A pregnant woman in Arizona was shot dead by her husband in a murder-suicide, according to police.
Chandler Police Department (CPD) officers were alerted at 1 a.m. on May 31 after a man who was seemingly drunk called 911— he was reported to be uncooperative and refused to provide his address.
Family members who also called 911 said the man was Kevin Holmberg, aged 38, and that they believed an incident had occurred involving his wife, Katherine Holmberg, 41.
A CPD Facebook post shared the same day said: “Soon after, additional information was received that the indicated the female subject at this location might be in danger.”
Officers surrounded the area at around 2 a.m. and at some point afterward, Holmberg left the home.
The Facebook post continued: “The male subject exited the residence armed with a firearm. Within a few minutes, he fatally shot himself while still outside and in view of the officers.
“Once the officers entered the residence to check on the victim, they found her deceased from a gunshot wound, which is believed to have been inflicted by the male.”
It continued: “The female was pregnant, and her unborn child also died during this incident. There was no one else home at the residence when this incident occurred.”
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a database that collects information about shootings from across the U.S.,there have been eight reported murder-suicide cases in Arizona since January 1 this year and three in May alone.
It added there have been 294 murder-suicides registered nationwide since January 1, this year.
There were 670 murder-suicides where a firearm was used in 2022, up from 594 in 2021 and 570 the year before.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that intimate partner violence is a serious public-health problem in the U.S.
According to the CDC, around one in five homicide victims are killed by an intimate partner, and that more than half of female homicide victims in the U.S. are killed by a current or former male intimate partner.
It added that the lifetime economic cost associated with intimate partner violence, including injuries, lost productivity, criminal justice and other costs is estimated at $103,767 per female victim and $23,414 per male victim.
The CDC said that Arizona recorded 562 homicides in 2021, with a death rate of 8.1 per every 100,000 people in the state, compared to a national average of 7.8. There were 26,031 recorded homicides in the U.S. that year.
Newsweek has contacted the CPD for comment via email.
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