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Connecticut man kills girlfriend, daughters in murder-suicide
Man from Connecticut ended the lives of his girlfriend and two young daughters in a murder-suicide
A man from Connecticut ended the lives of his girlfriend and two young daughters in a murder-suicide.
Patrick King ended the lives of his girlfriend Felisha Matthews and her two young daughters before shooting himself at his residence during a SWAT team standoff in Plainville, Connecticut, stated Plainville Police Chief Christopher Vanghele in a press briefing.
Plainville police were notified of the incident around 3:53pm local time on Friday (March 27), when a woman called 911.
She informed dispatch that her brother “claimed he had shot and killed his girlfriend and his four-year-old daughter and intended to kill himself,” Vanghele explained.
Officers arrived at King’s home, established a perimeter, and attempted to make contact with him without success. A SWAT unit was summoned, and a negotiator was able to talk to King, 27, by phone.
After attempts by the SWAT negotiator to convince King to surrender peacefully failed, “it was decided to release pepper gas inside the home” to force his surrender, informed Vanghele. Following the gas deployment, King took his own life with a gun.
Emergency responders tried to save King's life and transported him to a hospital, where he was declared deceased shortly after, according to the Plainville police chief.
In the house, police located three deceased individuals with gunshot wounds. Vanghele identified the victims as Felisha, 31, along with her daughters Ava King, 4, and Molina Matthews, 12.
Vanghele noted that King was “fairly new to this area.” The family had moved to the house in January, and there had been no prior police visits to the address, he revealed during the briefing on Saturday.
The Plainville police chief informed reporters that the firearm King used in the killings “seems” to have been legally registered to him, and he held a permit to carry firearms. Officers also discovered several other guns at the location, he added.
Based on their social media posts, King and Felisha were together for more than seven years.
