Two young children may have been stuck inside a home with the bloodied bodies of their mother, grandmother and mother’s boyfriend after a grisly murder-suicide in Virginia, relatives said.
The family’s pastor told WTVR that 24-year-old Shaquenda Walker’s two children may have been in the Richmond home on Coalter Street for up to 48 hours after the violence erupted this week.
“They witnessed murder,” Rev. Sharon Broaddus from St. Paul’s Baptist Church told the station. “Their bodies have been in there two days and it has to have an effect on the children.”
Cops say Walter Gaines III, 23, shot Walker and her mother, Deborah Walker, 55, before turning the gun on himself. Their bodies were found at about 8:30 a.m. Thursday, after cops received a tip.
Walker’s two children, both under the age of five, were also found in the apartment, police said. They were unharmed and have since been reunited with relatives.
Police could not immediately confirm how long the children were inside the home after the bloodshed as the medical examiner still needed to determine an estimated time of death. Autopsy results were still pending Friday morning.
Gaines was not the father of Walker’s children, but had been living with Walker and her mother for some time, police spokesman Gene Lepley told The Post.
Mayor Levar Stoney visited the crime scene on Thursday, calling the incident a “senseless act” that seemed to be an isolated incident, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
“It’s a tough day,” Stoney said.
Relatives of the victims told the local NBC affiliate that no one dialed 911 when they heard gunshots at the apartment complex.
“The neighbors or somebody had to hear something and they did not report it, they didn’t cry,” Rev. Sharon Broaddus told the station.
Broaddus, who works as a faith leader with the Richmond Police Department, said the ongoing pattern of silence following serious crimes is troubling.
“It says that we have become cold, indifferent, and it’s like another day,” she said. “It’s like murder is the norm, when it shouldn’t be.”
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