Man kills six grandchildren in US shooting

What you need to know:

  • Spirit had contacted emergency services, saying that he was considering harming himself and others.
  • Spirit shot and killed his nine-year-old son during a 2001 hunting trip, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

MIAMI

A man killed his daughter and six grandchildren, the youngest just three months old, in a mass shooting at a house in the US state of Florida on Thursday.

The shooter, identified as Don Charles Spirit, 51, then killed himself, said Gilchrist County Sheriff Robert Schultz.

The oldest child was age 10.

"I haven't seen anything like this at all," Schultz, who was visibly shaken, told reporters.

"This county, this community is going to be devastated from this. It is a small county, we are all family here.

"We're asking for prayers for this community and the families involved," he said.

Spirit had contacted emergency services saying that he was considering harming himself and others, but when police arrived at the home in the small town of Bell, his daughter and young grandchildren were all dead, police said.

Spirit reportedly killed himself while police were there.

HUNTING TRIP

A map showing Bell, Florida, where a man shot his daughter and six grandchildren. PHOTO | GOOGLE MAPS

In an incident later ruled an accident, Spirit shot and killed his nine-year-old son during a 2001 hunting trip, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

The child died instantly from a bullet wound to the head, caused by Spirit's rifle going off while he cleaned rust from the barrel, the paper said.

Thursday's grisly episode is sure to revive passionate debate about gun ownership in the United States, where 11,000 people were murdered by gun violence in 2011, according to FBI figures.

However firearms-control activists face fierce opposition from America's powerful pro-gun lobby, which staunchly opposes any effort to limit any restriction of the second amendment of the US Constitution, which protects citizens' rights to own guns.

US President Barack Obama tried and failed to introduce a ban on assault weapons and to require more stringent background checks for gun buyers after the Newtown massacre in which 20 children and six adults were killed in December 2012.