A 26-year-old mother of two was killed Thursday morning inside an apartment in northwest Indianapolis, in what investigators believe was a murder-suicide, police and her family said.

Source: The Indianapolis Focal

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers were called to Colonial Square Apartments on Moller Road, in the 4400 block near West 46th Street, at around 8 a.m. on October 22 after a report of a shooting, according to WTHR and FOX59 reporting on the police response. Officers found a man and a woman dead inside. Police said the man had been shot and the woman had suffered trauma to her body, and two guns were recovered at the scene.

The woman was identified by her family as Gyana Martin, 26. Investigators believe the man shot Martin before taking his own life, police said. That account has not been tested in court and the investigation is continuing. Relatives told reporters the man was Martin's former boyfriend and was not the father of her children.

Children ran to a neighbour for help

Martin's two young children were inside the apartment when the violence happened and ran next door for help, family and neighbours said. The children's names and ages have not been released. Her cousin Sharron Banks said the family plans to care for the children. "She was loving. She loved her kids," Banks said.

Family members said Martin was studying to become a nurse and had recently landed a job at IU Health.

Third such case in Indianapolis in recent days

The deaths mark the third murder-suicide in Indianapolis in recent days, following an October 14 north-side shooting and an October 19 incident involving a mother and her 9-year-old son, according to the Focal report. Danyette Smith, vice president of the Indianapolis Public Safety Foundation, said the killing was among nine domestic-violence homicides in the city over the previous week, counting family and intimate-partner violence, and urged people seeking help to keep contacting service providers even if they are first told no space is available.

IMPD spokesperson Tommy Thompson said the presence of children at the scene was especially troubling. Police have not announced any other suspect, and no further details about what led to the shooting were released in the reports reviewed.