A Connecticut double murder-suicide may have been driven by the killer’s homophobia, the family of one of the victims said.
David Wisdom, 65, killed himself Friday in his Windsor Locks home after he shot his wife, her daughter and an 18-year-old woman said to be the daughter’s lover, The Journal Inquirer reported.
His wife, Delores Tracey Wisdom, 44, and friend Lauren “Lela” Leslie died – but the unnamed daughter survived and was treated for multiple gunshot wounds at a local hospital, The Hartford Courant said.
Leslie’s brother Jhavier Leslie told the Courant the family wanted an investigation to see if the crime was “rooted in hate.”
“It’s hard to go through this new reality of not having her here, but I think this is a part of a bigger issue in society that needs to be addressed of just homophobia and the dangers around that,” Leslie said, according to the Courant.
“I feel like it’s not fair she had to go through this. She just turned 18.”
His sister struggled to come to terms with herself, he told The Courant.
“She spent her whole life barely talking because she was afraid of who she was and she finally gained the strength to realize who she is, so it’s very difficult for me to know that now, her being her true self and living in her reality, this is the result of that in my eyes,” he added.
“I feel like it wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for that.”
Police haven’t speculated about the motive, The Journal Inquirer said.
“We heard that is a narrative, but we don’t know if that was the trigger for everything that had happened,” Lt. Paul Cherniak told the Inquirer.
“This could have been the result of an ongoing battle in a toxic relationship, or something could have recently surfaced which sparked what had happened.”
Police responded to a home in Windsor Locks, 13 miles north of the city of Hartford a little after midnight Friday and found a scene of carnage with three dead and another shot multiple times, according to a news release.
Another person was located in the house unharmed.