Police responded Friday afternoon to a house at 640 N. 23rd St., where a husband and wife were found dead with their two small children inside.
The two victims were not identified by police. It's not yet known whether the case involved a murder-suicide or a double homicide but there was apparently a history of domestic abuse, said Police Chief Michael Floore.
Anthony Richardson said the female victim was his daughter, Antionette Blanton.
Richardson said Blanton did not come to the door when her mother went to her house Friday to take her to cash her check.
"The front door was locked. She called me to come over to check things out. When I got there, I went to the front door. It was locked. I went around to the back door. It was open. I went inside and saw my daughter laying on the floor near the cabinets in the kitchen. Her husband was laying off to the side. He was in the kitchen, too," Richardson said.
"My grand babies ran out of a back room. They were covered in blood. They came running out of a back room saying Pa Pa. They were in there by themselves for a whole night and a day," Richardson said.
Richardson said police told him it appeared that Blanton's husband shot her and then turned the gun on himself.
Richardson shed tears and said, "Everybody loved Antionette. She was super smart and very kind. I will never see her again in life."
As he stood in front of the home where his daughter lived with her family and looked at the yellow crime scene tape draped around it, Richardson said, "I'm emotional, devastated and irate. Anything I asked her to do, my daughter would do."
"I couldn't do all that texting on my cellphone, but she could and would do it for me," he said pushing forth a little smile as he remembered.
"It'll be a while before I can really get myself together. This really hurts. Her mom and dad really loved her. We will really miss our daughter," said Richardson.
He said his daughter could have and should have gotten out of her relationship. "I don't understand why she wouldn't leave him. She was smart," Richardson said.
He said, "I begged her to walk away from him -- to leave him. She could've left him five years ago before she had any children by him. But, she didn't. She was my rose."
Floore said the victims' bodies were found in the kitchen. It is believed the bodies had been in the home for several days, Floore said.
A 1-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy were found inside the home along with the bodies. The baby girl was wearing only a T-shirt. They were being checked at a hospital.
Floore said the family became concerned and went to the residence to investigate.
He said the male was 23 and the wife was 20. Both appeared to have been shot, Floore said.
Family members told police that they last saw the couple on Sunday. Church members told police that the couple was at Morningstar Baptist Church on Wednesday night.
Richardson said the husband must have shot his daughter after they came home from church. "She had come by my house before she went to church to ask me for some money. I gave her $10 for some gas," he said.
"We received information that there may have been some domestic abuse going on throughout the relationship. We are investigating that angle," Floore said.
Longtime family friend Kevin Williams was with Richardson when he found his daughter. He said his heart went out to the family.
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