North Florida Man Kills Six Grandchildren, Daughter, Self
GAINESVILLE (CBSMiami) - A north Florida community is looking for answers after a mass shooting which claimed eight lives.
Don Spirit, 51, shot and killed his 28-year-old daughter and six of his grandchildren before taking his own life, according to the Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office.
"There's certain things in life that you can't explain, there are certain things you can. This is not one you can explain," said Gilchrist County Sheriff Robert Schultz.
The shooting happened in Spirit's home in the small town of Bell, about 30 miles west of Gainesville.
While the sheriff's department has commented on any part of the killings, we do know what four of the six children were doing about an hour before.
"All I can tell you is I talked to one of the teachers this morning, and he said Mr. Rankin, I walked out and put her on the bus yesterday at three o'clock. As as far as I know they all got on the bus and they road home," said Gilchrist School Superintendent Rob Rankin.
The four children attended Bell Elementary; one was in kindergarten, another in second grade, on a third grader and a fifth grader. The two youngest who were killed were not old enough to attend school. The baby would have been three months old next Sunday.
What happened between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. remains unclear. Spirit reportedly called 911 around 4 p.m. and then killed himself after a deputy arrived on the scene.
"As far as I know there's no motive that was relayed to anybody. Obviously that's going to be the big question in this. I'm sure we'd all like to know why it happened but we only be speculating at this point. Maybe that'll come out in a investigation," said sheriff's Lt. Jeff Manning.
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Spirit had a lengthy criminal record and officers had been called to the house before. In 2001, he shot his 8 year old son to death in what was determined to be a hunting accident.
Spirit's sister says her brother was dealing with lingering grief from that incident, and health problems including diabetes.
"He's a good person but he wasn't getting the medication that he needed," said Cindy Spirit Ritch.
Police say they had no indication Spirit was capable of a crime like this one.
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