Three people trying to flee from a house in suburban Chicago were shot to death early Friday in an incident that ended up with the house on fire and the suspected shooter dead.
According to WLS-TV, the gunfire broke out at 6:30 a.m.
The outlet said it examined doorbell footage from a neighbor, which appeared to show three people shot outside the home and one getting away.
After the shooting, the suspect, identified by WBBM-TV as Carlos Gomez, barricaded himself inside the house. The house was later set ablaze, with Gomez suspected of starting the fire.
Police said two gunshot victims were in the driveway and one in the road when they arrived on the scene. The victims were taken to a hospital but died of their wounds.
A neighbor whose name was not used told WGN-TV that a girl who lived in the home that was set ablaze banged on her door and told her she needed to call 911 because her mother and two older siblings had been shot.
She named her father as the shooter. WLS reported that one minor was taken from the scene before the fire broke out.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victims as Briana Rodriguez, 22; Emilio Rodriguez, 20; and Lupe Gomez, 43.
According to WBBM, the address was the site of a 2016 incident in which Gomez was charged with domestic battery and criminal damage to property.
The outlet reported that an order of protection granted to his wife was later vacated. The charges against him were dropped and his guns were returned to him.
Brad Weert told the Chicago Sun-Times he often saw the family in the neighborhood.
He said he heard “three pops” on Friday morning and ran outside to see “flames going as many as 10 feet above the roofline.”
One neighbor told WLS that the family had been acting strangely in recent weeks and that he had heard arguing from the house.
