDRH1Qb5bv
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Coleman McIlvain, 34, was named by St. Ann Police Chief Aaron Jimenez as the person who was suspected in the murder-suicide. Around 8 p.m. on Monday, someone was shot in St. Ann.
Police said that the violence started when McIlvain’s girlfriend tried to talk him out of leaving in the car because he had been drinking. Neighbors told KMOV that McIlvain often drank and sometimes fired his gun in the garden. Also, they said the two of them fought a lot.
Police say that after the fight, McIlvain shot his partner in the face and killed her. He then shot and killed her 14-year-old son and her 5-year-old son. The woman’s 9-year-old daughter was shot in the left hand, but she was able to escape to a neighbour’s house and live through the killing.
“The daughter then observed the boyfriend shoot her mom in the face and then had that fight or flight response,” Jimenez said of the girl who survived. “Her wits were amazing to know you got to get out of there. And he fired approximately seven shots to try to kill her. He struck her in the left hand with one bullet.”
Gwen Connelly, a neighbour, told KMOV that the incident had made it hard for her to sleep.
“I still see the horror in this little girl’s face about her mom dying in front of her eyes,” Connelly said. “She said, ‘My mom, he killed my mom. He shot her in the head. She’s dead.’”
Connelly also said that the girl had “blood all over her.”
“I said, ‘Are you hit anywhere else?’” Connelly said. “She said, ‘I don’t think so,’ but she was drenched in blood, so she said, ‘Why did this happen to me?’”
After the incident, the 9-year-old was taken to the hospital.
Neighbours said that the family’s Monday began like any other day. They said they saw McIlvain and one of the kids working in the yard and getting the garden ready for a Fourth of July party.
KMOV says that another child, a 10-year-old boy, was shot and killed in St. Clair County on Monday night.
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