DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) — A man is in custody after his two young children were asphyxiated using a car exhaust, his wife’s two older children were fatally shot and his wife was shot and slashed at their suburban Detroit home, police said Wednesday.
The man, whose name has not been released, called 911 early Wednesday and said he had killed his family, Dearborn Heights police Lt. Michael Krause told The Associated Press. Officers found the man on the porch and took him into custody, Krause said, adding he will face charges in the coming days.
Kruse said “some sort of domestic dispute” preceded the killings.
The car where the man’s children, a 4-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy, were asphyxiated was parked outside the home and had a hose hooked to the exhaust that was routed into the car, Krause said. Police found those children on the ground floor of the home and administered CPR, he said. They were taken to hospital, but didn’t survive.
In the basement, police found the bodies of a 17-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man, along with their mother, who had gunshot and knife wounds, Krause said.
The woman, whose age wasn’t immediately available, is in critical condition, Krause said. He said she is not the biological mother of the younger children.
Mayor Dan Paletko, speaking near the home, called the killings “a tragedy in every sense of the word.”
State police are on the scene with a crime lab, assisting local police. Neighbors described the family as quiet and hardworking.
“Just two or three weeks ago, they had a birthday party — balloons and all that stuff out there,” Ronnie Jones told WXYZ-TV. “They’ve been working on the house the last two or three months.”
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