(BBC) Five people have been found dead in what appears to be a murder-suicide at a home in a city near Toronto, Canada.
Police received numerous reports of gunshots coming from the home in Oshawa, and heard more gunshots when they arrived on the scene at about 01:20 EST (05:20 BST).
When they entered the house, they found five people dead, including the suspect and two minors.
One woman, aged 50, was found alive but injured with a gunshot wound.
She was taken to hospital and is being treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Police found a “chaotic scene” inside, Constable George Tudos told the BBC. “You can just imagine,” he added.
In a press release, police said that those who died were known to each other and that they believe the suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot.
Police are avoiding using the term murder-suicide at this stage, Mr Tudos said, because homicide detectives have yet to declare it a murder.
No other suspects are sought at this time.
“We’re not saying too much because we’re still at the early stages of the investigation,” Mr Tudos said.
Neighbours told local media a family of two adults and four children lived there.
Carol Gibson, who lives down the street, described the family as “very caring”.
“They were a family that cared for each other quite a bit,” she told the CBC. “If they weren’t playing baseball, hockey or shooting hoops on the driveway, they were out raking leaves and they did it as a family. A very caring family.”
Gun violence has been a growing concern in Canada, especially after a number of high-profile shootings – in 2017, at a mosque in Quebec, in 2018 on a commercial street in Toronto and most recently, in a rampage across the province of Nova Scotia that became the deadliest shooting in Canada’s history.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced a long-promised ban on assault-style weapons in May, a few weeks after the Nova Scotia massacre, where 22 people were killed, plus the gunman.
Police have not said what kind of weapon the suspect in Oshawa had.
