Eight members of a rural Utah family, including five children, were found fatally shot inside a home in Enoch City on Wednesday, local authorities said.
Police officers made the discovery while conducting a “welfare check” at the home, in the agricultural city of about 8,000 people in the southwestern part of the state, nearly 400km southwest of Salt Lake City. Local officials did not immediately release any more details about the deceased or the circumstances surrounding the shootings.
“At this time, we do not believe there is a threat to the public or that there are any suspects at large,” city officials said in a statement Wednesday. The investigation is continuing, they said.
Rob Dotson, the city manager, said that authorities did not have any information about a motive, and that it would likely take days or longer before they could reach any conclusions about what had taken place inside the home.
“We don’t know why this happened, and we’re not going to guess,” Dotson said in a video statement released to the news media Wednesday evening.
He said that a welfare check is usually conducted when other neighbours raise concerns, or have not seen fellow residents for an unusual period of time, but would not provide further details on the nature of the call to authorities regarding the family.
“This community is feeling remorse, feeling pain,” Mr Dotson said. “There are friends and neighbors and family members who are hurting because of this incident.”
Neighbours described Enoch City as a tight-knit community where homes rarely go up for sale, ensuring that everyone knows one another and making the killings even more shocking.
In a statement posted to its website Wednesday, the Iron County School District in Cedar City, Utah, said that the five children were all students there. The loss was certain to raise “emotions, concerns, and questions for our entire school district, especially our students,” school officials said.
Aaron Diamond, a resident of Enoch City, said that he knew those killed well, because they attended the same church as him.
“They were just a wonderful, wonderful family,” he said, adding that the father had worked for an insurance company.
“We’re all just shocked and heartbroken,” Diamond said. “The people who live here love their neighbours.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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