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Police Chief's Daughter Apparently Kills Her 2 Sons Before Taking Her Own Life
“She was a good mom,” a neighbor said of Emma LaRoque as the incident rocks the small community of the White Earth tribe in Minnesota.
A northwestern Minnesota mother, the daughter of a local police chief, apparently killed her two sons before fatally shooting herself inside their home.
Emma LaRoque, 28, and her two children, 4-year-old Frederick York and 9-year-old Shane Woods, were found dead inside their home in rural Ogema on Monday, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The family reportedly lived on a reservation and were part of the White Earth tribe, according to Valley News Live in Fargo, North Dakota.
The two children died of “homicidal violence” while LaRoque “died of suicide due to a gunshot wound,” according to the bureau, who added that there was no threat to the public. It’s not clear exactly how the boys were killed. They are in the process of being taken to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office for formal identification and autopsy.
LaRoque was the daughter of White Earth’s police chief and public safety director Mike LaRoque, according to the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.
The apparent murder-suicide has left the small community reeling.
“She was a good mom,” LaRoque’s neighbor Tabashish Anamiki Ogitchida told the Star Tribune.
LaRoque was an active member of the community, according to Valley News Live. Grief services were offered this week to people who needed it.
“Our people right now really need something to grasp onto and move forward in a positive way,” Merlin Deegan Sr., White Earth cultural coordinator, told KTSP in Minneapolis,
The investigation into the tragedy is in its very early stages, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
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