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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A gunman killed a 6-year-old girl and her parents in a tent at an Iowa state park. Her 9-year-old brother survived the shooting which claimed the lives of the rest of the family.
The Iowa
Department of Public Safety listed the victims as Tyler Schmidt, 42, his 42-year-old
wife, Sarah Schmidt, and their 6-year-old daughter, Lula Schmidt, all of Cedar
Falls, Iowa, The Associated Press reports.
Bodies of Tyler Schmidt, Sarah Schmidt and daughter found
Authorities
found their bodies in their tent early Friday at the Maquoketa Caves State Park
Campground, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) east of Des Moines, according to
The Associated Press.
The suspected
gunman, 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin was found dead Friday in a wooded area of
the park with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
An assistant
director of the Department of Public Safety’s division of criminal investigation,
Mitch Mortvedt told The Associated Press on Saturday that the motive of the
shooting was unknown.
“We don’t
know what led up to this, what precipitated it,” he said, adding that so far,
“the investigation has not revealed any early interaction between the Schmidt
family and him.”
It is not
clear if the only surviving 9-year-old son, Arlo was in the tent at the time of
the shooting.
A GoFundMe
page created for Arlo by a cousin, Beth Shapiro had received more than $75,000
to support his education.