Oklahoma man kills estranged wife, 2 kids before killing self

USPA News - A woman and her two children were killed late Monday when she went to pick up her children from the home of her estranged husband in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, local police said on Tuesday. The suspected gunman turned the gun on himself after the shootings.

The murder scene was discovered at about 12:35 a.m. on Tuesday when one of the residents of the Bradford Townhouses Apartments in Tulsa returned home, said Tulsa Police Sgt. Dave Walker, the supervisor of the homicide unit. It is believed the shootings took place earlier in the evening. First responders who arrived at the scene discovered the bodies of a 22-year-old woman, a 35-year-old man, a 5-year-old girl, and a 3-year-old boy. All had been shot and killed. An initial investigation determined that the man shot the three victims before killing himself, police said. "We are working on family notification and have determined that the male is the estranged husband of the female and that the children belonged to the now dead male and female," Sgt. Walker said. Investigators said the woman had dropped off the children earlier in the day at their father`s apartment, which he shared with two other male roommates who were not present at the time of the shooting. The woman returned to the apartment in the evening hours, along with a 2-year-old child who is related to a roommate of the woman. "The apartment does not show any signs of a struggle and it appears that the male surprised the female, shooting her and then killing their children. The male then took his own life," Sgt. Walker explained. "The bodies were discovered at 12:35 am when one of the roommates arrived home and discovered the murder scene." The 2-year-old child was inside the apartment at the time of the shootings but was not harmed. "This child has been reunited with her mother," Sgt. Walker added. The names of the victims were not immediately released, but authorities said all of the victims were from Guatemala with no next of kin living in the United States, which is hampering the notification process.