Police confirm deaths of 5 in Minnesota were murder-suicide

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A man killed his aunt and uncle, two young cousins and their dog before killing himself at their Minnesota home, police said Thursday.

Duluth Police Chief Mike Tusken said at a news conference that Brandon Taylor Cole-Skogstad, 29, killed his relatives in their beds sometime Tuesday night, then shot himself as police knocked on the door around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Officers went to check on Cole-Skogstand late Wednesday morning at his home in Hermantown after a family member received a message from him saying he intended to harm himself and other family members, Tusken said. Hermantown police then asked Tusken's department to check on his relatives in nearby Duluth.

The chief said Cole-Skogstad also had posted a message on Facebook that said he had made “the absolutely horrid choice” to kill himself and his relatives. He also wrote that he had “suffered many years of mental illness” but rarely sought help “because I felt I never deserved it.”

Tusken identified the victims as Riana Lou Barry, 44; Sean Christopher Barry, 47; Shiway Elizabeth Barry, 12; and Sadie Lucille Barry, 9. He said they had been shot, and that, police found a 9 mm handgun near Cole-Skogstad's body.

Cole-Skogstad had stayed at the family's home previously, the chief said.

Duluth is about 150 miles (241 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, on the shore of Lake Superior.