Four people — two adults and two children — and a dog were found dead inside a home in West Bend, Wisconsin, on Saturday, November 7, and another girl who was inside the home was taken to a hospital, where she is in stable condition. West Bend police say they believe the suspect was inside the home with the people who died, and that there is no suspect at large for the community to be concerned about.
Source: TMJ4 News
West Bend 911 Dispatch received a call at around 11:47 a.m. on Saturday reporting multiple dead people inside a home near North and East Washington streets, police said. When officers arrived, they found four people dead inside — an adult woman, an adult man, a boy and a girl — along with a dead dog. Another girl found inside the home was taken to a hospital for medical treatment and is in stable condition, according to TMJ4's reporting of the police account.
Source: TMJ4 News
Police say a firearm believed to be involved in the incident was recovered inside the home. The identities of the people who died have not been released, and police have not released the children's ages. Police said everyone inside the home was connected to each other.
Source: Milwaukee Focal
Police: the person responsible was inside the home
Lt. Brian McAndrews of the West Bend Police Department said everyone found in the home was related to one another, and that investigators believe the person responsible was inside the home with the victims. “We believe the suspect that is involved was inside the home with the individuals found deceased,” McAndrews said. He sought to reassure residents directly: “At this point we do not believe that there is suspect at large that the community needs to be concerned about by any means.” Police have not, however, publicly described the shooting as a murder-suicide, and they have not said which person inside the home they believe fired the shots — that determination is part of the investigation that is still under way.
Source: Milwaukee Focal
A street blocked off for hours, and neighbours in shock
Police kept the home blocked off for hours on Saturday while investigators worked inside. Neighbour Danairis Melendez told TMJ4 she had gone to drop her children off at their basketball game and came back to find everything blocked off. “My heart truly goes out to the family. Those were some great kids. Beautiful kids. The mom too. Super loving. Super kind. The kids came over and played with my kids a lot, so I'm definitely holding their family in my prayers,” Melendez said.
Source: TMJ4 News
What police have not yet said is as important as what they have. As of the latest reports on Saturday night, investigators had not released the names or ages of anyone who died, had not described a motive or a sequence of events, and had not announced when autopsy results or further details would be made public. The department has said only that the investigation is active and ongoing, and it is asking anyone with information about the case to contact the West Bend Police Department at 262-335-5000.
Local coverage of this case has pointed readers to help for anyone experiencing domestic violence: Friends Inc., Washington County's domestic-violence support organisation, can be reached at 262-334-5598. Police have not said what led to the deaths in this home, and no official account has described the circumstances inside it.
Background: a small county-seat city northwest of Milwaukee
West Bend is the county seat of Washington County, about 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee, and home to roughly 32,000 people. It is a small manufacturing and commuter city where a discovery of this scale — four members of one household dead, a child in hospital and a police cordon lasting hours — is the kind of event neighbours say the community does not see. For the Punjabi and South Asian families who live across the Milwaukee suburbs and Washington County, as for every family on that street, the immediate facts are the ones police have given: there is no one being sought, and the danger, in the department's assessment, ended inside that home.
What happens next
The next official steps are the identification of the people who died — normally released after families are notified and the medical examiner's work is complete — and the results of autopsies, which will establish how each person died. Police have not said when those details will be released. The condition of the girl in hospital was last reported as stable. Awaaz Punjab will update this story if West Bend police release the identities, a cause, or a fuller account of what happened inside the home.