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Grapevine Police Work To Find Motive For Christmas Shooting

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Grapevine Police expect to conduct more interviews today with relatives and neighbors of the seven people found shot to death Christmas morning in an apparent murder-suicide. KERA’s BJ Austin reports.

Lt. Todd Dearing with Grapevine Police says a 9-1-1 call was placed from the Lincoln Vineyards apartments Christmas morning, but no one spoke.  Officers arrived to find seven people dead inside: four women and three men.

Dearing:  We’ve never had a situation where we’ve had this many deceased persons in the same location like this.

Lt. Dearing says this is the deadliest case in the city’s history.  He says all of the victims are related by blood or marriage.  And he says detectives feel strongly that the shooter was the one dressed as Santa.

Dearing:  The person that we believe to be the suspected shooter was in a Santa suit.

Two handguns were found at the scene.

Dearing: Both handguns were found.  And both of them had been fired.

Lt. Dearing says investigators are hoping relatives of the victims are able to give them enough information about family dynamics and relationships to allow detectives to piece together what may have led to the shooting.

Dearing:  Are we going to know everything and all the specific details?  Probably not, but at least we can get some kind of idea as to why this tragedy occurred. 

Former KERA reporter BJ Austin spent more than 25 years in broadcast journalism, anchoring and reporting in Atlanta, New York, New Orleans and Dallas. Along the way, she covered Atlanta City Hall, the Georgia Legislature and the corruption trials of Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards.