OAK FOREST, Illinois — Police in suburban Chicago responding to a domestic incident Friday morning found three fatally wounded shooting victims outside a home and then the body of another person believed to have shot them inside the home shortly after time after.
In a news release, the Oak Forest Police Department said officers arrived at the home after reports of shots were fired and set up a perimeter outside. After a child emerged from inside the home, officers saw “smoke billowing from the home and flames appearing in the front window.”
After firefighters extinguished the blaze, police found the body of a fourth person who police say shot the others, who were pronounced dead after being taken to area hospitals.
No information was released about the victims or the person believed to have killed them, and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said next of kin had not been notified and autopsies would likely take place Saturday. Police have not said if the person found inside the house had been shot like the others.
During what police described as a “fluid situation” with the person inside the house on fire, the department issued a community alert for area residents and schools to shelter in place. That alert was later rescinded.
Oak Forest is about 25 miles south of Chicago