Jerome Woolums shoots and kills wife, Katharine Woolums then self in murder-suicide at Mesa, Arizona senior group home. No known motive.
A 92-year-old man shot and killed his 93-year-old wife before taking his own life at a senior group home in Arizona, according to the Mesa Police Department.
Mesa police were called to the senior living center near Alma School and Guadalupe roads around 4:30 a.m. Thursday upon coming across the lifeless bodies of Jerome Woolums, 92, and Katharine Woolums, 93.
Staff members stated the husband and wife being residents at the senior living facility, Fox10 Phoenix reported.
Mesa Arizona senior group home murder-suicide: unanswered questions
When officers arrived, they were led to a bedroom where they discovered the couple had each been shot in the head, with the husband still clutching the gun. Katharine still had a pulse and was rushed to a local hospital, where she later died.
‘We are looking at this as a murder-suicide,’ a police spokesperson told The Arizona Republic.
‘At this stage of the investigation, evidence indicates Jerome shot his wife, Katharine, before taking his own life.’
Authorities said the slain couple, who’d been married for several years, were living at the unidentified senior home near Alma School Road and Mendoza Avenue while receiving ongoing medical care.
Not immediately clear was whether the services provided at the group home were daily, had staff noticed anything out of the ordinary leading up to the shooting along with the regulations involving weapons at the senior living facilities.
To date the facility had declined to answer media overtures for comment.
A motive behind the tragic shooting remains under investigation.
