ELK MILLS, Maryland– Two adults and three children were found dead in a Cecil County home on Friday after the Sheriff’s deputies were called to the area. The Cecil County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the Elk Mills shooting today as a probable murder-suicide. Read on to know more.
“This is a tragic and terrible day for our county and our community,” Cecil County Sheriff Scott Adams said at a news conference Friday afternoon.
“Any time you have a loss to these levels — any loss is terrible, but a loss of this level, which is not a common thing, it’s certainly not a common thing here in Cecil County — it’s tragic and terrible and takes a long time for people to process.”
Elk Mills Shooting Today: What happened in a Cecil County Home?
Cecil County deputies were called to a house in the unit block of Hebron Court for a tragic shooting on Friday, September 9, 2022. A man made a short call to 911 to report that the children and a woman were fatally shot.
The deputies arrived at the reported area around 9:30 AM and went into a detached garage and the house. They found a man, a woman, and three children who have been fatally shot.
One body was found in the garage, another on the first floor, and three on the second floor. The bodies were identified and will be sent for autopsy.
The sheriff said deputies also found a semiautomatic handgun near the man’s body. He added that the family’s next of kin are yet to be notified. The department didn’t reveal the names or the ages of the deceased.
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However, it’s known that all three students were home-schooled and they were fifth, seventh, and eighth-grade students. More details will be available soon.
Cecil County Sheriff’s Office Investigating Elk Mills Shooting
The Cecil County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the Elk Mills shooting which left five people dead including three children. The initial belief is that it’s an apparent incident of murder-suicide where the man is the believed killer of the four people in his family before he killed himself.
However, the department is yet to conclude a motive for that. “We are actively trying to find that motive but right now we don’t have that,” Sheriff Adams stated.
The call that led the police to the victims was made to 911 to report the deaths just after 9 AM. “It was very short. The subject hung up and we tried to make calls back to the residence that went unanswered,” a deputy said at a news conference.
The police said they are yet to uncover any red flags and revealed there was no prior history of calls from the home on Hebron Court. Four nearby schools have been put on code yellow by the authorities. They are in a heightened state of awareness as per the protocol.
Animal Control has removed multiple pets from the house including a dog and two cats. The neighbors are in shock as they knew them as a happy and beautiful family.
The Sherriff’s Office also activated a reverse 911 call to share there was no threat to the public. The Maryland State Police Crime Scene Technician was called to assist in the investigative procedures.
We’ll keep you updated with further developments in the case.