Philadelphia Man Kills Mother and Sister, Then Himself After Standoff
Authorities responded to a house fire to find two women deceased, leading to a 12-hour standoff with the suspect on a city bus.
A Philadelphia man is dead after killing his mother and sister, setting their home on fire, and then engaging in a 12-hour standoff with police before dying by suicide. Authorities discovered the bodies of two women, identified by family as Sadie Turner and Gabby Turner, inside a burning home in the Cedarbrook neighborhood early Monday morning. Both women had sustained gunshot wounds to the head, according to police.
Investigators believe Lonnie Turner, Sadie’s adopted son and Gabby’s brother, shot the women and started a kitchen fire before fleeing the scene. Just over an hour later, around 5 a.m., police received a call about an armed man on a SEPTA bus in the Fox Run neighborhood.
The suspect, later identified as Lonnie Turner, allegedly told the bus driver he had shot two people and refused to exit the vehicle. The bus driver and the other passenger disembarked safely before Turner barricaded himself on the empty bus. Police surrounded the bus, and a standoff ensued for nearly 12 hours.
Turner died by suicide shortly before 5 p.m. and was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced deceased. Relatives told reporters that Turner had been released from jail only months prior to the incident. The motive for the violence remains under investigation. The incident occurred days after another violent event in Philadelphia where a police officer was killed and another injured in an ambush.
