Dad, 76, kills sons, self in West Town

May 3, 2010

BY KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporter

An elderly gunman shot dead two younger men in West Town on Sunday morning, then turned his gun on himself in what police say was likely a domestic double murder-suicide.

As stunned relatives wept and police removed two bloody bodies from the yard of the home in the 1700 block of West Erie, neighbors said the 76-year-old shooter had killed two of his sons.

Police said the 76-year-old and a 44-year-old were found dead at the scene shortly before noon. A 42-year-old victim died soon afterward at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Eyewitness Brendan Ringhouse said he was studying in his apartment opposite the murder scene when he heard "two pops" of gunfire.

"I walked to my window and saw an older man standing with a gun in his hand," he said. "One guy was on the ground leaning against the house, and another was on the ground in the yard.

"He was still alive and he was saying, 'No, no, no,' but the old man walked over to him, stood over him and shot two or three more times."

The gunman walked away from the scene, "then he paused, walked back to the yard and shot himself in the head," Ringhouse said.

Ringhouse -- a medical student -- dialed 911 and ran down to help, but police and paramedics arrived almost immediately, he said.

"The whole thing was surreal," he said.

Relatives declined to comment, but one woman wailed, "Oh God, no!," as she arrived at the scene, shouting that guns "shouldn't be allowed," as relatives tried to console her.

George Petzer, who was staying at a home opposite the murder scene, said he was walking his dog earlier Sunday morning when he saw two men sawing a lock on a gate to the yard where all three men were shot.

He didn't know if the men he saw were the victims, but several neighbors said the apartment building where the 76-year-old lived had been a topic of dispute.

The building is for sale, and the elderly man had recently unsuccessfully lobbied for the ground floor to be used for a dry-cleaning business, neighbor George Edwards said.

From: http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2226424,CST-NWS-threedead03.article