News Digest

Florida grandfather who killed family had also fatally shot son years before

The Florida man who police say gunned down his daughter and six grandchildren Thursday had been to prison for fatally shooting his young son during a hunting trip 13 years ago, according to court records. Don Charles Spirit, 51, phoned the Gilchrist County Sheriff’s Department around 4 p.m. Thursday and made a reference to harming himself and others. But the father and grandfather shot himself as arriving officers approached. Deputies then discovered the bodies of Spirit’s adult daughter and six children at the small, rural home near Bell, about 38 miles northwest of Gainesville in north central Florida.

People’s minds are just sick I guess.

neighbor Betty Dyer to Yahoo News

Sheriff Schultz identified the victims as Sarah Lorraine Spirit, 28; Kaleb Kuhlmann, 11; Kylie Kuhlmann, 9; Johnathon Kuhlmann, 8; Destiny Stewart, 5; Brandon Stewart, 4; and Alanna Stewart, who was born in June. Sheriff Schultz said investigators had no immediate motive for the massacre. He said his officers had answered calls at the home before, “but nothing to this extent.”