Family finds mom and 3 kids shot dead before deadly police standoff, Florida cops say

A man accused of killing a mother and her three children was shot dead by police after an hourslong standoff, according to Florida police.

Family members found the mother and her three children dead in an apartment in Lake Wales just before 9 p.m. on May 2, according to the Lake Wales Police Department. The mother was 40, and the children were ages 21, 17 and 11, Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said during a news conference.

The accused killer, Al Joseph Stenson, 38, was the mother’s boyfriend, and he shot her and her children in the apartment around 5:30 a.m. on May 2 before fleeing, Lemma said.

Officers began searching for Stenson and saw him near a motel in Sanford, more than 75 miles north of Lake Wales, around 3 a.m. on May 3, Lemma said.

A SWAT team responded to the scene around 6 a.m., Lemma said.

Lake Wales police officers spoke with Stenson’s brother, who was staying at the motel, by cellphone and could hear Stenson in the background, Lemma said.

Crisis negotiation professionals took over the conversation, but Stenson told them the standoff would end “one of three ways,” Lemma said.

He is accused of saying “I’m going to kill myself, you’re going to kill me or I’m going to surrender.”

Officials were able to convince Stenson’s brother to come out of the hotel, but negotiations continued with Stenson “for hours,” Lemma said.

Stenson at one point put his gun on the ground, and the SWAT team used a 40mm foam baton launcher, which is considered a “less lethal option” to stop a suspect from resisting without killing them, according to Lemma.

But after it was deployed, Stenson went for the gun that was on the ground, Lemma said. Investigators aren’t sure if Stenson picked up the gun or not, Lemme said, but multiple SWAT team members opened fire.

Stenson was pronounced dead on scene, according to the Lake Wales Police Department.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting, Lemma said.

Lake Wales is about 60 miles east of Tampa.

The identities of the victims have not been released.

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