A 29-year-old North Carolina man had taken his own life after gunning down his father and two sisters and setting the home ablaze Wednesday.
The victims were identified as Ronald Ward, 58, and his daughters Katlyn and Emily, ages 18 and 15.
The perpetrator, identified as Ronald “Jimmy” Ward, is believed to have shot his family to death before starting a fire in the kitchen.
The elder Ronald had brought his wife to a hospital shortly before the bloodbath.
“I prayed that Karen would have peace. I mean that’s her whole family. Her whole family was taken,” a relative said.
“We heard what sounded like a couple of gunshots up at the end of the road, so we turned and we were looking and it looked like the roof of the house kind of lifted for a second and a huge plume of smoke shot out the right side of the house,” a neighbor described.
Another neighbor added: “It was pow pow pow, and then pow, pow, pow again.”
No motive for the family massacre has been determined so far. Pastor Kenneth Poarch said that the victims were “a good family” and that the couple had adopted four kids.
