A man shot and killed his family of seven, including five children, then turned the gun on himself after his wife filed for divorce, US officials said Thursday. Police in the small Utah settlement of Enoch City found eight bodies — one of them that of a four-year-old — after being called by friends and relatives who were concerned for the family.
A spokesman said officers had discovered three adults and five children at a single-family home on Wednesday, all dead from what appeared to be gunshot wounds. “Evidence suggests that the suspect took his own life after killing seven others in the home,” a statement from the city said, naming him as 42-year-old Michael Haight.
The dead were his wife, her mother, and the couple’s five children — three girls and two boys aged between four and 17. Enoch Mayor Geoffrey Chesnut said the shooting came after an apparent marital breakdown. “It appears, according to court documents, that (a divorce petition) was filed on the 21st of December and it was filed by the wife,” he told reporters. Chesnut said Enoch was a small, close-knit community where people knew each other.—INP
