MARION, Ark. — Three people were killed in a murder suicide Tuesday morning in Marion, Arkansas, police said.
Marion officers were dispatched for a welfare check at Bayou Vista Drive around 9:30.
Officers on the scene spoke to two juveniles about what was going on when they heard gunshots coming from inside the house.
They found Gabriel Brown, Nakina Gilmer-Brown, and a child dead when they entered. The identity of the child is not being released at this time.
Family told WREG that two children were able to escape before the violence.
Police have concluded it as a murder-suicide.
Charles Gilmer, a man who tells us he is the uncle of one of the victims, said a woman and her child were shot and killed by her husband, who then turned the gun on himself.
Gilmer said he was working when he got the call just before 11 a.m. that his niece and her son had been shot and killed.
“It’s devastating news. Something we can’t really fathom. We’re still trying to wrap our heads around it. Just don’t understand why,” he said.
Gilmer also said he helped raise his niece and told us that the family had lived in their Marion home for less than a year.
“We’re real close and she had a name for me. She called me uncle elder because I’m an assistant pastor so she always called me uncle elder,” he said. ” She was a caring person, a loving person and she believed in giving you all the opportunities to change. And I believe because of that she loved her husband dearly and she always desired to see the best of him and she just wanted the best for him.”
The investigation is still ongoing.