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Insets, left to right: 2-year-old Felex Arruda, Danielle Arruda, 5-year-old Adel Arruda (GoFundMe). Background: The home where Nicholas Arruda murdered his family and took his own life (WJAR/YouTube).
A Rhode Island man slaughtered his pregnant wife and their two kids, ages 2 and 5, using a military-grade assault rifle — shooting each of them multiple times inside their home — before taking his own life in a “horrific” murder-suicide, cops say.
“One of the worst,” West Greenwich Police Chief Richard Ramsay told reporters Wednesday while describing the murder scene at a press conference, according to The Boston Globe.
Danielle Arruda, 39, and her two children Adel Arruda, 5, and Felex Arruda, 2, were all shot multiple times by Danielle’s husband, Nicholas Arruda, before he turned the “M4-type semi-automatic weapon” he was wielding on himself.
“It was apparent there were no signs of life to any of the bodies and that all four had suffered fatal gunshot wounds,” Ramsay said.
Police first responded to the Arruda family’s home at 15 Cheyenne Trail in West Greenwich for a wellness check just before 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 3, after Danielle Arruda’s coworkers reported that she missed work on both Thursday and Friday.
“They felt something was wrong,” Ramsay said of the coworkers, according to local Fox affiliate WFXT. “They were also concerned because Danielle never misses work and she’s seven months pregnant.”
When cops arrived at the Arruda residence, they were unable to get anyone to answer the door, leading them to force their way inside.
“No one had exited the house because the door that was accessible to the outside was not only locked but had a safety chain latched, which could only be done from the inside of the home,” Ramsay explained. “All three victims suffered multiple gunshot wounds from a semi-automatic firearm.”
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Nicholas Arruda, 39, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head. Police believe he committed the shooting between 8 p.m. on New Year’s Day and 5:20 a.m. on Jan. 2, though it’s unclear when exactly. A motive has yet to be uncovered.
“We still have to go through all the motions to find out … if there’s anything that somebody missed,” Ramsay said. “Any reason that would lead someone to do what he had done to his family.”
Records viewed by the Boston Globe show Nicholas Arruda has a prior arrest on his record for felony assault on a woman from a previous relationship in 2014. The rifle he used in the killings last week was owned legally by him, according to cops.
“My brother committed the most cowardly, despicable act one could perpetrate,” Jesse Arruda told the Globe. “Quite literally the opposite of what a man is supposed to do. My heart is broken for the children, my sister-in-law, and her family.”
