(CMR) Eight family members, five of them children, were found dead from gunshot wounds at a home in the US state of Utah.
Residents in Enoch City were shocked when the victims were found Wednesday after police did a welfare check at the residence.
On Thursday, city officials identified the shooting suspect as 42-year-old Michael Haight.
Two other adults in the home were identified as Haight’s wife, Tausha Haight (40) and Tausha’s mother, 78-year-old Gail Earl. The other five victims were identified as the shooting suspect's children: a 17-year-old girl, a 12-year-old girl, a 7-year-old girl, a 7-year-old boy, and a 4-year-old boy.
City manager Rob Dotson said, “This community at this time is hurting. They're feeling loss, they're feeling pain, and they have a lot of questions.”
“Evidence suggests that the suspect took his own life after killing seven others in the home,” Mr. Dotson told reporters during a Thursday morning press conference.
Enoch City is a small agricultural town in the southwestern part of the state, about 245 miles (394km) south of Salt Lake City.
The five children attended schools across the Iron County School District, which released a statement expressing its sorrow.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox tweeted his condolences for those affected by the “senseless violence.”
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