OXFORD, MASS. (WHDH) – Three children escaped from an Oxford home where an apparent murder-suicide took place on Tuesday evening, officials said.
Officers responding to a 911 call from a woman inside a home on Old Webster Road around 5:20 p.m. and a second phone call from a man who was also inside the home determined they were a couple and that at some point, shots were fired, according to Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early, Jr.
A 13-year-old boy was able to flee the home through a window with a 4-year-old child, Early said.
“The 13 year old was a pretty courageous young kid,” Early continued. “He took the 4 year old in his arms, opened a window, ran out the window to a neighbor’s house. That neighbor also called 911.”
Responding officers found the woman dead in the kitchen from an apparent gunshot wound and a man outside the home also dead from an apparent gunshot wound, according to Early. Their names have not been released.
He added that it appears the man shot the woman, who is said to be his girlfriend, before shooting himself.
A 3-year-old child remained in the house and was brought to safety by police.
The three children were taken to the Oxford police station, where the Department of Child and Family Services responded.
Early says this appears to be an isolated incident and that they are trying to determine a motive.
Heartbroken residents of the neighborhood could be seen placing flowers at the crime scene on Wednesday.
“It’s just so close and it hits home. Those little kids, they don’t deserve that,” Noreen Welch said. “They don’t have a mother now….And that’s very, very sad.”
Rich Linehan, who lives near the scene, called the 13-year-old boy a “hero” for scrambling to notify the authorities.
“He’s basically a hero. You can be trained for a situation but to do the right thing in that situation is very hard when you only have a couple seconds,” he said. “He did the right thing.”
There was no immediate word on a possible motive.
An investigation remains ongoing.
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