VA - Four people shot to death in murder-suicide, 25 Dec 2005

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GREAT FALLS, Va. - Five people were found dead in apparent murder-suicide shootings Sunday at homes in two well-to-do suburbs of Washington, police said. Officers found the bodies of three men and one woman in a house in Great Falls when they responded to reports of gunfire at about 10:25 a.m., Fairfax County Police said.

Police said they believe one of those found dead at the first house was responsible for all the shootings.

More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051226/ap_on_re_us/five_shot_2
 
Thanksgiving and Christmas. Two holidays that are traditionally celebrated by families together. Yet there is always an increase in family crimes at this time of the year. So sad.
 
A man shot his mother to death in McLean yesterday, then headed for a secluded house in Great Falls, where he killed three more people before taking his own life, law enforcement sources said. The Christmas morning killings appeared to be the deadliest outbreak of violence in Fairfax County in many years.

There was no immediate information on a motive in the killings, police said, although all of those involved appeared to be acquainted with one another. The gunman "did know the people involved," a police spokesman said.

"It is bizarre," Officer Richard Henry said. "It's just a weird thing."

Law enforcement sources attributed the killings to Nathan Cheatham, 27, who, according to property records, had an apartment in the house where his mother, Sheila Cheatham, 53, lived, in the 8500 block of Lewinsville Road.

Those killed at the Great Falls home, which is in the northwest corner of Fairfax near the Loudoun County line, were identified only as two men and a woman. Their relationships to each other and to Nathan Cheatham could not be learned last night.

After his mother's shooting, Nathan Cheatham apparently drove to the 10700 block of Sycamore Springs Lane, possibly arriving in a pickup, according to law enforcement sources.

The shootings inside the Great Falls house, which apparently was being rented, occurred about 10:25 a.m., a police spokesman said. Along with the three people, a Labrador retriever was slain, police said. Another Lab in the house was not injured, police said.

Police were called. After they arrived, one man, identified only as being 20 years old, ran from the house, police said. He apparently was unharmed. Police said he is not a suspect.

While officers were outside barricading the house, Cheatham apparently shot himself to death inside, a law enforcement source said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/25/AR2005122500771.html?nav=rss_metro
 
DEVELOPING STORY: Christmas Day Shootings

Investigators say 27-year-old Nathan Cheatham killed his mother, Sheila, at her McLean home around 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning. He then drove to a home in Great Falls where he opened fire inside.

Twenty-year-old Christopher Buro, 50-year-old Janina Price and her son, 19-year-old Adam Price all died of multiple gunshot wounds.


More: http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=45408
 
5663208_240X180.jpg



Nathan Cheatham, Suspect Believed To Be Among Dead

More: http://www.nbc4.com/news/5655270/detail.html
 
I am sure there is more to this murder mystery. But right now I am focusing on the perps rights. Or lack of rights.Why do you think it is OK to slaughter people? Do these people represent something in your life that is lacking? Or do you think that no ones life is an importent as yours? I am tired of hearing their excuses. I am tired of mental illness excuses and why you are so aberrant.Can we just say evil?
 
Lone Survivor May Have Been Gunman's Target

Police: Cheatham Killed 4 People, Then Himself

GREAT FALLS, Va. -- Police are looking into the theory that the lone survivor may have been the original target of a man who investigators said shot and killed four people before turning the gun on himself Christmas Day, News4's Jackie Bensen reported.

<snip>

Colin Brady, who knew all of the people involved, said he couldn't believe the incident that unfolded on Christmas Day.


"I mean, they're both good families," Brady said. "Lots of people here knew them. It's affecting everyone. It's like a tidal wave around here."

<snip>

Cheatham was known as an animal lover, but yet police said he fired three 9 mm bullets into Max, a black Labrador retriever who was one of the Price family's dogs. The dog is expected to survive.

PHOTO OF MAX: :(

5674557_240X180.jpg


More: http://www.nbc4.com/news/5674478/detail.html
 
On the night before she died, Sheila Cheatham was desperately worried about her son Nathan, saying he hadn't slept in 48 hours and was suicidal because he believed he was in trouble with the law.

Billy R. Hicks, a Springfield criminal lawyer who represented Nathan Cheatham in a 2002 drug case, said yesterday that Sheila Cheatham called him Christmas Eve for advice on how to help Nathan, 27, who had vowed to kill himself rather than allow police to arrest him.

"She was frightened for him," Hicks said. "She said he was suicidal and extremely paranoid because of something that occurred two or three days earlier." Hicks said he recommended that she seek to have her son committed for psychiatric treatment.

On Christmas morning, Cheatham killed his mother at the McLean home he shared with her, then drove to a house on Sycamore Springs Lane in Great Falls and killed three acquaintances before fatally shooting himself in the head with a 9mm handgun, authorities said.

Cheatham's fear of an imminent arrest was unfounded, law enforcement sources said yesterday. There is no record that Cheatham had had trouble with police in the weeks before the killings. Investigators have not determined a motive in the slayings, the sources said, but they are focused on two theories: that Cheatham, who had a history of mental health issues, had a psychotic episode, or that drugs were involved.

Court records and the sources indicated that Cheatham and the shooting victims had a history with drugs -- some with cocaine and others with prescription painkillers -- and might have known one another through a drug connection.

Law enforcement sources also revealed yesterday that the Prices made efforts to keep Cheatham away from their home Sunday morning. When Cheatham phoned the Great Falls house, the Prices saw his number on the caller ID and decided not to answer. At some point, investigators said, Janina Price called Cheatham back and told him that it was a day for family and that a visit would not be welcome. The slayings occurred a short time later.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/27/AR2005122701215.html
 
The mom's hinkey meter was off. She knew something was wrong but she didn't know she was about to be a victim. How sad! Fine tune those hinkey meters folks.
 
Mom was probably debating about having him committed, and/or trying to wait til after Christmas :banghead:
 
mysteriew said:
Mom was probably debating about having him committed, and/or trying to wait til after Christmas :banghead:

Myst, this is always the thing. Keeping a holiday spirit when things are so wrong. I am glad I had a quiet Christmas....I have heard stories of others that are just heartbreaking. I have learned enough that if I see any aberrant behavior I will report it. I won't second guess anymore...I just report it.
 
To the many young people who came through the Price household in Great Falls, the home on Woodleaf Lane was a haven of a loving, if strange, sort.

Janina C. Price threw open her doors to any friends of her two sons who needed a place to stay, friends said. She'd happily bring pillows and blankets and set up a makeshift bed on the living room couch or in an extra room for a few days, or weeks, or months. She'd drive them to school in the morning, add a few portions to whatever she was cooking, lend them a few bucks for groceries, as long as they'd pick up milk, dog food and cigarettes for her.

And someone was always up at the Price home, they said, awake to watch zombie movies, play video games or lend an ear. The Prices -- Janina and her sons, Adam and Alex -- often had trouble sleeping after Andrew Price, husband and father, died about four years ago. His long struggle with cancer had been devastating for the family. Janina wasn't working and the boys attended school sporadically, friends said. The Prices liked having life in their home.

"She loved it when the house was full," said Aliya Quinlan, 19, a college freshman from Herndon who began spending time at the Prices' in 2003. "And we got something out of it because there was this mother figure who was so wonderful. They were lively people in their own home. And their warmth and kindness to everyone was very uplifting."

Weeks after the Prices' new home on Sycamore Springs Lane became one of the worst crime scenes in Fairfax County history, the young people who had once lived with the family are still trying to make sense of a paradox: One of their own pulled the trigger.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/15/AR2006011501111.html
 

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