A family tragedy shocks her Jute of USAwhere five members of a family – including three young children, ages 2, 9 and 11 – were found dead with gunshot wounds inside a home in suburban West Valley City on Tuesday.

A 17-year-old boy, the family’s son, is the only family member found alive but injured. The 17-year-old is hospitalized and “it remains to be determined whether he is just a victim or a suspect,” West Valley City police spokeswoman Roxanne Vainuku said.

Police do not believe a suspect is on the run, making it clear they believe the massacre was committed by a family member.

“We do not believe that any suspect has escaped. We believe at this stage that this is an event located in this particular house,” said Vainuku.

The victims were a 42-year-old man, a 38-year-old woman, an 11-year-old boy and two 9- and 2-year-old girls.

This case is “anything but ordinary”, the police spokeswoman said. Until yesterday “we had four (murders) in the city in all of 2024, so (this case) more than doubles the number (…) It’s something that puts a lot of weight on the investigators,” he added.

Police had been called to the home on Monday by a concerned relative, but there was no response from inside and officers looking through the windows saw no sign of anything suspicious.

When the woman did not go to work on Tuesday, relatives tried to enter the house and they found the 17-year-old, injured, in the garage. Members of law enforcement who were called to the scene eventually entered the residence and they found the bodiesaccording to police.

In January 2023, a 42-year-old state resident whose wife filed for divorce just before Christmas shot and killed seven members of his family, including his five children, ages 4 to 17, before turning the gun on himself. of, the authorities in the city of Enoch, in northwestern Utah, had announced.