Police claim that a man from Rhode Island used a military-grade assault rifle to kill his pregnant wife and their two children, ages 2 and 5, before taking his own life in a “horrific” murder-suicide. The man used the assault rifle to shoot each of his children multiple times inside their home.
According to The Boston Globe, West Greenwich Police Chief Richard Ramsay described the murder scene at a press conference on Wednesday, calling it “one of the worst.” Ramsay was allowed to speak to reporters about the incident.
Danielle Arruda, 39, and her two children, Adel Arruda, 5, and Felex Arruda, 2, were all shot several times by Nicholas Arruda, Danielle’s husband, before Nicholas turned the “M4-type semi-automatic weapon” he was carrying on himself. Adel Arruda was the youngest of the three children.
“It was apparent there were no signs of life to any of the bodies and that all four had suffered fatal gunshot wounds,” Ramsay stated.
Just before 10 a.m. on Friday, January 3, police were called to the Arruda family’s residence at 15 Cheyenne Trail in West Greenwich for a welfare check after Danielle Arruda’s coworkers reported that she had missed work on Thursday and Friday.
Ramsay stated of the colleagues, “They felt something was wrong.” “They were also worried because Danielle is seven months pregnant and never misses work.”
Officers forced their way inside the Arruda home when they couldn’t get anyone to answer the door when they got there.
“No one had exited the house because the door that was accessible to the outside was not only locked but had a safety chain latched, which could only be done from the inside of the home,” Ramsay stated. “All three victims suffered multiple gunshot wounds from a semi-automatic firearm.”
Nicholas Arruda, 39 years old, was discovered with a gunshot wound to his head that he had created himself.
Even though the precise time of the shooting is unknown, the police suspect that he carried it out between the hours of 8 p.m. on New Year’s Day and 5:20 a.m. on January 2. To this day, a motivation has not been discovered.
“We still have to go through all the motions to find out … if there’s anything that somebody missed,” Ramsay stated. “Any reason that would lead someone to do what he had done to his family.”
Nicholas Arruda has a prior arrest on his record for criminal assault on a lady from a previous relationship, according to records that were examined by the Boston Globe. This earlier arrest occurred in 2014. According to the police, he legally owned the firearm that he used in the killings that occurred around one week ago.
“My brother committed the most cowardly, despicable act one could perpetrate,” Jesse Arruda stated. “Quite literally the opposite of what a man is supposed to do. My heart is broken for the children, my sister-in-law, and her family.”
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