A man who public records show lives at the location of a quadruple homicide in Dearborn Heights has previously served time in prison for second-degree murder.
The man was sentenced to 15 years in prison on March 5, 1992 after pleading no contest to a charge of second-degree murder, according to Wayne County Circuit Court records.
Police received a call of shots fired at about 1:15 a.m. Wednesday at a home on Dearborn Heights’ south side. When officers arrived, the suspect in the killings told police he shot the members of his family who were inside the home, according to Dearborn Heights Police Capt. Michael Petri. The man made the 911 call himself, Petri says.
Police have not yet named the suspect who is in custody, but said he is the biological father of the two youngest victims.
The victims are two girls ages 4 and 6, a 17-year-old, and a 19-year-old. The suspect’s wife is hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, Petri says.
The suspect is expected to be arraigned within a day, Petri says, and the case remains under investigation.
“In going back and trying to stretch my memory in 30 years of law enforcement, I can’t remember a crime of this magnitude in Dearborn Heights,” Petri says.
Police were tight-lipped about details of the crime at a Wednesday press conference, but the Detroit Free Press reports that the two younger victims were the man’s biological children and the two older victims were his stepchildren.
The 4- and 7-year-old victims were asphyxiated in a car by carbon monoxide before being taken inside and left in their beds, according to the Free Press. The newspaper reported that the man’s stepchildren were shot and killed and found in the home’s basement, and his wife was slashed and shot.
The man’s wife filed for divorce in August, according to the Free Press.
Autopsies on all four victims will be conducted by the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Dearborn Heights Mayor Dan Paletko says the killings are unprecedented in the city.
