The Carnage Continues - Father Kills 5 Kids, Self

[Ti-Amie]

GRAHAM, Wash. — A father apparently shot to death five of his children, ages 7 to 16, at their mobile home and then killed himself near a casino miles away, police said Saturday.

Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff, called it a domestic violence situation and a murder-suicide.

"We believe they all died of gunshot wounds," Troyer said.

Police found the father's body early Saturday in his still-running car near the Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn, about 30 miles south of Seattle. He had apparently killed himself with a rifle, although no note was left in the car, Auburn Police Sgt. Scott Near said.

Later in the day, Pierce County deputies checked the mobile home, which is about 20 miles southeast of the casino, and found four of the children dead in their beds and the fifth in the bathroom.

Neighbors in the Deer Run mobile home park, a neat, well-kept community nestled among towering evergreens, were shocked and weeping at the news.

"How could something like this happen?" asked Mary Riplinger, whose kids were playmates of the slain children. "Everyone's asking: Why did he do it? It's not right."

The mother of the victims was not at home.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/04/5-children-father-found-d_n_183207.html

[Kirkus]

Oh, holy crimeny. I just don't understand.

[owendonovan]

Oh, holy crimeny. I just don't understand.

I don't understand either, so senseless.

[craighickman]

I understand. People are so broken down by this recession and with no prospects for recovery in their own lives, this is what they do.

Wasn't that long ago a man killed his family and himself for the exact same reason.

Like I said, here in Maine, many people are forlorn. Cable and network news isn't actually showing how bad this recession is for a large swath of the working class.

[owendonovan]

I understand. People are so broken down by this recession and with no prospects for recovery in their own lives, this is what they do.

Wasn't that long ago a man killed his family and himself for the exact same reason.

Like I said, here in Maine, many people are forlorn. Cable and network news isn't actually showing how bad this recession is for a large swath of the working class.

I understand railing against the government and big business or even small business, but not your own family.

[craighickman]

I understand railing against the government and big business or even small business, but not your own family.

For those who get to a point where they do this, the government and big business are such distant institutions, they don't even register.

[jadesa]

Without knowing anything about him, he does seem to fit rather nicely into the "family annihilator" personality type. While economic problems could set people like this off, I believe they already have these sorts of problems. It is entirely possible he did this because of the marital problems with his wife, as perhaps I missed it, but I didn't see anything about him being unemployed.

Some information on family annihilators:

Dr. Levin has provided a profile of the family annihilator as a middle-aged man, who appears to others (outside the family) to be a good provider, a loving father, and a faithful and loving husband. But he tends to be isolated, with no close friends or support system of his own, aside from his family. He has suffered with feelings of inadequacy and some form of long frustration. Ultimately, he suffers some catastrophic loss which leads to his crime. This trigger may be the loss of his job, or loss of money through a bad investment, but sometimes it is the impending loss of his wife. He doesn't hate his children, although he may hate his wife and blame her for his own problems. He has previously been a controlling man, within the family, but now feels powerless. Dr. Levin's belief is that the family annihilator wants revenge against his wife.


Dr. Charles Patrick Ewing, a psychiatrist in Buffalo, NY, and author of the book "Fatal Families: The Dynamics of Intrafamilial Homicide" says that "if anything, [family annihilators] are over-invested in their families... They're being overly responsible" and feel they can no longer take care of their families, including their wives. They view their families as somehow an extension of themselves, and strive to make them fit some romanticized ideal. When they cannot, they feel like failures.

Article (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/266087/the_family_annihilator_fathers_who.html?cat=72)

My completely pedestrian opinion is that for most people who fit this description it is actually somewhere in between these two takes on it...

[craighickman]

Without knowing anything about him, he does seem to fit rather nicely into the "family annihilator" personality type. While economic problems could set people like this off, I believe they already have these sorts of problems. It is entirely possible he did this because of the marital problems with his wife, as perhaps I missed it, but I didn't see anything about him being unemployed.

Some information on family annihilators:




Article (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/266087/the_family_annihilator_fathers_who.html?cat=72)

My completely pedestrian opinion is that for most people who fit this description it is actually somewhere in between these two takes on it...

Wow. There's a label for everything.

[Charlie02123]

After reading the "don't take my guns" article and then this one, the only thing that explodes to mind is that we desperately need better public school systems.