Kenyan woman, daughters shot dead by husband in the US

A Kenyan woman and her two children have been killed by her husband in Louisville, Kentucky, United States in what police suspect to be murder-suicide.

Several media reports indicated that Gary Stanton, 60, shot to death his wife Mary Njoki Muchemi Stanton, 49, and daughters Andrianna Stanton, 17 and Brianna Stanton, 11 inside their house in the Valley Station neighborhood.

Initial reports from Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) show that it appeared Mr Stanton was the aggressor, shooting his wife and daughters dead, before turning the gun on himself.

According to the Jefferson County Coroner's Office, Mary and Andrianna were shot multiple times and Brianna was shot once. Mary was shot six days after the family celebrated her birthday.

Also Read: Kenyan boy killed by mother, stepfather

Mr Stanton died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the coroner added.

"We feel pretty confident that the incident is going to be a murder-suicide situation where the adult male was the primary aggressor who shot the three females," LMPD Maj. Micah Scheu said on Saturday.

He added: “Any time lives are lost, anytime there's juveniles involved obviously it's very difficult. Many of our officers are fathers and mothers as well. It's difficult to see anything like this."

According to Whas11, an affiliate of ABC, the Stantons was ‘a normal traditional family within the neighborhood.’

Life Church Louisville Lead pastor Patrick Bissig told Whas11 that his church had interacted with the family multiple times before, but they were never close.

"We saw them on holidays: Christmas, New Year's, Easter. From the outside looking in, it looked like your traditional happy family," he added.