GUSTINE CALIFORNIA JULY 4 2006

I cut out this item from the July 5, 2006 edition of The New York Times. I thought at the time that I should start keeping track of horror stories like this one but, alas, the story stayed tacked to my bulletin board all that time up until now.

GUSTINE, Calif., July 4 (AP) - A man who was seen arguing with his wife early Tuesday killed his four children with a hunting rifle before killing himself, officials said.

All of the children apparently died from gunshots to the head, while their father, Trevor Branscum, 38, died of a self-inflicted wound, said Jim Bonta, the mayor of Gustine. Mayor Bonta said the police told him that Mr. Branscum had to reload the rifle before each shot.

The authorities identified the children as Aubrie, 12; Jacob, 10; and Taylor and Alyssa, 5-year-old twins.

The killings, the first in this Central Valley town in nearly 40 years, came a little more than an hour after the owner of a market called the police about an argument that Mr. Branscum and his wife, Amanda, had in the store just after midnight.

The disturbance started after Amanda Branscum went in to buy a few things and her husband followed her, the police said. The merchant said that as Ms. Branscum drove away in a van, Mr. Branscum dived through its window.

The police said that as officers searched for the van, a call came in at 1:30 a.m. reporting shots at the Branscum home. Officers saw Amanda Branscum lying in the road unhurt; the bodies of Trevor Branscum and the children were inside the house.

It should escape no one that the AP report fails to mention whether or not marriage between people of the same sex is responsible for the breakdown and ultimate tragedy that befell the Branscum family at the hands of Mr. Branscum.