Mystery as Four Men Found Shot Dead in Colorado Home

Four men were found shot dead in a suspected murder-suicide in a Colorado home, authorities said.

Deputies went to the 8400 block of Franklin Drive in unincorporated Adams County after receiving a call about a gunshot victim at about 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the Adams County Sheriff's Office said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The house was locked, so deputies forced their way inside, initially finding one man dead from a gunshot wound, Sgt. Adam Sherman told The Denver Post. Deputies found the three other men dead after searching the rest of the house, he said.

An initial investigation found that three of the four men were family members, Sherman said. The person who called 911 was a family member of one of the victims.

"This appears to be a murder-suicide situation with some sort of family dynamic involved, with the main suspect having died by suicide," he told Denver7.

Sherman said deputies are currently interviewing multiple witnesses, including neighbors and family members, as they work to determine what prompted the shooting.

He said deputies are also working on obtaining a search warrant to collect evidence from inside the home.

In another post on X, the sheriff's office said the investigation remains in its early stages and that there is no ongoing threat to the public.

Newsweek has contacted the Adams County Sheriff's Office for further comment via email.

The incident comes days after a mother and her two children were fatally shot by the woman's husband in an apparent murder-suicide in Ohio.

Officers found the bodies of Tyler Young, 28, his wife Skylar Young, 24, their four-month-old son Bandin Young and Skyler Young's nine-year-old daughter Angel Isaac—in a second-floor apartment on East 9th Street in Lorain on Sunday morning, the Lorain Police Department said.

Investigators believe Tyler Young fatally shot his wife and the two children before taking his own life, Lt. Jacob Morris said during a press conference on Monday.

"The shooting is still under investigation, and we have no final ruling, but we are not looking for any other suspects," Morris said.

Murder-suicides are a "shockingly common" form of gun violence in the U.S., with an estimated 10 such incidents each week, according to the nonprofit Violence Policy Center.

Some 600 murder-suicide incidents have taken place so far in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Last year saw the highest number of murder-suicides using firearms on record, with 670, up from 594 in 2021 and 570 the year before.