A normally quiet suburban street east of Toronto erupted in chaos Friday, when an early morning shooting left five family members dead and sent a woman to hospital with serious injuries, police said.
Police tape surrounded the brick bungalow by the time the sun rose over a quiet, misty morning in Oshawa, Ont. — a far cry from the scene Durham officers arrived to shortly after 1:20 a.m.
"It was a quite a chaotic scene. Even for the residents in the area, a lot of callers (were) calling in stating that they were hearing a lot of gunshots, a lot of screaming coming from this residence," Const. George Tudos told reporters.
Tudos said the suspected shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and officers aren't looking for any other suspects.
Two of the deceased, he said, were under the age of 18. Four were male and one was female, he said.
The surviving victim, who's now recovering in hospital, is a 50-year-old woman.
Tudos said responding officers also heard gunshots and a "commotion" when they got to the home, but did not immediately go inside.
"It wasn't until our tactical support team attended that they were able to safely enter the residence, and that's when they made that grisly discovery of five deceased parties," he said. "It has shaken up a lot of the officers."
Police were seen towing away a pickup truck with Manitoba licence plates, which some neighbours said they hadn't seen parked at the house before.
Tudos said the vehicle had been parked the wrong way in front of the home, and is considered part of the crime scene.
"We are going to be examining that vehicle and trying to ... see whether or not it's the suspect's vehicle," he said. "Was it driven by the suspect? Who owns the vehicle? There's a lot of investigative steps that we still have to take."
Carol Gibson, who lives down the street from the crime scene, said she was startled awake by the incident.
"The first shot woke me up, and then I heard about four or five more after that," Gibson said in an interview. "Then a woman screamed and there were two shots after that."
Gibson said she had known the family in the house for around 20 years.
"They were a family that cared for each other quite a bit," said Gibson. "If they weren't playing baseball, hockey or shooting hoops on the driveway, they were out raking leaves and they did it as a family. A very caring family."
