SMYRNA, De. - A neighborhood is stunned after a tragic double homicide resulted in the loss of three friends, including the gunman, who turned the gun on himself.
"It's shocking...it's completely shocking," said a neighbor, who also identified herself as the sister-in-law of one of the victims.
Yesterday around 10:15am, police responded to Smyrna Middle School, where the 38 year old victim was planning to pick up her daughter for an appointment. A resource officer attempted to administer first aid, but the victim was later pronounced dead. From there, the 47 year old suspect led police on a high speed chase into Maryland, before shooting himself and crashing his car. He was pronounced dead at a Maryland hospital.
"The school started calling, I didn't even know it was her until the police got here," Amanda Johnson, a neighbor who lives next door to the couple.
Johnson said she saw the 38 year old victim yesterday morning, and almost went with her, but her friend urged her not to. Johnson said she had no idea there was any sort of struggle next door and didn't hear gunshots.
"I didn't hear anything, and that's hurtful. Because if I would have heard something, I would have reacted. I would have tried my best to do something. And that goes for all of us, nobody heard anything. That little girl was in there all day. All day. And I was there by myself we heard nothing," Johnson explained.
One woman who did not want to go on camera said that the 21 year old victim was her sister in law, and the 38 year old was the godmother of her children. Neighbors tell us the pair were a loving couple, and that the 21 year old was an innocent bystander who was friends with the wife.
"I'm sure there were red flags, but they were so private, they would never bring it out here for everyone to judge and hear them - that wasn't them, that wasn't them at all. So the red flags, they could have been there, but we never seen them. All we saw was a loving couple," said Johnson, who added that the couple were living apart recently.
The couple left behind multiple children they told us, and the block is leaning on each other through this tragedy.
"That's heartbreaking, and her family, I'm praying for her family, for her kids, everything. D's family, I'm praying for her family, you know, because she did not deserve this no matter what went on their relationship, she did not deserve it," Johnson said tearfully. "We don't have answers. We're going off what we know and what's been told to us, which is hard, because of their character, you know?" We don't know why, we want answers, I don't think we're going to get what we need. But we'll be alright," said Johnson.
Note: The friends and neighbors did identify the victims to WBOC, but Delaware State Police have not finished notifying family. We will release those names when they become publicly available.