A man shot his wife and her brother before shooting himself in a Springfield, Virginia, home, Fairfax County police said.
A housekeeper discovered their bodies in the basement of the home on Wild Spruce Drive Thursday afternoon, police said.
Police identified them as 47-year-old Tiku Berhane Gebreeyesus; his wife, 38-year-old Meskerem Belachew Solomon; and her brother, 31-year-old Amanuel Belachew Solomon, who was visiting from out of the county.
Police said while the wife and her brother were shot multiple times, the husband had a single gunshot wound.
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“There was a handgun found near the bodies in the basement level of the house,” Fairfax County police Lt. Col. Eli Cory said.
A nanny and a toddler in the nanny’s care also were in the house and were unharmed. The couple had two other children who were at school.
“It’s devastating news,” a neighbor said. “It’s young kids involve, you know, with the loss of a parent, so it’s really said to hear that, but I don’t really have any insight on what may have happened.”
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“Here we’re all really close for the most part, and we’re all really shook and we really feel for the family and for these children that are connected, and just hope if people will get good mental health, and the police have been amazing,” neighbor Heidi Berio said.
Police are still working on a motive.
One neighbor said she was just at the home last weekend for a birthday party for one of the children and there was no sign of trouble.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will perform autopsies to confirm the manner and cause of death.
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