Man Guns Down Ex-Girlfriend, Her Mother, Her Brother and Himself: Police

A man is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and several of her family members in what appeared to be a murder-suicide, according to local law enforcement officials.

According to the Charles County Sheriff's Office, shortly before 4 p.m. on Friday, officers arrived at a home at La Plata, Maryland, responding to a report of a shooting when they found five people dead inside.

"Officers entered and located two women and three men with trauma to their bodies," the sheriff's office said in a press release on its website.

The office said that a preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect, 28-year-old Andre Sales, turned a gun on himself after killing the victims. The victims include his ex-girlfriend, 21-year-old Sara Mann, her brother, 18-year-old Kai Mann, her mother, 48-year-old Sommaly Mann, and another individual, 23-year-old Javon Watson.

The sheriff's office added that they recovered the murder weapon from the scene.

"There were two young children who were initially unaccounted for, but they were located a short time later safe and unharmed at a different location. Investigators and forensic personnel are still processing evidence and interviewing family and friends to establish a motive," the sheriff's office wrote.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore is performing autopsies to determine the causes of death in the fatal incident.

Newsweek has reached out to the Charles County Sheriff's Office for comment.

Other Incidents of Murder-Suicide

In a separate incident in Volusia County, Florida, in October, law enforcement officials said that they found a man and woman dead in what appeared to be a murder-suicide.

"The information gathered at this early stage of the investigation suggests the man stabbed the woman and then himself," the sheriff's office said in a statement. "She was pronounced deceased on the scene while the male subject was pronounced deceased at the hospital about an hour later. Three children at the house were not injured."

In August, police in Oklahoma City said a man and his three young children were killed in what they believed was a murder-suicide.

Local news station KOCO reported that a jogger found four dead bodies, including a man and his three children, who were all under the age of seven, in a car. The deceased family was found half a mile from their home.

"Dad had left the house with his three small children, made threatening statements, so we were in the area for several hours looking for him and the children," Oklahoma City Police Captain Michelle Henderson told news station KWTV. "This is a tragic situation."