A northern Idaho man has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary after prosecutors said he broke into his neighbors' home and shot and killed the people there, including a minor. The incident marked the second quadruple murder in the northern part of the state since November.
Shoshone County Sheriff Holly Lindsey confirmed to CBS News that Majorjon Kaylor, 31, was arrested and charged with murder. He is being held in Shoshone County jail, staff confirmed to CBS News.
A magistrate judge identified the victims as Kenneth Guardipee, Kenna Gaurdipee, Devin Smith and an unnamed juvenile during Kaylor's first court appearance on Tuesday. They lived in the same multi-home building as Kaylor, in the small city of Kellogg, about 36 miles east of Coeur d'Alene.
Idaho State Police said in a news release Tuesday that they believe the killings happened "after a dispute between neighbors," but they did not provide details about what may have occurred.
"This is a tragic situation that will affect the Kellogg community. Detectives continue working to establish a timeline and what led to the shooting," Lieutenant Paul Berger, a detective with the Idaho State Police, said in an earlier news release. "As this case will go through the judicial process, we are ensuring every angle is covered with a thorough investigation."
The bodies of the four victims are in the custody of the Shoshone County Coroner's Office, according to police.
Neighbors were grappling with what happened.
"We were in the backyard on my patio doing a weekly family dinner," neighbor Christy Woolum told CBS affiliate KREM-TV. "I think all we heard were sirens."
Idaho State Police have released new details about a shooting in Kellogg that claimed four lives. https://t.co/7v8NJ06B8s
— KREM 2 NEWS (@KREM2) June 19, 2023
Crime scene tape on Monday blocked off parts of an apartment complex in Kellogg, KXLY-TV reported. The shooting occurred at multi-dwelling units behind the Mountain View Congregational Church on Sunday, The Shoshone News-Press reported on the newspaper's Facebook page.
Around 7:20 p.m. on Sunday, the Shoshone County dispatch center received a 911 call indicating that multiple people had been killed inside a residence in Kellogg, state police said Sunday night in a news release. Law enforcement officers found four people dead when they arrived and detained a 31-year-old man believed to be connected with the deaths, according to the release.
The Shoshone County Sheriff's Office, which said in a Facebook post that it responded to the scene with the Kellogg Police Department, said the four people died of gunshot wounds.
The Kellogg Police Department did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking additional information.
The quadruple homicide comes just seven months after another multiple killing in the state made national headlines. Bryan Kohberger, 28, was charged with four counts of murder in connection with the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students who were found dead on Nov. 13 at a home in Moscow, Idaho.
The latest killings in Idaho came amid a spate of gun violence over the weekend that killed and wounded numerous people across the U.S., including at least 60 shot in the Chicago area alone.
Looking at CDC data, a report this month by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions found 2021 set a record for the most deaths ever: 48,830 gun-related deaths. Of those, 20,958 were homicides, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Josh Horwitz, the center's co-director, said states and the federal government need to redouble their efforts to stop gun violence.
"We know that there's a correlation between amounts and levels of guns in the community and gun deaths," Horwtiz told CBS News.