MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) — Six people, including five young children, were shot to death early Tuesday at a home in Muskogee, and a 25-year-old man suspected in the killings was taken into custody, police said.
Officers responded about 1:30 a.m. to a call of multiple people shot at a home, Muskogee Police Department Officer Lynn Hamlin said.
Authorities found one man and four children dead at the scene, and a fifth child died at a Tulsa hospital, Hamlin said. Officers also encountered Jarron Deajon Pridgeon with a gun and took him into custody.
A woman who was shot and wounded was in stable condition Tuesday afternoon, Hamlin said.
Authorities have not released the victims’ names.
Hamlin described the slain youths as “small children” but said police do not yet have their exact ages. She said authorities don’t know a motive but do not believe any other suspects are involved.
Hamlin said the suspect and victims all lived in the home, but that the exact nature of their relationships had not been determined.
“It was not random obviously because they all did live in this home together, but as far as what all those relationships look like, we just don’t know that yet,” Hamlin said.
She said Pridgeon was not cooperating with investigators.
Jail records do not list an attorney who could speak on Pridgeon’s behalf.
In a statement, Muskogee Mayor Marlon Coleman said, "Many of us went to bed resting in anticipation of tomorrow's hopes, only to have awakened to know that five babies with unlimited potential are no longer with us; their lives taken prematurely, their families grappling with a new horror, and our community paralyzed with grief."
In a separate statement, Muskogee Public Schools said two of the slain children were students at Creek Elementary School.
"Our Crisis Team is working with Green Country Behavioral Health to provide grief counseling which will continue throughout the remainder of this week. We encourage any of those students or staff members directly impacted by this incident to seek these services," the statement reads.
