WASHINGTON: An American father shot dead his children on Monday and committed suicide by shooting himself in a US church.
Police said that a fifth person also died in the shooting in Sacramento, California. Police have termed the killing and suicide as a domestic incident.
“The suspect in this case, who ended up killing himself, had a restraining order out against him by his estranged wife, the mother of the three children victims,” Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones told media.
The children who died were under the age of 15, police said. Local reports said they were three girls aged 9, 10, and 13.
Jones said the children had gone to The Church of Sacramento, in the Arden Arcade area of the city, for a supervised visit with their father.
Local media reported that authorities thought the fifth victim, whose identity was still unknown, was the person overseeing the visit.
Police said they were not looking for anyone else involved in the shooting. California Governor Gavin Newsom called the murders “senseless” in a Twitter posting.
“Another senseless act of gun violence in America –- this time in our backyard. In a church with kids inside,” he said.
“Absolutely devastating. Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and their communities.”
Mass killings involving firearms are a distressingly common occurrence in the United States. Lax gun laws and an insistence on the right to bear arms have repeatedly stymied attempts to clamp down on the number of weapons in circulation, despite greater controls being favored by the majority of Americans.
