Brother Kills Teen Sibling In Apparent Murder-Suicide: Police

A Maryland man apparently fatally shot his 15-year-old brother before killing himself in a domestic murder-suicide, according to investigators.

Howard County police, who operate southwest of Baltimore, were alerted to a shooting at the 5200 block of Five Fingers Way in Columbia at about 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

Officers were told there were two male victims at the scene and that they had both sustained gunshot wounds.

A Howard County Police Department (HCPD) statement seen by Newsweek said: "Through preliminary investigation, police believe that Michael Bassler, 25, shot and killed his brother Stephen Bassler, 15, and then shot and killed himself. Both lived at the residence."

The statement continued: "There are no indications that anyone else was involved in the incident and the motive is unknown at this time."

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a database that collects information about shootings from across the country, there were two murder-suicide cases in Maryland between May 1 and May 30 this year, including the incident in Columbia.

The same database found that five children aged between 12 and 17 have been fatally shot in Maryland since May 1. It also found that there have been 292 murder-suicide incidents across the country since January 1.

The Gun Violence Archive reported that 636 children aged between 12 and 17 have been fatally shot in the U.S. since the start of this year.

Suicide by firearm is the leading cause of firearm death in the U.S., figure for which exceed the number of homicides in the country.

This year alone there have been 9,966 suicides where firearms were used compared with 7,643 homicide or unintentional shootings.

The number of murder-suicides where a firearm was used reached a record high in 2022 when there were 670, up from 594 in 2021 and 570 the year before.

James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, previously told Newsweek that shootings involving family rarely get the same level of attention as mass killings, despite being more common.

He said: "Because people don't see that as impacting them. That's not going to happen to their family."

He said shootings that stemmed from domestic disputes "happen, unfortunately, with great frequency so they're not going to get covered that much because they're, unfortunately, not that unusual."

Newsweek has contacted the HCPD for comment via its Facebook page.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "988" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.