A nine-year-old boy who was camping at an Iowa state park with his parents and six-year-old sister has survived a shooting that killed the rest of his family.
The Iowa Department of Public Safety identified the victims as Tyler Schmidt, 42, his 42-year-old wife Sarah Schmidt and their six-year-old daughter, Lula Schmidt, all of Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Their bodies were found in their tent early on Friday at the Maquoketa Caves State Park Campground, about 180 miles east of Des Moines.
Authorities said the suspected gunman, 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin, was found dead on Friday in a wooded area of the park with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Department of Public Safety’s division of criminal investigation, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the motive for the attack is still unknown.
“We don’t know what led up to this, what precipitated it,” he said, adding that so far, “the investigation has not revealed any early interaction between the Schmidt family and him”.
Adam Morehouse, Sarah Schmidt’s brother, said the family had no connection to Sherwin and he believed the shootings were a “completely random act”.
Cedar Falls Mayor Rob Green, who said he is a neighbour of the Schmidts, posted on Facebook on Friday that the couple’s nine-year-old son, Arlo, “survived the attack, and is safe”.
The post did not say whether Arlo was in the tent or even at the campsite when the shootings happened.
Mr Morehouse confirmed Arlo was on the family’s camping trip, but said he did not know exactly where the boy was at the time of the shooting or know any specifics about how it unfolded.
“He is with family and he is OK, but I have not had any interaction with him,” Mr Morehouse said on Saturday. “As far as I know, he was uninjured physically.”
By Saturday evening, more than 75,000 dollars (£62,000) had flowed into a GoFundMe page created for Arlo.
The page, organised by a cousin, Beth Shapiro, said: “Arlo is a strong boy, surrounded by family and friends who are supporting him as best we can.”
The page says the fund will help Arlo now, and help fund his future education.
The killings prompted the evacuation of the park and campground, including a children’s summer camp. After the evacuations, Sherwin was the only person unaccounted for, Mr Mortvedt said.
He said that during the course of the investigation, authorities learned Sherwin was armed and “that of course heightened our awareness”.
Iowa allows people with permits to carry firearms virtually anywhere in the state. Officials did not say if Sherwin had a permit and provided no information about the firearm used to kill the Schmidts.
The Des Moines Register reported that Sherwin was from La Vista, Nebraska. La Vista Police Chief Bob Lausten told the newspaper that Sherwin lived in an apartment complex with his parents and had no history of criminal conduct.
