Nicholas Arruda, stay at home West Greenwich, Rhode Island dad shoots paralegal wife, Danielle Arruda, their two young kids then self in murder suicide.
A Rhode Island stay at home dad is alleged to have shot dead his entire family, including his 7 month pregnant wife, their two young infant children, then self at their West Greenwich residence.
Cops in West Greenwich — a sprawling, rural area a half-hour southwest of Providence — say Nicholas Arruda, 39, shot wife Danielle Arruda and their two young kids to death, then turned his M4-style weapon on himself.
‘We believe it is the weapon used in the murder-suicide,’ police said in a statement. ‘However, a formal firearms examination has not yet been conducted.’
Paralegal wife had failed to turn up to work leading to grizzly discovery at home
Danielle, the 39-year-old homeowner, was seven months pregnant when she was murdered, according to Fall River Reporter.
Police found her and the couple’s two kids, ages 2 and 5, dead in the home Friday morning after they did a welfare check after Danielle failing to show up to work for a few days, according to the Boston Globe.
All four were still wearing their pajamas when they died, Police Chief Richard Ramsay said.
The scene was ‘one of the worst’ he’s come upon during his 30-year career, the official said according to 10WJAR.
Danielle — a paralegal at Marinosci Law Group in nearby Warwick — was last seen alive on New Year’s Day when she bought pellets for her stove.
Police said there had been no indications of strife leading into the shooting, and that the couple appeared to have ‘loved one another and they loved their children,’ the police chief said.
Ramsay added that cops had never been to the Cheyenne Trail home, which the family bought in 2019.
Stay at home West Greenwich dad turns to violence
The couple went to high school together and married in 2017, according to the Globe.
Nicholas had been arrested once, about 11 years ago, for felony assault while in another relationship, the outlet reported.
It’s not clear how the case was resolved.
He’d worked as a painter but had been unemployed for several years because of a painful back injury.
‘He was a stay-at-home dad who was homeschooling the children,’ Ramsey said.
It remained unclear if the stay at home dad dynamics may have caused resentment between the couple and recriminations that the dad wasn’t pulling his weight.
It may never be clear why Arruda chose to slay his family, the chief added, noting that such cases are ‘pretty much self-explanatory.’
‘But we still have to go through all the motions to find out,’ the police chief said. ‘If there’s anything that somebody missed, any reason that would lead someone to do what he had done to his family.’
