Boyfriend kills Missouri mom, 6 year old daughter, wounds two other children

Joseph Jones shoots dead Bernadetta Cooper, Jennings resident along with 6 year old daughter, Doryan Bryant. Wounds mother’s two other children.

A Missouri man alleged to have shot and killed a single mother along with the woman’s 6-year-old daughter at a Jennings residence on Saturday, as well as wounding the woman’s two other children according to reports.

Joseph Jones, 40, described as the mother’s live in boyfriend was charged with two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Bernadetta Cooper, 40, and Doryan Bryant, 6, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Jones was also charged with two counts of first-degree assault, four counts of armed criminal action, and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm.

Cooper’s other two daughters were wounded in the shooting: A 10-year-old suffered a graze wound, and a 16-year-old was shot in the shoulder. Both are expected to recover.

St Louis County police upon arriving at the crime scene in Jennings, Saturday afternoon, discovered Cooper dead. The woman’s youngest daughter was found with multiple gunshot wounds. She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Domestic violence cited

The 10-year-old placed the 911 call reporting the shooting, police spokesman Benjamin Granda said. When police arrived, he said, ‘they heard screaming, and went toward the screaming.’

Police said they recovered two firearms at the scene, a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol and a .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol. They believe both were used in the shooting.

The man who lived at the woman’s apartment was arrested without incident.

It remained unclear what motivated the boyfriend to fatally shoot his girlfriend and set out targeting the woman’s children. Cooper who had six children, leaves behind five children.