An Oklahoma woman allegedly shot her three young children to death before turning the gun on herself this week following an hours-long standoff, the Tulsa World reports.
Around 4 p.m. Thursday, a police officer in Verdigris, Oklahoma, saw someone shooting a Roman candle through a broken window in a garage. The officer stopped and encountered a woman who said she was trapped in the garage with multiple children and had used the firework in a bid to attract attention and get help.
The woman said she had come to the home to bring a child over for supervised visitation when the child’s mother pointed a gun at her, took the infant, and then locked the woman and other kids accompanying her in the garage, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
Responding officers were able to help the woman and two kids out of the garage, but the armed mother remained in the home, prompting a stand-off with police and a SWAT team for about three hours.
When police failed to get a response from the mother, they entered the residence and found “an adult woman along with three children dead inside, all with apparent gunshot wounds,” Verdigris Police Chief Jack Shackelford said, according to Fox 25.
The deceased were identified as 39-year-old Brandy McCaslin, her 11-year-old daughter Noe, 6-year-old son Bryce and 10-month-old son Billy.
“It was determined that McCaslin shot all three kids and then turned the weapon on herself,” the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
People who live in the area described the neighborhood as a generally quiet place to live with many older residents.
Billy’s father has alleged on social media that McCaslin earlier this year had tried to commit suicide and sought to change the boy’s name because she was “mad at me because I wasn’t coming back to her,” the Daily Mail reports. Authorities have not publicly confirmed the father’s allegations.
Community members have set up a makeshift memorial in front of the home to remember the three children, according to KJRH-TV. A fundraiser is also seeking donations to help pay for the funeral costs of the 10-month-old.
Lucretia Pitre, a longtime friend of the family, said McCaslin had posted a photo to Facebook of herself and the 10-month-old just days before the murder-suicide stating that “she was so happy,” Pitre told the Tulsa World.
However, Pitre said the photo suggested otherwise.
“I could tell by her face that she was struggling with something. I mean she just looked sad,” Pitre told the newspaper.
In recent years, McCaslin’s sister, mother, uncle and grandparents had died from cancer, a drug overdose and suicide. The loss took a toll on the family.
“This is heartbreaking. This family’s seen a lot, you know. Mental health has I feel like just really, really, really affected this family when it comes to that and substance abuse,” Pitre told the Tulsa World.
“I’m just at a loss for words. My heart’s just like — I don’t know. I’m just numb right now.”
She added: “I just can’t believe she took the kids. I don’t know. I just don’t understand it.”
Verdigris is about 20 miles northeast of Tulsa.
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[Feature Photo: Brandy McCaslin and children/Facebook]
