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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Police officers Friday arrested a man suspected of killing four people in a small northeast Nebraska town after over a century calm.
A police
team surrounded the Laurel home of 42-year-old Jason Jones and seized the suspect,
The Associated Press reports. Jones was burned in an inferno in one of two
houses where occupants were shot before the homes were set ablaze.
Jones was
badly burned in the incident but was flown to a hospital in Lincoln instead of
being taken to jail, Nebraska State Patrol Col. John Bolduc said in a
statement, according to The Associated Press.
The police are
alleging that Jones killed 53-year-old Michele Ebeling early Thursday morning before
causing some type of explosion and fire in her home that’s across the street
from him, according to the Associated Press.
Jones then
went about three blocks south, broke into another home and killed Gene Twiford,
86; his wife, Janet Twiford, 85; and their daughter, Dana Twiford, 55, The Associated
Press reported.
It is not
clear his motive for the crime but charging documents allege Jones carried out
some of the killings in the course of a burglary.
The last
multiple murders happened in 1918, when Dr. C.C. Sackett and Harold Crownover
were shot and killed by suspected burglars they had been chasing, The Associated
Press quoted town historian Roger Tryon. Tryon writes a column titled “Pages of
History” for the weekly Laurel Advocate, The Associated Press reported.
“People
still talk about it. That was the crime of the 20th century for Laurel,” Tryon
said. “I suspect what’s happened here this week will be the crime of the 21st
century.”