Murder accused ex-Indian Army officer kills family, self in U.S.

A 47-year-old former Indian Army officer, wanted for a suspected murder of a Kashmiri human rights lawyer, on Sunday killed his wife and two of their children before committing suicide in his California home, police said.

Avtar Singh called Selma police around 6:15 a.m. and told them that he had killed members of his family and was going to kill himself, the msnbc.com quoted the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office as saying.

Local police sought aid from Fresno County sheriff’s officials because Singh had military experience, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said in a statement.

Sheriff’s officials tried to contact Singh verbally and by phone, but he did not respond, Ms. Mims said.

When a sheriff’s SWAT team entered the home after first examining it with a robot, members found the bodies of Singh, his wife and two children, ages 3 and 15, Ms. Mims said, adding a wounded teen was also found in the home.

The teen was taken to a hospital and is in critical condition with life-threatening wounds, the statement said.

However, motive behind his killing spree was not known immediately.

Singh, an Indian army major in the 1990s, is accused in the March 1996 killing of human rights lawyer Jaleel Andrabi in Srinagar.