LEON and DAWANIA REYNOLDS - 9 & 10 yo (2011)/ Suspect: Uncle; John Reynolds (deceased-suicide) - New Orleans LA

2 children_ 1 man dead in apparent murder suicide

Authorities say they're investigating an apparent murder-suicide in which a 22-year-old man is believed to have shot two children before turning the gun on himself.

All three were found in a residence early Sunday.

First District officers responded to a call of a shooting in the 2100 block of Pauger Street, and found a 9-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl lying on a sofa suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.  The young boy and 22-year-old man were pronounced dead at the scene. The girl was taken to a local hospital where she later died.  

Officer Hilal Williams of the New Orleans Police Department says the man was staying temporarily at the residence and suffered from schizophrenia.

He had stopped taking his medication and had been awake for several days.

A preliminary investigation indicates man had been drinking and indicated he was going to sleep.

Subsequently, with no provocation, the subject fatally shot his niece and nephew while they were asleep, then himself.

Detectives recovered two handguns from the subject's possession.

Williams says the man had prior arrests for domestic violence, simple criminal damage, trespassing and simple arson, among other charges.

http://www.wwl.com/pages/9339070.php?contentType=4&contentId=7772815

UPDATE: Three people identified in New Orleans murder-suicide

By Katie Urbaszewski, The Times-Picayune
on March 06, 2011 at 12:11 PM
updated March 06, 2011 at 1:30 PM

Leon Reynolds, nine, and Dawania Reynolds, 10, were identified as the two young children shot by their uncle in an apparent murder-suicide in the Seventh Ward early Sunday morning, the Orleans Parish coroner's office reported.

The uncle was identified as John Reynolds, 22, said John Gagliano, the coroner's chief investigator.

The boy and the man died on the scene with gunshot wounds to the head, while the girl died from the same injuries later in the hospital, Gagliano said.

New Orleans police believe Reynolds shot his niece and nephew in the 2100 block of Pauger Street at about 3 a.m. and then shot himself.

Neighbors Geraldine Boykins, 50, and Brandy Jones, 32, said the mother was inside the house with her four children and John Reynolds when it happened. Reynolds had been staying with them for about two months, Boykins said.

According to Officer Hilal Williams, NOPD spokeswoman, the man suffered from schizophrenia, had stopped taking his medication and had been awake for several days.

He had been drinking and said he was going to sleep, Williams said.

"This is a prime example of what happens when a city does not provide in and out- patient services for people with mental illnesses," said Cecile Tebo, coordinator of NOPD's crisis unit. In the years since Hurricane Katrina, Tebo has been outspoken about what she argues is too few beds in New Orleans hospitals for mental health patients.

People with mental illnesses tend to be nomadic, she said, adding that in New Orleans they're either not given proper care or put in jail.

She said the problem stems from a lack of funding for mental health facilities.

Boykins said she saw the surviving two children leave the house with relatives at about 7 a.m.

Jones said Leon and Dawania Reynolds had recently played with her children in the neighborhood. Their mother had only just started to let them play outside, Jones said.

Boykins said she heard the gunshots in the middle of the night, but was used to crime in her neighborhood and didn't call 911. She said she was also used to a woman on their street calling 911 whenever gunshots went off, and thought she would alert police.

"I thought, 'They're doing it again around here,'" Boykins said. "When something does happen, people don't want to come out."

Jones said her mother heard a woman screaming, "Help me, someone call 911, my baby, my baby."

Jones said she believed the two surviving children in the house were younger than the children who were killed.  

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/03/update_three_people_identified.html