Memphis police seek help in solving mass slaying
Officers found six people dead in a rental house. Three children were badly injured.
ATLANTA — Police in Memphis, Tenn., turned to the public today for information on possible suspects in a mass slaying that left six people dead and three children hospitalized with serious injuries.
The victims, none of whom was identified by police, were discovered by officers Monday in a rental house in the Binghampton neighborhood, part of the city's gritty north side. During a news conference Tuesday, Memphis Police Lt. Joe Scott said it appeared that the killer had left the home and that there was no sign of a break-in.
"This is a stain on our community, and we really need the community's help," he said.
The three surviving children were taken to a hospital. One is in serious condition and the other two are in "very critical" condition.
Police would not say if the people inside the house were related, or whether they all lived there.
It was particularly crippling news in Memphis, which has been struggling with one of the worst crime problems in the nation. According to statistics compiled by the FBI in 2007, the Memphis metropolitan area had the nation's highest violent crime rate in the nation in 2006.
Mayor Willie Herenton seemed too stunned to make much sense of the killings.
"I don't know the answer," he told a local TV station. "I don't think anybody knows the answer. I don't think more police officers, more jails, more people marching in the streets, prayin' -- I don't think all of those things are the answers."
richard.fausset@latimes.com
