FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — Three children and a woman were found killed in a southeast Fort Wayne, Indiana home Wednesday morning, and police have made an arrest in the slayings.
Police and medics were called around 10:45 a.m. to a home on a problem unknown, according to the police activity log.
Inside the home, authorities found three children and a woman — all deceased.
“It’s a very gruesome scene in there,” Police spokesman Sgt. Jeremy Webb said. “There are three murdered children.”
Police arrested Cohen Bennett Hancz-Barron, 21. Webb said friends and family identified him as a suspect.
Webb said Hancz-Barron faces four preliminary murder counts, pending a formal charging decision by the Allen County Prosecutor’s office. He was moved late Wednesday to the Allen County Jail in Fort Wayne.
“Our detectives are still finishing up and putting the case together. That will be reviewed by the prosecutor’s office and they will file charges as they see fit,” he said Thursday morning.
Webb said Hancz-Barron had been wanted on an arrest warrant issued in April stemming from a probation violation in northwestern Indiana’s Starke County. His arrest came several hours after the four victims’ bodies were found.
Police initially asked for the public’s help to find Hancz-Barron. He was to be considered “armed and extremely dangerous,” and possibly driving a black 2010 Ford pickup that had been stolen earlier Wednesday morning.
Around 5:15 p.m., Fort Wayne Police said Hancz-Barron was arrested at an apartment complex in nearby Lafayette.
“This is a very devastating time for our family. Please give us time to process the horrific events that have occurred today,” A representative from the victims’ family told NewsNation affiliate WANE Wednesday. “Our daughter was a very special person to our family.”
A large police presence was at the home throughout midday Wednesday, and residents gathered outside the crime scene. One neighbor called the killings “sickening.”