Man Murders Five at Illinois Home Before He’s Killed by Police
Published at
Hemera/Thinkstock(MANCHESTER, Ill.) — A man police say murdered five people, including two children, at a Manchester, Ill., home early Wednesday, died in a shootout with cops hours later.
Rick Odell Smith, 43, was suspected of gunning down Joanne Sinclair, 65; her granddaughter Brittany Luark, 22; Luark’s boyfriend, Roy Ralston; and Luark’s and Ralston’s children, Nolan, 5, and Brantley, 1.
Meanwhile, another child, Kassidy Ralston, 6, was listed in serious condition. According to police, it was Smith who brought the wounded girl to a neighbor before driving off in his Chevy Lumina.
Authorities offered no motive for the slayings, although one neighbor speculated that it might have been over a custody battle that Sinclair’s adult daughter was having with Smith over their child.
Neither the daughter nor the child was at the house at the time of the murders.
Smith was the nephew of Manchester Mayor Ron Drake. The town is located about 50 miles southwest of Springfield, Ill.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio