Photo: Kjersten Ellingson Schladetzky/Facebook
Two children and their parents are dead in what Minneapolis police believe was a triple murder-suicide.
“I thought it was a game. … All of a sudden, the gunshots started ringing out,” neighbor Erik Wiltscheck told theMinneapolis Star Tribune.
The man then turned the gun on himself,Fox9 reports.
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Upon arrival, officers found the boys lying in the front yard of their South Minneapolis home, and heard gunshots still being fired inside. Officers grabbed the children’s bodies and placed them in a patrol car, but they were pronounced dead.
“This is something that will live with them forever,” police spokesman John Elder said of the responding officers.
A standoff took place between officers and SWAT team members for hours before authorities gained access to the home and found both David and Kjersten’s bodies.
Kjersten Ellingson Schladetzky/Facebook
Kjersten Schladetzky and her sons were close, friends and neighbors told theTribune.
“She was so excited to have her boys that it was palpable,” Anna Pratt, a former coworker from Hennepin Theatre Trust, where the couple met, said.
Wiltscheck told the paper the boys saw their mom as “number one.”
“If I had the chance, I would have traded my life for those kids,” Wiltscheck said, according to theTribune. “I just can’t make sense of this.”
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
source: people.com
