In what Phoenix police have called "a tragic domestic violence incident," the angry grandfather first shot his 20-year-old grandson and the 16-year-old family friend. When his 18-year-old granddaughter confronted him about what he had done, the grandfather shot her three times. Both the granddaughter and the teenaged family friend died from the gunshot wounds.
The grandfather then went inside the house and whacked his daughter with the gun as she attempted to call police to report the shootings.
When the police arrived on the scene, the 20-year-old grandson came out of the house and told them what happened. He warned the policemen that his grandfather was still armed and behaving irrationally.
The grandfather was commanded to surrender his weapon several times. He not only refused, he pointed the gun at an officer. At that point, the police fired upon him and killed him.
The cause for the grandfather's irrational and violent outburst remains a mystery. As one detective put it, "the motive dies with the person."
People seem to be losing it over the trivial matters, resorting to violent acts that are inexplicable in comparison to what provoked them.
