Updated: 54 minutes ago Posted: 4 hours ago Alaska state troopers found four children dead in a Fairbanks-area home this week in an apparent murder-suicide, the agency said. Troopers received a report of shots fired at a home in the Skyridge Drive subdivision in the Fairbanks area Tuesday afternoon, the agency wrote in an online report. When troopers arrived, they found four children dead from apparent gunshot wounds, according to the report. They also found three other children in the home who were not injured, troopers said. According to troopers, a 15-year-old boy had shot three of his brothers before he shot and killed himself. Troopers said the teenager was found dead of what they determined was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. All seven children found in the home are siblings, trooper spokesman Tim DeSpain said. The three brothers troopers believe were shot and killed by the 15-year-old boy were 5, 8 and 17, DeSpain said. The children’s parents were not home at the time of the shootings, troopers said. The children’s bodies have been sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office, and troopers wrote that the Office of Children’s Services has been notified of the incident. Clinton Bennett, a spokesman for the Department of Family and Community Services, which houses the office, told The Associated Press by email that the office “will not release any information due to rules and regulations regarding the confidentiality of all involved in specific cases. .” The office also “will not release any information pertaining to a case with an open investigation,” Bennett wrote. DeSpain said the firearm used in the incident was a family gun, but he did not have additional information on how it was accessed or if it was secured. This is all part of the ongoing investigation, he said.
