An Oklahoma father shot and killed his wife and three of his children on Monday in what police believe was a mass murder-suicide. He left his 10-year-old son, who was unharmed in the shooting, an orphan.

Jonathan Candy, 42, allegedly shot his wife Lindsay, 39, multiple times in their Yukon home following an “altercation” between the couple, according to police. After “systematically” slaughtering his sons Dylan, 18, Ethan, 14, and Lucas, 12, Candy turned the gun on himself. 

“Make no mistake about it,” Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Gary Knight said of the incident. “What happened in that residence was nothing short of a massacre.”

“Those children were hunted down and killed,” Knight added, noting that Candy’s motive for the killings “remains a mystery” and that “we don’t know why the fourth child was spared.”

The lone survivor, Candy’s 10-year-old son, was sleeping when the shootings occurred. He was the one who placed the 911 call Monday morning to report that “everyone inside the house appeared to be dead.”

Oklahoma City police said the father shot at least one of his sons dead while they were asleep in bed and that they found a firearm on top of his corpse.

The surviving child was placed in the custody of family members. Knight said police had never been called to the Candy household before this incident.

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Dylan had graduated in 2023 from Mustang High School, where Ethan was a freshman. Lucas was in sixth grade at Meadow Brook Intermediate School.

“We are shocked, and our hearts are broken; this tragedy simply defies understanding,” Mustang Public Schools said in a public statement. “While this has been a very difficult year for the MPS Family, both students and adults may struggle with managing their feelings and reactions to this news.”