Minnesota man who killed wife and daughter at a daycare may have killed another family member

HOPKINS, Minn. (AP) — A man who killed his wife and their 7-year-old daughter at a daycare in Minnesota is also suspected of killing a 78-year-old female relative, police said Wednesday.

The 41-year-old man fatally shot himself after stabbing his wife and child at the in-home daycare she operates in Hopkins, a suburb of Minneapolis, police said.

All six other children who were at the daycare were not physically harmed, authorities said. Another parent called police after witnessing the attack while dropping off a child Wednesday morning, Hopkins Police Chief Brent Johnson said.

“There’s no worse scenario than this, where you drop off your child somewhere you think is safe, and you get that phone call,” Johnson said at a news conference.

“This is a tragic day and horrific scene for little children to witness, if they did witness this,” Johnson later added.

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More than three hours after the killings, Burnsville Chief Matt Smith said officers were called to a home in his community, 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Hopkins, where they found the dead woman. He said investigators believe the two tragedies are linked, and that the man had been living at the home in Burnsville.

No names were released. Johnson said there was no history of police calls to the Hopkins address.

Amanda Marx, a nurse who lives across the street, didn’t realize anything was wrong until she noticed police officers trying to break down the home’s front door.

She said officers moved behind the home before reappearing and calling for crime scene tape. Later, several young children emerged — one being carried by an officer.

The brown, two-story house has a mural on the garage door of a tree-lined lake and a moose. Photos on the daycare’s Facebook page show kids playing with toys inside and in the backyard, with colorful decorations and artwork on the walls.

Marx said she and her 7-year-old son always referred to it as the “garage house” due to the colorful mural. The longtime resident said she’d never met the home’s owners and was unaware they were running Brown Bear Childcare out of the home. She didn’t recall any prior disturbances.

“I’m just trying to figure out how to explain to my 7-year-old why there’s crime scene tape on our deck,” she said.

Records show the daycare has been licensed by the state since 2019 and has a capacity of 10 children. It was found to be in compliance during visits in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Johnson said killings are a “rarity” in Hopkins and that his officers were shaken by the scene they found inside the home.

“I could see on the look on their faces that this was one of those ones that you’ll remember for your entire career, if not life,” Johnson said.

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Rico reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed.