An elderly couple who were visiting the grave of their son, who had suffered from Down’s Syndrome, were shot in cold blood by a man with a scoped rifle.
The Maryland couple, in their mid-eighties, were gunned down at a Bear, Delaware, graveyard in a merciless unprovoked attack.
The New York Post reports that the gunman, identified as Sheldon C. Francis, 29, from Middleton, was found dead by authorities following the shooting.
A black-clad Francis had gunned down the couple from Elkton on Friday morning, killing the woman later identified as Lidia Marino, 85, at the scene, while the husband later identified as Paul C. Marino, 86, died a day later in hospital.
Following the shooting, Francis appeared to hole up in a nearby woodland where police could not get an unobstructed visual on the suspect.
Locals were evacuated from the area at the time of the shootout.
Authorities chased Francis into a wooded area where gunfire was exchanged. Francis was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound at around 4pm in Brennen Estates neighborhood, which is next to Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
At present, it remains unclear whether the wound was self-inflicted or delivered by authorities.
A source, speaking with The Red Elephants, said:
“The shooter pulled up in a Honda, got out, was in all black and approached Mr and Mrs [redacted], shot Mrs [redacted] first, then Mr [redacted], then immediately ran to the woods.”
The source went onto add:
“He’s 29. And no connection (to the victims) at all. He was wearing a black hoodie black pants, black mask, hood up, black gloves, black boots.”
“I know the guy had a lot of ammo. It seems as if he set himself up in the ditches with ammo because the police were saying that their drone could see him but they couldn’t get eyes on him. He had to have planned this for a while because most people don’t know those woods like that.”
“The police were saying “Hes trying to take our drone out!” And then my [redacted] had to hang up on me.”
According to NBC Philadelphia, “the state police homicide unit is still investigating the case.”
