Home Scandal and Gossip Mecosta County mom & 3 kids shot dead, suspected shooter, dad survives

Mecosta County mom & 3 kids shot dead, suspected shooter, dad survives

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Dawn Gillard Mecosta County Michigan mom & 3 kids shot dead
Dawn Gillard Mecosta County Michigan mom & 3 kids shot dead. Pictured mom's teen daughter, Hailey Salisbury and her mother's husband, Charles, suspected shooter. Images via TikTok.
Dawn Gillard Mecosta County Michigan mom & 3 kids shot dead
Dawn Gillard Mecosta County Michigan mom & 3 kids shot dead. Pictured mom’s teen daughter, Hailey Salisbury and her 3 half siblings. Image via TikTok.

Mecosta County shooting: Dawn Gillard Michigan mom shot dead along with 3 children as suspected shooter, husband, Charles survives attempted murder suicide. Teen daughter Hailey Salisbury posts TikTok video responding to ordeal. 

A Michigan mother and her three young children were shot to death and the suspected gunman – her husband – who seemingly had sought to take their own life in an apparent murder suicide, surviving the ordeal and now in hospital.  

Hailey Salisbury confirmed that her mother Dawn Gillard, 40, was murdered by her husband and Salisbury’s stepfather, Charles, 51, who also killed her half-siblings, 6-year-old Katelynn Gillard, 4-year-old Ronald Gillard and 3-year-old Joshua Gillard over the weekend.  

‘I am in total shock. I am so devastated,’ she told 13 ABC

Reports told of Dawn Gillard’s husband, Charles (full name yet to be released pending official charges) shooting dead the three children, then the mother before attempting to take his own life only to survive. The man remained in critical condition with a bullet wound to the head.

The grieving daughter went on to post about the killings on her TikTok account. 

‘What the f**k?’.  

In one of the videos, Hailey shares an image of her stepfather with the caption: ‘I WILL find a way to speak to you before you die in prison you disgusting sickening thing.’ 

In another, she shared a video of herself sobbing while repeatedly screaming ‘What the f**k?’.  

Mecosta County Sheriff Brian Miller said deputies responding to reports of shots fired found Dawn, the children and the woman’s husband, Friday afternoon in a home near Big Rapids in Austin Township, about 180 miles northwest of Detroit. 

‘There are no words that can explain what happened,’ Miller told MLive.com

Miller said evidence suggests the woman’s husband was responsible for the deaths. He is being treated at an Ann Arbor hospital. The killings are under investigation.

No known motive was immediately known.

‘We´re not exactly sure what the circumstances were,’ Miller said. ‘It´s tragic by all accounts.’

Dawn Gillard Mecosta County Michigan mom & 3 kids shot dead
Dawn Gillard Mecosta County Michigan mom & 3 kids shot dead, suspected shooter id as mom’s husband, Charles.

Tight knit community

The person who alerted authorities was outside the home when deputies arrived and was not shot, he said. 

The local school district has been notified and is expected to have crisis counseling available, Miller said.

‘We have a very tight-knit community in Mecosta,’ Miller said. ‘There’s no better place I’d rather raise my kids at.’

The town is holding a candlelight vigil on Monday. 

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