In early January, authorities say a man shot and killed six people in Clay County, Miss., including his father, a brother, an uncle and a 7-year-old second cousin.
A shooter walked into a hockey rink in Pawtucket, RI, in February and killed an ex-wife and an adult son and wounded three others, including the ex-wife’s parents, before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
And in Shreveport, La., a father killed eight children, including seven of his own, and wounded two of their mothers before killing himself, according to authorities. Caddo Parish, LA. Sheriff Henry L. Whitehorn described the murders as “one of the most heartbreaking tragedies we have ever seen.”
Domestic violence occurs with disturbing regularity in America. A horrific subset of this type of violence is murder or attempting to murder several relatives and sometimes one’s entire family, an act so brutal that it may seem unimaginable. It’s not common, but it happens enough that experts have a name for it: family destruction.
For many of those experts, the definition of the term, also known as familial murder, includes the attempted murder of multiple relatives. Some family murders fall outside that typical norm, but are no less shocking.
There is no comprehensive data publicly available on family destruction. Nonprofits, such as gun violence prevention organizations Violence Policy CenterThey often rely on news reports to populate their databases, and some databases categorize these murders into broad categories, such as murder-suicide or mass shootings.
Law enforcement agencies do not always keep or track data on familial relationships between murderers and victims, and many domestic crimes involve a small number of people, do not involve suicide, or are not committed with a gun.
But some statistics give at least a rough picture of the prevalence of this type of violence. Analyzing news reports for the first half of 2025, the Violence Policy Center estimated that there were 22 family destructions last year, in which three or more family members were killed, followed by one suicide.
Most perpetrators of family destruction are men, and most crimes of this type involve guns. But among the notable exceptions is Andrea Pia Yates, a mentally ill Texas mother who drowned her five children in a bathtub in 2001 and did not kill herself.
Researchers say many family destroyers have certain psychological factors in common. These include having suicidal thoughts and experiencing the loss of an intimate relationship.
Some men are also motivated to act out due to depression related to losing a job or other financial problems, and believe that it is better for the family to die than to live to deal with such issues.
Others act out of jealousy, or out of a sense of humiliation over losing their children, or because they view their family as property. Such people may view their family as something for which they are “solely responsible,” said Melina Milazzo, public policy director at the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
“There’s this belief system that if I can’t have you, no one can, and that extends beyond the individual partner,” Ms. Milazzo said. “This can extend to the family. It goes back to all the power and control — the belief system that they own the individual or the family unit.”
Expressing suicidal thoughts or threats of violence are red flags, experts say. But there are some cases where there is no history of violence, said Neil Websdale, director of the Center on Family Violence at Arizona State University. These are primarily linked to threats to men’s identities “as providers and husbands and parents,” he said.
“It destabilizes their identity,” he said. “Their shame is so obvious and intense that it results in violence.”
“The most dangerous time for a person in any type of domestic violence situation is the end of the relationship,” Ms. Milazzo said.
Shreveport, La. In the killings, the woman who picked up the gunman said she was facing the prospect of her marriage breaking up, and he was distraught at the prospect of losing his family.
Domestic abusers may also have a history of trauma, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or prior exposure to violence in childhood, said Jacqueline Campbell, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. He said some studies have also shown that head injuries can also cause brain damage.
“If someone talks about killing themselves or others, we need to take it seriously,” he said.
More needs to be done to combat this violence, Ms. Milazzo said. Recent cases have made headlines and attracted public attention, he said, but there are many that go unreported.
“This is a systemic issue that requires a systemic response,” he said.
Eduardo Medina Contributed to the reporting.
