15-Year-Old Boy Gunned Down 3 Siblings Before Shooting Himself Dead In Alaska Home

A 15-year-old boy gunned down his three siblings before turning the gun on himself in a suspected murder-suicide at a home near Fairbanks, Alaska, authorities said.

The shocking discovery was made on Tuesday, July 26, afternoon, when Alaska State Troopers were responding to a report of shots being fired at a residence in the Skyridge Drive Subdivision in the Fairbanks area.

Responding troopers found four children dead from apparent gunshot wounds, the department said in a statement. They also found three other children in the home who were unharmed, according to the report.

All seven children found are siblings, troopers spokesman Tim DeSpain told Anchorage Daily News. The children's parents were not home at the time the shootings took place.

A preliminary investigation revealed a 15-year-old boy had shot and killed three of his siblings, 5, 8, and 17 years old. The children who were not injured are all under the age of 7, DeSpain said.

The suspect was also found dead with what investigators determined to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, troopers said.

The firearm used in the incident was reportedly a family gun, but DeSpain said he did not have additional information about how it was accessed or whether it was secured.

The motive behind the alleged murder-suicide remains a mystery at this time.

The question of whether the teen had any previous interactions with law enforcement is also part of the ongoing investigation.

The Office of Children’s Services has been notified and the bodies were sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy.

In another incident, a six-year-old boy reportedly accidentally shot and killed his five-year-old sister after finding an unattended gun at their house in Muncie, Indiana on Tuesday, July 26.

A preliminary investigation revealed that the 5-year-old girl was allegedly shot by her 6-year-old male sibling after the boy retrieved the gun from inside a safe in the home while his mother Kimberly Grayson, 27, was taking a nap.

The safe reportedly contained two handguns and the key needed to open it had apparently been left in its keyhole. The boy saw this, opened the safe, retrieved one of the guns, and “accidentally shot his sister while playing with the gun,” according to reports.

Following the incident, the child's mother Kimberly, and her 28-year-old father, Jacob Grayson, were arrested for neglect of a dependent resulting in death, a level 1 felony, and multiple neglect of dependent charges, Level 6 felonies.