A Michigan father allegedly shot dead his wife and six-year-old daughter before turning the gun on himself as the couple’s three other children fled from their family home.
Henry Bates, 39, his wife Brianna, 31, and their daughter, Zenzia – who was nicknamed “Boo” – were found dead from apparent gunshot wounds in their family’s apartment late Tuesday in Portage, located about 60 miles south of Grand Rapids.
“Sad day. Sad, sad day,” said Portage Department of Public Safety Director Nicholas Armold after spending nearly 12 hours at the crime scene trying to parse together what had motivated the brutal shooting spree. “Horrible night. Horrible week.”
Portage police responded to a call from neighbours in the residential area about reported gunshots and a barricaded gunman at approximately 9.20pm.
The responding officers eventually called in assistance from the nearby Kalamazoo Metro SWAT team to assist in what they thought would be a negotiation with an armed gunman. For two hours, negotiators attempted to make contact with the family members inside, but it remained “totally silent” from the moment they arrived until they left the next morning.
“We were trying to see if we could get in there and rescue whoever was in there,” Mr Armold said, according to Wood TV. “But unfortunately we were too late for that.”
Upon entering the small apartment, the negotiators found the father, Ms Bates and their six-year-old daughter dead.
“We were able to glean some information by use of the drone and the robot, and we made entry and unfortunately found all three deceased," said Mr Armold shortly after processing the scene, according to local Fox News 17.
The couple were married and had three other children together, aged three, 11 and 13 years old. Though the family of six all lived in the Portage apartment together, authorities said that the other three were sent fleeing from their home when the shooting began.
The three other children, who have now been placed in the care of a relative, were not injured, according to authorities.
In a GoFundMe organised by a relative of the dead mother and daughter, they describe a woman who was “full of life” who genuinely loved “the mom life” and was working full-time while she studied online, working hard “to make sure her kids needed for nothing.”
“She lived and breathed for her children,” the organiser of the online fundraiser wrote, while describing the mother’s “spunky little 6yr old” as having a similar zeal for life.
“Zenzia loved life, just started 1st grade and was so excited for school,” the organiser wrote, before noting that the family would need all the assistance they could get to cover the funeral expenses and ongoing childcare.
“The children are doing as best they can after witnessing and narrowly escaping these unforgivable and monstrous actions that undoubtedly was intended for the whole family,” the fundraiser read.
In a statement provided to Fox News 17, the sister of the deceased father and husband described how her brother suffered from mental health throughout his life and asked that he not be covered as a “monster” for the atrocities he allegedly committed against his young family.
“Lauren Henry, who we affectionately refer to him in the family, suffered from documented mental illness. He was not a monster,” said the sister. “He truly loved his family and children, but he was battling mental illness since childhood."
The mother of Mr Bates’ dead wife, however, did not take that same view, labelling her son-in-law a “monster” for what he had done to break up her daughter’s and grandchildren’s family.
“He was just a monster that had mental health issues, because there’s plenty of functional people that don’t do what he does,” said Ms Bates’ mother in an interview with Fox News 17. “And now her kids, her other three kids, are gonna grow up without a mom that loved them.”
According to Kalamazoo County court records, Mr Bates had a series of run-ins with the law over the past few years, which included getting arrested in both January and February of this year for allegedly attacking his wife.
In the first instance of alleged domestic abuse, Ms Bates claimed that her husband had thrown a phone at her and subsequently punched her in both the face and the shoulder, Wood TV reported. And then the following month, she accused her husband of repeatedly punching her in the face.
Though both bases of domestic violence were dropped, police said Mr Bates, who was out on bond at the time of the alleged murder-suicide, had violated the conditions of it by drinking.
Earlier, the husband and father of four had pleaded no contest to aggravated assault in 2006 and spent time in prison for a felony assault with a weapon case in 2010, according to Fox News 17.
Court records also indicate that the couple were living separately as recently as 2016, when the wife and mother of four was granted sole custody of the children they’d had up until that point.
Autopsies for all the deceased are pending at the Kalamazoo County Medical Examiner’s Office, authorities confirmed.
The Portage police are asking anyone with information to reach out or contact Silent Observer, a nationwide crime-fighting tool that allows anyone to report information about a crime from anywhere in the country.
If you are experiencing feelings of distress and isolation, or are struggling to cope, The Samaritans offers support; you can speak to someone for free over the phone, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The Helpline is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.
