SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Six people were shot to death, at least three of them children, and another person was critically wounded in an apparent murder-suicide at an upscale home in Silicon Valley, police said Monday. The incident marked at least the third mass killing in the country since Saturday.
The suspect appeared to be among the dead in the apparent “family on family” violence, Lt. Phil Cooke said.
Authorities said a neighbor called police about 8:30 p.m. Sunday to report that a woman was injured outside a townhouse, Cooke said.
Officers found five bodies with gunshot wounds when they arrived at the home — a 10-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl, a man in his 40s, another man in his 30s and a woman in her early 20s, said Capt. Mike Sellers.
A toddler later died at the hospital. A woman who managed to escape is in her mid-30s and was hospitalized in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds, Sellers said.
Investigators were working to confirm the identities of the victims, the relationship between them and a possible motive for the rampage.
Nursing home shooting
Also Monday, authorities in North Carolina said a painter accused of shooting up a nursing home may have been after his recently estranged wife during a rampage that killed seven residents — ages 78 to 98 — and a nurse, authorities said Monday.
Robert Stewart’s wife was working as a nursing assistant at Pinelake Health and Rehab in Carthage when he attacked Sunday, not long after the two split, said Carthage Police Chief Chris McKenzie.
But it appeared the relationship between Stewart, 41, and his wife, identified by a neighbor as Wanda Luck, was tied in some way to the rampage.
“We’re certainly looking into the fact that it may be domestic-related,” McKenzie said.
Stewart made his first court appearance Monday on eight counts of first-degree murder and a single charge of felony assault of a law enforcement officer.
Sisters, killer brother to be buried together
Two sisters and the brother who killed them with a kitchen knife in Milton, Mass., will share a single funeral service and be buried together, according to an attorney and family friend.
Samantha Revelus, 17, and her sister, Bianca, 5, were killed at their Milton home Saturday. Police shot the girls’ brother, Kerby Revelus, 23, after an officer saw him decapitate the younger girl. A surviving sister, 9-year-old Saraphina, was recovering at a Boston hospital Monday after having surgery.
Investigators believe Revelus had been agitated since Friday night, when he got in a fistfight with a neighbor.
Revelus attacked his siblings with a kitchen knife on Saturday while their grandmother was in the basement, investigators said. The children’s parents were not home.
Samantha Revelus called 911, but the dying girl quickly gave the phone to Saraphina, Milton police said.
The responding officer kicked the door in and saw Revelus decapitate his 5-year-old sister.
As other officers arrived, Kerby ran into a bedroom and began to attack Saraphina. Two officers shot him, Milton police said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
