A baby has been found alive alongside two dead police officers in a Detroit home, multiple sources have reported.
The discovery was made on Sunday night (February 19), with the Detroit Police Chief Jesse E. White revealing in a statement that the Livonia Police Department is currently investigating the incident.
Through a statement recorded and subsequently posted to Twitter, White stated: "It's a very tragic and sad course of events."
He then added: "It appears to be domestic. It looks like, preliminarily, a murder-suicide, and that's where we are right now. It's a sad day for our department, and thoughts and prayers go out to the family, as well as our officers who you can see over there that are taking it pretty hard, as are the rest of the command team."
Fox Detroit reported that the police officers - whose identities were later confirmed to be Maria Martin, 22, and Matthew Ethington II, 26 - were in a relationship, and both had suffered gunshot wounds. A baby was also discovered at the scene but is unharmed, and is now in the care of family members.
Officers had turned up at the residence after a family member contacted Livonia Police and requested a welfare check, PEOPLE detailed.
Police Chief White told Fox 2 that the pair, who had been with the force less than four years, had been "model officers" and nothing in their records could have foreshadowed the tragedy.
He explained: "I've secured every document that we have involving the officers, and nothing – nothing jumps out at you at all. Model officers, no issues.
"My understanding is they were both preparing for the supervisors' exam we have upcoming in about a month, This was out of nowhere."
He added: "We'll certainly be looking anything internally that we can do to help our officers who may find themselves in a domestic situation."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Law Enforcement Bulletin has explained that close to 600 murder-suicides occur in the United States each year, which reportedly accounts for between 1,000 and 1,500 deaths.
The majority of incidents happen between two people involved in a romantic relationship or domestic setting, with 65% of murder-suicides happening between intimate couples. Over 81% will occur in the home.
"Although uncommon, such incidents vary widely in terms of the persons involved, how they are related, and where the crimes take place," the bulletin details. It also specifically details statistics regarding incidents involving police officers, stating: "Because of job-related variables and personality factors, police officers appear to be disproportionately at risk for suicide and its subset, homicide-suicide, compared to other occupational groups. Subsequent research supports this sad reality."
However, the bulletin does note that there is an insufficient amount of research conducted into domestic murder-suicide in the law enforcement community.
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