Such a 'easy-going' nice guy.
Stunned residents of a Brooklyn Park community are left wondering what caused an apparently easygoing neighbor to kill his wife and her twin teenagers and then himself Sunday morning.
Police were called about 9 a.m. by the mother of Kelly Thompson, a resident of 607 Wood St. in Brooklyn Park. She told police she had received a disturbing text message from her son, and went with another relative to the house. They waited there for police to arrive.
While police spoke with the woman outside the two-story row house, they heard a single gunshot fired inside.
Officers entered the home and discovered Thompson, 33, dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, said police spokesman Lt. J.D. Batten Jr. Police also discovered the bodies of a woman and two teenagers.
Batten said it appeared Thompson had shot the other three and then himself. All four lived at the home.
Police identified the victims as Thompson's wife, Nina Thompson, 34, and her 15-year-old twins, a daughter and son from a previous relationship, Taishawn Pugh and Treshawn Pugh.
Neighbors said Nina Thompson was a nurse. Her children would have been sophomores this fall at North County High School.
Grief counselors are available at the school for students and teachers, schools spokesman Bob Mosier said.
Officers cordoned off Wood Street between Patrick Henry Drive and Fourth Street after the shooting as homicide detectives worked the scene.
Thomas Slade lives across an alley behind the home where the shootings took place. He used to work on motorcycles with Thompson.
"He never seemed like the kind of guy who would do something like this," Slade said.
Thompson was a truck driver and had just started a new job, Slade said.
"I just can't believe all this happened," he said.
Kevin Fullerton lives across the street from the victims' home and said he used to talk to Thompson regularly. Thompson would stop by on birthdays or Christmas Eve, or just to say hello, Fullerton said.
"If he knew you, he would go out of his way to say hi to you," Fullerton said.
Thompson had just visited Saturday night and said he planned to buy a new motorcycle on Sunday, Fullerton said.
Fullerton heard the gunshot that police say Thompson used to take his own life.
He described the family as "really nice people" and said the teenagers were "very respectful." He and the rest of his neighbors were in shock yesterday afternoon.
"We're all taking it pretty hard," he said.
The deaths of Thompson and her two children bring the number of homicides in the county this year to eight.
