Lupe Gomez was trying to leave her husband when he shot her and her two children on Friday. An Illinois woman who was desperately trying to leave her marriage was killed along with her two children on Friday by the mother’s estranged husband, who then set fire to their home before killing himself.
According to Oak Forest Police, Carlos Gomez, 44, shot his estranged wife, Lupe Gomez, 43, and two of his stepchildren, Briana Rodriguez, 22, and Emilio Rodriguez, 20, outside their home in Oak Forest, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Carlos then barricaded himself inside their home and set fire to it, causing loud popping noises throughout the neighborhood as 10-foot-high flames engulfed the house, according to neighbor Brad Weert told the Chicago Sun-Times.
After firefighters extinguished the massive fire, officers found Carlos inside, dead of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the medical examiner’s office, according to the Sun-Times.
According to the medical examiner’s office, his death has been ruled a suicide. The other deaths were determined to be homicides. Jorge Rodriguez, Briana and Emilio’s father, is still in shock over their deaths.
“I’m broken. I miss them,” he told ABC 7 Chicago. “They were great kids. They’re my life. Now, I can’t right now, like my soul is not here.”
According to the Sun-Times, the fatal shooting occurred on Friday at 6:35 a.m., when police were called to a home on Ann Marie Lane in Oak Forest about a domestic disturbance and found two people shot in the driveway and a third in the road near the house.
As police and SWAT officers arrived, Carlos ran into the house and locked himself inside. According to the Sun-Times, a child was able to escape the house before the fire started.
Residents were told to stay put for several hours following the shooting, which had left them shaken. According to the Chicago Tribune, Lupe had called police “numerous” times for domestic disturbances since 2016.
According to the Tribune, Carlos was charged with domestic battery in one of the incidents. It’s unclear whether that case was resolved at the time of the killings. Lupe was trying to escape Carolos at the time of her murder, Navarez told Patch.
“I think he lost control over her,” Navarez told Patch Illinois. “She already had lawyers involved, documents, everything you can think of. And this is what happened.”