A man neighbors described as a retired factory worker shot three relatives to death and wounded two others before killing himself in a southwest Atlanta home on Monday, authorities said.
Police had not received calls about family violence at the house before Abdulaziz Ibrahim, 52, gunned down his daughters-in-law Hana Yusuf, 26, and Luna Tesfaye, 24, a police spokesman said.
Also killed was Mohammed Ibrahim, 28, the gunman’s son and Tesfaye’s husband, who died at Grady Memorial Hospital, police spokesman Eric Schwartz said.
The shooter’s 3-year-old grandson, Amir Abdulhakim, and the son of Hana Yusuf and Yusef Ibrahim, was in stable condition Monday afternoon at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. Yusef Ibrahim, 27, another son, was in stable condition at Grady, police said.
Police said they were interviewing the gunman’s 26-year-old daughter, who was in the house during the shooting but was unharmed, and his wife, who had left home shortly before the 7 a.m. shootings.
'He was so sweet'
Friends and neighbors said the victims were part of an extended Ethiopian family that had immigrated to Atlanta about 10 years ago. Police confirmed only that Yusuf and Tesfaye were of Ethiopian descent.
Neighbor Charlene Weiters said that the family moved into the house about 12 years ago and that she often saw Abdulaziz Ibrahim playing with his grandson in the yard.
She said he was a retired manufacturing worker who occasionally gave the neighborhood children small toys and school supplies. Other friends said he had worked in a hotel laundry.
“We think he was sick; he must have been,” she said between sobs. “He was so sweet; he was so sweet he wouldn’t hurt anybody.”