Triple murder-suicide in Tusla, Oklahoma, claims lives of mum, 3 children

Authorities said on Friday that in a miserable ending to a standoff which lasted for hours, a mother and her three children were killed in a 'triple-murder suicide' in a suburb of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

According to Police Chief Jack Shackleford, the standoff in Verdigris, a suburb east of Tulsa, began when a woman reported to a patrolling police officer at around 4pm on Thursday that another woman with a handgun was holding her hostage in a garage.

He continued to say that the woman also said that there were children in the home due to which the officer called for reinforcements and several agencies soon surrounded the house, including a SWAT team from the Cherokee Nation.

Authorities entered the home around 7:30pm to discover the bodies of the woman and three children, whose ages are believed to range from several months to around 11 years old.

Authorities also retrieved a handgun from the scene while the triple murder-suicide is being investigated and the identities of the victims have not yet been released, The Mirror reported.

According to KOKI-TV, Chief Shackleford said that officers have previously visited the home in response to several domestic and mental health calls.

A Violence Policy Centre report suggested that there are an estimated 11 murder-suicides that occur each week in the US while, more than 1,200 Americans die in murder-suicides each year.

According to the report, nine out of 10 murder-suicides involve a gun and in nearly two-thirds of all murder-suicides, an intimate partner of the shooter is among the victims, The Mirror reported.

Firearms such as handguns have contributed to the deaths of more children ages 1-17 years in the US in 2020 and 2021, more than any other type of injury or illness while the child firearm mortality rate has doubled in the country from a recent low of 1.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2013 to 3.7 in 2021.

This triple murder-suicide in Tulsa follows a murder-suicide that occurred on the same day in a Lower Makerfield home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania which claimed the lives of a father and his 8-year-old son.

However, this is the second murder-suicide to shock the state in the past month as previously, NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson's mother-in-law Terry Janway shot her husband Jack and their grandson Dalton, 11, at their home in Muskogee, Oklahoma, situated about 50 miles southeast of Tulsa.

As police arrived at the scene on June 26 they revealed that they heard the final gunshot in this horrific murder-suicide and discovered Jack Janway's body in the home's living room under a blanket.