'Different kind of evil': Boy, 17, arrested after entire family killed
Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy over the killings of five people, including a pregnant woman, who were shot to death inside a home in an attack labelled a “devastating act of violence”.
The name of the suspect in the killings, which occurred Sunday (local time) in the US state of Indianapolis, will not be released due to him being a juvenile. No one else was believed to be involved, police said.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) chief Randal Taylor decried the "mass murder" killings as a "different kind of evil".
The fatal shootings were discovered by police who had been called to investigate reports of a person shot in the city's northeast but first discovered a juvenile male with gunshot wounds, said IMPD's Sergeant Shane Foley.
The suspect was arrested on Monday.
As officers were investigating that juvenile's shooting, Foley said police received information that led them to a nearby home, where they found multiple adults dead inside from apparent gunshot wounds.
Kezzie Childs, 42, Raymond Childs, 42, Elijah Childs, 18, Rita Childs, 13, and Kiara Hawkins, 19, and the unborn child of Hawkins were pronounced dead after being found in the home, Foley said.
Hawkins was first taken to a hospital, but she and her unborn child died despite life-saving efforts, Foley said.
He said the juvenile initially found with gunshot wounds is expected to survive and police believe he was wounded in the same incident.
Chief Taylor said police believe the deadly shootings were a targeted attack.
The shootings came days after the police department had announced renewed efforts to combat violent, drug-related crimes and "violence driven by poverty or desperation".
"But what we saw this morning was a different kind of evil," Taylor said at a news conference.
"What happened this morning, based on the evidence that's been gathered so far, was mass murder.
"More than that, we believe it was not random."
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