4 dead in Plainville, Connecticut murder-suicide; 2 children among victims
A man killed his girlfriend and two children before fatally shooting himself during a standoff with police in Plainville, Connecticut, according to officials. The victims included his 4-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old girl.
Police were called to the Plainville home on Friday after a woman reported that her brother had called her and said he had shot and killed his girlfriend and his 4-year-old daughter and was going to kill himself, according to Plainville Police Chief Christopher Vanghele.
Police responded to the home, set up a perimeter around the house and surrounding neighborhood, and tried to contact the man, who was identified as 27-year-old Patrick J. King.
Vanghele said those efforts were unsuccessful, leading police to activate the Central Region Emergency Response Team, a SWAT team made up of officers from surrounding communities.
The SWAT team took positions outside the house and deployed drones while a negotiator established cellphone contact with King and tried to persuade him to surrender. After about two hours of negotiations, officers decided to deploy pepper gas inside the home in an attempt to force him out.
Vanghele said King then shot himself in the head. SWAT officers entered the house, attempted life-saving measures and had him taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was pronounced deceased a short time later.
Officers found three people dead inside the home: 31-year-old Felisha A. Matthews, King’s girlfriend; Ava R. King, the couple’s 4-year-old daughter; and 12-year-old Mileena Matthews, Matthews’ daughter from a previous relationship. All three died from gunshot wounds, according to Vanghele.
The 12-year-old was a student at the local middle school, and police have been working with the school to arrange support services for students and staff when classes resume Monday morning.
Vanghele said the family had moved into the home in mid-January and there had been no prior calls for service at that address. He said autopsies were performed Saturday morning and that investigators still do not know a motive.
“This is a very dark day for the town of Plainville and for Connecticut,” Vanghele said. “Our hearts are broken by this senseless loss, and our prayers go out to the family members who lost their loved ones,”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
