Officers within the small city of Enoch, 394km south of Salt Lake Metropolis, say the victims are members of the identical household.
Eight members of the family, 5 of them youngsters, had been discovered lifeless from gunshot wounds at a house within the US state of Utah, in accordance with authorities who didn’t present extra particulars or a possible motive for the killings.
The victims had been discovered Wednesday when police did a welfare test on the residence, in accordance with an announcement by metropolis officers in Enoch, a small city of about 8,000 individuals situated 394km (245 miles) south of Salt Lake Metropolis.
Police mentioned they didn’t detect any menace to the general public.
Enoch Metropolis Supervisor Rob Dotson mentioned the neighborhood was despatched reeling by information of the eight our bodies and that the deceased – all members of 1 household – had been well-known within the southern Utah city.
“Many people have served with them in church, locally and gone to highschool with these people,” Dotson mentioned in a video assertion Wednesday night time.
“This neighborhood presently is hurting. They’re feeling loss, they’re feeling ache and so they have a variety of questions,” Dotson added, noting that officers deliberate on releasing extra info because it turns into accessible and the police investigation progresses.
“We gained’t know the mindsets, the ideas of the people who skilled this tragedy, however all of us can pray that their households and the neighbours and all will come to an understanding of what occurred on this place, in all probability in a day or two, or perhaps longer,” mentioned Dotson, choking up at one level.
Welfare checks primarily based on calls to the police division, such because the one which led them to the residence the place the our bodies had been discovered, are routine when people will not be seen for prolonged durations of time, Dotson mentioned.
The 5 youngsters attended colleges within the Iron County Faculty District, officers mentioned in a letter despatched to oldsters.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox supplied condolences in a tweet on Wednesday night time.
