SEQUATCHIE, Tenn. — Six people including three children were found dead in a Tennessee home where police responded to a shooting and arrived to find the residence ablaze, authorities said.
A seventh person who had suffered gunshot wounds was found alive at the home in Sequatchie on Thursday night after firefighters extinguished the flames and was hospitalized in Chattanooga, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
It appeared to be domestic situation that turned into a murder-suicide, Marion County Sheriff Bo Burnette told WTVC-TV.
The person authorities think is responsible is among the deceased, the bureau said.
The sheriff later identified the suspect as Gary Barnett and one of the victims as his estranged wife, Regina Barnett.
Court documents obtained by WTVC show a judge granted Regina Barnett an order of no contact against Gary Barnett that was still active after she said he had threatened to shoot her and verbally abused her.
“He also has anywhere from 50 to 60 guns in his room. I am afraid he will get drunk and shoot me,” she wrote in an affidavit in December.
Autopsies on all six people will be performed in Nashville.