Homegrown Saturday morning tragedyA less-than-blissful domestic situation in one of our neighbors' homes apparently led to a shooting here in Montgomery County, PA. Consequently there's much activity around here this morning. (Though they have the name of the street misspelled.) Man shoots wife, barricades himself in home... and it's ongoing, so I'll update this as matters progress. It's quiet for now.
Update: While the local news has yet to update, word is that the man may have killed himself. Holding the crime scene intact while waiting for the coroner to show up would fit what we're seeing.
Update II: While the local news services haven't updated, once we were able to get out and about people were able to talk with the police and we found out that it was, unfortunately, one of the people my wife regularly spoke with.
Update III & likely final: I've included a local newspaper's coverage of the tragedy.
We don't yet know why, but it appears the husband just recently bought the gun and made his move in what was unfortunately an ultimately successful murder-suicide. His wife, Kim, died sometime after being medevacced this morning. This leaves their grade-school aged daughter, Keisha, an orphan. Her likely last view of her mother was seeing her, semi-conscious and bleeding profusely, taken away just before 7:30 this morning.
I'd heard those sirens and seen the two police cars then, but that was out through our bedrooom window and the cars were moving down past us -- they must have initially overshot and come back in around from a side-street. The solid brick and concrete construction here prevented the other sounds, from gunshots to the early part of the police activity, from reaching and alerting us.
We were hoping it was one of the other neighbors, to be brutally frank - one of the newer couples we didn't know - and didn't seriously consider at first that it would be Kim. She was always such a pleasant woman, walking her daughter to the bus stop each weekday morning and always handy with a greeting. Her husband had a solid job with Lockheed Martin as I understood it, and had been married for some 12 years. I simply don't understand what went so horribly awry.
While my tone this morning as I posted the following pictures was flip, I don't feel up to editing it so I'll let it stand as an artifact. Perhaps it'll remind me to be more tactful.
While the officer seen here in the center started immediately waving me away from the front window a moment later (limiting the number of shots I took in that direction), as you can see in these shots we had tactical teams all around the neighborhood over a domestic shooting and a stand-off.
This being a quiet, suburban neighborhood it was unusual and unnerving to see standard-uniformed police brandishing rifles from behind the cover of their vehicles...
...and officers in full armor, equipped with M-4s and MP-5 sub-machineguns, and while I didn't get a shot of it there was at least one ballistics shield in the mix.
My digital camera sucks batteries dry faster than a vampire hooker who's been trapped in a crypt for a few months... you catch my meaning. So, that's likely to be all the photos from me for now. Maybe I'll try with my phone, though the T-Mobile setup we have... that's another rant for another time.
The Times Herald coverage.
...and, not knowing how long such reports stay in place before being archived, here's the complete text:
Murder-Suicide Case Unfolds in L. Providence
By: MARCIA WRIGHT-SOIKA, Times Herald Staff
03/26/2006
LOWER PROVIDENCE - A husband and wife are both dead and a potential murder-suicide case unfolded in Lower Providence Saturday.
At 7:06 a.m., police responded to a 911 call placed by a 10-year-old girl, identified as the couple's daughter. The child allegedly told police that her father shot her mother.
After arriving to the 5049 Defford Place duplex, police were told by the child that her mother and father were still on the second floor of the home.
Police escorted the child to safety, according to reports. She is currently with family members.
The shooting victim was identified as 42-year-old Kimberly Deeds. She was shot once in the chest.
After being removed from her home, she was taken by Lower Providence Community Center Ambulance and "transported to a landing zone at the Lower Providence Volunteer Fire Company," according to a police department press release.
Kimberly was later pronounced dead at the trauma center of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, according to the press release.
Reports indicate that 25 residents were evacuated from their homes and roadways in the area were closed by firefighters.
After entering the home, police found husband Michael Deeds, 38, shot in the head. Reports indicate the gunshot was self-inflicted.
Deeds was pronounced dead at the scene by Deputy Coroner Garry Schmoltze.
A .38 caliber revolver is believed to be the weapon used in the shooting, and is currently in the hands of police. According to reports, no motive has been established and police were unavailable to comment as the investigation continues.
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Comments
My sympathies for the loss of your reasonably well known neighbors. As you note, had it been someone you weren't acquainted with, it would have been much less of a trauma. It's one of mankind's odd little failings; the things that happen to strangers largely don't touch us emotionally, yet even the most casual acquaintanceship can turn a statistic into genuine grief.
The police had closed off the street and we had to walk in the last block. As I started to walk up to the house, police stopped me and told me that I couldn't go in there. I was arguing with them that it was my dad and they couldn't stop me. As nearby news crews covering the "stand off" saw how emotional I was becoming, I became the star of the evening news, trying to push past the cops and get into the house. I suppose they're trained to get those shots.
It was all very surreal, including the nearby elementary school that served as the SWAT team's base of operations.
My mom and sister were at a neighbor's house across the street, and I joined them there. I talked to my dad via telephone, but he was adament that he had become a burden to his family and that we'd all be better off without him.
Every time I looked outside, it looked a great deal like the pictures you included. Snipers set up at key locations, nearby homes behing evacuated, the helicopters overhead.
My dad was, eventually (many hours later), talked out without anyone getting hurt. But it's a memory that stays fresh.
Sorry you had to go through something like that. And moreso, that your friends didn't have a better outcome.
Thoughts are with you and Ari, and that poor little girl.
More importantly, I'm glad you and yours got through that particular Situation with a happier ending.
You've been SPAMMED!! LOL!
As for the incident and the victim, I didn't mean to make it seem so distanced, but I don't like to categorize an acquaintance posthumously as something closer. On the other hand, Ari did talk with her almost daily, often for more than a few minutes. I often saw her walking her daughter past our place on the way to the bus stop each morning, but aside from friendly waves I didn't have any contact with her.
Michael Deeds, the husband, was someone I never met. He was in his late 30s while Kim was closer to our age. Oddly enough, he was a comics fan, too, which came up in discussion between our wives. Word is he was unsociable in a different fashion than I was, so maybe there might never have been a shot at a connection - we were each working long hours, too, and his commute was all the way over to New Jersey each day, so... who knows?
Ari's sick over it all.
I see the Tammy show has had adventures of all stripes! As Dwight said, I'm very happy yours turned out so much better.
Yburvc, I summon thee!
To have this sort of thing hit so close to home ... man, I feel for you.
And as for the "Tammy Show", it's always an adventure, but well worth the price of admission...;)
If you want to make it as easy as possible for anyone interested to comment on your blog, spammers are going to take advantage of that. Set up any kind of filter, and some commenters are going to complain, or just go elsewhere with their b.s. Life is, unfortunately, imperfect in virtually every aspect.
Honestly, any of us probably would have reacted the same way in your position.
It has to give a cast of unreality to familiar surroundings.
Don't go looking for clenched gloved hand behind it all.
:: the power of Jbayzii compels you!! ::