DA: Suspect dead after shooting three family members in Fall River
FALL RIVER – Investigators said a 25-year-old man died by suicide early Wednesday morning after shooting three members of his fiancée's family, killing one of them.
It happened around 3 a.m. on Bank Street.
Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn said police received a 911 call from the home reporting the shootings.
The alleged gunman, identified as Christopher Jean Baptiste, and his fiancée's father, 69-year-old Hubert Labasquin, died following the incident.
Labasquin's wife, 59, and 25-year-old daughter were also shot. Both were taken to Saint Luke's Hospital but are expected to survive.
Quinn said the three family members were staying with Jean Baptiste and his fiancée for the last month at the home while they looked for another place to live.
Tuesday night, investigators said Jean Baptiste held a gun to the family members and told them they had to leave the house immediately. A short time later, Jean Baptiste and Labasquin got into a physical altercation and Labasquin was shot.
While Jean Baptiste's fiancée was calling 911 to report the shooting, Jean Baptiste allegedly shot the other two family members.
Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan saying the incident is a tragedy for the family with less than three weeks until Christmas.
"I haven't come across a situation this horrific as long as I've been mayor," he said. "What happened there in the middle of the night was out of character for that neighborhood."
Christine Fernandes lives next door to the home. She went to leave Wednesday morning and found blood left behind on her doorbell and the glass on part of the door.
"I just freaked out because I don't know who it was, if it was the shooter or one of the people that was injured and they were trying to come over here for help," she said.
Fernandes said she does not know the neighbors well and they only moved in about a year ago.
"It turns my stomach. For something to happen like that right next door to you, it's pretty scary. I'm still in shock," she said.
A neighbor, Eric, who lives across the street, told us the incident also appears out of character for the family. "I would never have expected something like that because they seemed to me like hard workers."