Cops: 5 Dead After Phoenix 'Family Dispute'

3 adult brothers, mother among the dead
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 17, 2015 2:45 AM CDT
Cops: 5 Dead After Phoenix 'Family Dispute'
Members of the Phoenix Police Department stand in front of a home where authorities say five people were killed yesterday.   (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Five adults were found dead inside a north Phoenix home yesterday after a suspected dispute about a family business, police say. The names and ages of the three men and two women weren't immediately released. But police say the three men were brothers and the dead women apparently were the men's mother and a spouse of one of the brothers. Two other women and two children managed to escape the home unharmed, according to police. One of those women told officers that the shooting stemmed from a family dispute gone wrong, a police spokesman says.

"Our dispatcher could hear shots fired in the background while that call was coming in," the spokesman says. "A caller had been able to escape the home at that point, get out, and start to give us information." The spokesman says the family had origins in Morocco. During an hours-long standoff before the bodies were found, police used a megaphone to try to communicate with the occupants of the home, addressing the family in Arabic. It wasn't immediately clear how many people fired shots, but police say they aren't looking for any outstanding suspects. (More Phoenix stories.)

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