six dead, including 3 kids, in Tennessee shooting, fire

SEQUATCHIE, Tenn. – Six people including three children were found dead in a Tennessee home where police responded to a shooting and arrived to find the house on fire, authorities said.

A seventh person with gunshot wounds was found alive at the Sequatchie home Thursday night after firefighters extinguished the blaze and was taken to a hospital in Chattanooga, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said. in a statement.

Marion County Sheriff Bo Burnette told WTVC-TV it appeared the situation in the country had turned into a murder-suicide.

The office said the person authorities thought was responsible were among those who died.

The sheriff later identified the suspect as Gary Barnett and one of the victims as his estranged wife, Regina Barnett.

Court documents obtained by the WTVC show that a judge granted Regina Barnett a restraining order from contacting Gary Barnett, who is still active after she said he threatened to shoot her and insult her.

“He also had about 50 to 60 guns in his room. I was afraid he would get drunk and shoot me,” she wrote in an affidavit in December.

Autopsies of all six people will be performed in Nashville.