Three people were found dead Thursday in the basement of a Springfield house in what Fairfax County police believe was a double murder-suicide.
Fairfax County Deputy Police Chief Eli Cory said during a news briefing that officers received a 911 call around 3:45 p.m. after a housekeeper found the bodies of two men and a woman in the basement of a home in the 8500 block of Wild Spruce Drive.
The police department on Friday identified the three as Meskerem Belachew Solomon, 38, Amanuel Belachew Solomon, 31, and Tiku Berhane Gebreeyesus, 47. The family’s housekeeper found the three.
According to Cory, a nanny and a 2-year-old child were in the home at the time of the shooting. Two other children live there but weren’t home during the shooting. They are safe and accounted for.
The preliminary investigation indicates that Gebreeyesus shot his wife, Meskerem Belachew Solomon, and her brother, Amanuel Belachew Solomon, and then shot himself.
The deputy police chief on Thursday said two people had been shot multiple times and that one was shot once. The police recovered a gun at the scene. The medical examiner will confirm the manner and cause of the deaths through autopsies.
There was also an apparent delay between when the bodies were found and when the call to 911 was made. “We believe there was (a delay) and we’re working to determine what that delay was and why,” Cory said.
Detectives will now try to understand the circumstances that led to the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to call the Major Crimes Bureau at 703-246-7800, option 2.
Featured photo courtesy FCPD/Facebook
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