By: Ashley Remkus

WETUMPKA, AL – An Alabama man fatally shot his wife and one of their four children before setting their home on fire and taking his own life Saturday night, authorities said

Elmore County sheriff’s deputies and local fire fighters were called to the couple’s home around 5 p.m. The scene is on Granite Way in the Stonegate subdivision in the Redland community. Redland is about 20 miles northeast of Montgomery.

Two of the couple’s 12-year-old children also were injured by gunfire, said Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin. The injured children were taken to a Montgomery hospital in serious condition. They were undergoing surgery.

The sheriff said the man and woman were amid a divorce.

The woman went to the house to pick up their children — a 13-year-old and 12-year-old triplets, all girls. The woman was stopped at the door by the husband, who fatally shot her in the head, Franklin said. Their 13-year-old child escaped to safety at a neighbor’s house.

“The triplets were shot at close range by the dad multiple times as he was also pouring a flammable liquid, which we believe to be gasoline, all through house,” Franklin said. Two of the triplets got away, despite being shot, but one didn’t survive.

“I just can’t imagine what’s going through a man’s mind to line up three children and shoot them,” the sheriff said. “I just hope those children can get beyond this trauma. You don’t hear about these situations every day.”

The father, a retired military veteran, was found dead from what’s believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Franklin said. The mother was a teacher in the local community.

“We’re still in the infant stages of the investigation,” the sheriff said.

Further details weren’t immediately available.

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