CHICAGO — Two children are among the five people found dead in what officials are calling a “domestic-related incident” in Buffalo Grove.
Neighbors remain stunned a day after police forced their way into a suburban Chicagoland home Wednesday and found five people dead inside. The names of the deceased have not yet been made public, but Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek confirmed Thursday that two children had died.
“We never expected something like this to happen in this area,” said Syed Ali, who moved to the neighborhood with his family last year.
The deaths stemmed from a “domestic-related incident,” a Buffalo Grove news release said Wednesday. Police had attempted to conduct a well-being check on a woman inside the home and forced their way in when no one answered, it added. There was no threat to the public, the news release said.
On Thursday morning, the street where officers had made the disturbing discovery was mostly quiet, with a few police cars parked near the scene and police tape surrounding the side of the house at 2830 Acacia Terrace.
Ali said the neighborhood had felt peaceful when he moved there last year with his family. It seemed ideal, with kids running around, people jogging and players on the nearby golf course. But now that peace has been shattered, Ali said.
“We never expected something like this to happen in this area,” he said Thursday morning. The mother and two girls who live in the house often walk up and down the block, he recalled. But the family mostly keeps to themselves, he added.
Ali, whose daughter was born in March, said he was shocked by the news. “To hear that kids were involved … it was horrible,” he said. He said he often thought of his daughter growing up, befriending the young children and playing with them.
Three cars were parked Thursday morning outside the home, which has a semicircle driveway and three garage doors. The police tent set up outside the home Wednesday night was gone. The large home has sharply slanted roofs and is made of dark gray bricks.
Police had come to the house before, said another neighbor, who asked not to be named because of safety concerns.
“It’s heart-wrenching. … It’s just devastating,” she said. “You just don’t think that’s gonna happen. Obviously, you never think it’s going to happen around here. But you also don’t know what’s going on in their lives.”
While the family mostly kept to themselves, the home was not always devoid of activity — it has a pool and a swing set in the back and there would often be people out there, she said. One of the kids who lived in the house is a second grader, she said.
That swing set, Ali said, was an upsetting reminder that two children have died.
Buffalo Grove officials have not publicly shared more information about the circumstances that led to the five deaths.
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(Pioneer Press reporter Gavin Good contributed to this report.)
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