WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 42-year-old Utah man whose wife had filed for divorce just before Christmas shot dead seven members of his family including his five children ranging in age from 4 to 17 and then turned the gun on himself, officials said on Thursday.
The massacre on Wednesday has stunned the close-knit community of Enoch City in southwestern Utah, where both the mayor and the city manager said they knew the Haight family as neighbors.
After reporting the shooting with scant details, city officials called a news conference on Thursday and identified the shooter as Michael Haight, the father of the five children he killed.
Haight also shot dead his wife, Tausha Haight, 40, and her mother, Gail Earl, 78.
The children killed were a 4-year-old boy, a 7-year-old boy, a 7-year-old girl, a 12-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl, officials said without naming them.
The rural town of about 7,500 is home to a high number of young professionals with children, Chesnut said.
Police were sent to the home for a welfare check after Tausha Haight had missed an appointment in town and efforts to reach her had failed, Chesnut said.
Tausha Haight and one of her daughters had been seen at a church event on Tuesday night, Chesnut said.
Officials declined to draw conclusions about the impact of the divorce petition that they said had been filed on Dec 21.
Police Chief Jackson Ames said officers were once called to the couple’s home a couple of years ago for an incident that he declined to describe, but that there had been no recent complaints.