Phoenix - Five adults were found inside an Arizona home after a shooting in a suspected dispute about the family's business, local media reported.
ABC television news affiliate KNXV said the victims were three brothers, their mother and a wife of one of the men, though their names and ages were not immediately released.
Police found a gun next to one of the men, who appeared to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Two other women and two children escaped the home without harm, according to police, which said one of the women hid in the bathroom during the shooting.
The family had a limousine business, and witnesses told KNXV-TV that the fight may have concerned the company.
“Our dispatcher could hear shots fired in the background while that call was coming in,” police spokesman Sergeant Trent Crump was cited as saying.
“A caller had been able to escape the home at that point, get out and start to give us information.”
During an hours-long standoff before the bodies were found, police used a megaphone to try to speak with the relatives, who have Moroccan origins. Officers spoke Arabic to try to communicate with the family, according to local media.
An armoured SWAT truck was parked outside the home, accompanied by several tactical teams that surrounded the home.
“It happened two doors down from us and it just blows your mind,” neighbour Scott Pollack told KNXV-TV.
“You just wonder what it takes in a person's mind to escalate a situation to the point where they will take people's lives.”
AFP