Camping tragedy as parents and 6-year-old girl killed
A nine-year-old boy who was camping at an Iowa state park in the US with his parents and six-year-old sister has survived a shooting that killed the rest of his family.
The Iowa Department of Public Safety identified the victims as Tyler Schmidt, 42; his 42-year-old wife, Sarah Schmidt; and their daughter, Lula Schmidt, all of Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Their bodies were found in their tent early Friday at the Maquoketa Caves State Park Campground, about 290 kilometres east of Des Moines.
Authorities said the suspected gunman, 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin, was found dead on Friday the 22nd of July, in a wooded area of the park with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Department of Public Safety’s division of criminal investigation says that the motive for the attack was still unknown.
“We don’t know what led up to this, what precipitated it,” he said, adding that so far, “the investigation has not revealed any early interaction between the Schmidt family and him.”
Adam Morehouse, brother to the victim Sarah Schmidt, said the family had no connection to Sherwin and he believed it was a “completely random act.”
Cedar Falls Mayor Rob Green, who said he is a neighbour of the Schmidts, posted on Facebook on Friday the 22nd of July saying that the couple's nine-year-old son, Arlo, “survived the attack, and is safe.”
The post did not say whether Arlo was in the tent or even at the campsite when the shootings happened, and the mayor says he doesn’t have those details. It was confirmed Arlo was on the family's camping trip, but said he didn't know the boys whereabouts at the time of the shooting.
“He is with family and he is OK, but I have not had any interaction with him,” Morehouse said.
“As far as I know, he was uninjured physically.”
By the evening of Saturday the 23rd of July, more than $108,000 had flowed into a crowdfunding campaign created for Arlo.
The page, organised by a cousin, Beth Shapiro, said: “Arlo is a strong boy, surrounded by family and friends who are supporting him as best we can.”
The killings prompted the evacuation of the park and campground, including a children's summer camp. After the evacuations, Sherwin allegedly was the only person unaccounted for.
He said that during the course of the investigation, authorities learned Sherwin was armed and “that of course heightened our awareness.” Iowa allows people with permits to carry firearms virtually anywhere in the state.
Officials did not say if Sherwin had a permit and provided no information about the firearm used to kill the Schmidts.
It was reported that Sherwin was from La Vista, Nebraska.
Felicia Coe, 35, of Des Moines, was at the campground Friday morning with her boyfriend and his two sons, ages 11 and 16. She said the 16-year-old went out early to go running, and she was talking with someone at the park at about 6:30 am when two park rangers dressed in helmets, vests and carrying what looked like automatic rifles told them to leave the campground.
More law enforcement and an ambulance showed up, at the time, Coe did not know what happened. But she recalls seeing a little boy standing near the paramedics.
“He was in his pyjamas. I distinctly remember he had one blue tennis shoe,” she said. She later saw a picture of the Schmidt family online and said she recognised the boy she saw as Arlo.
“He’s got this really cute, floppy-curly, moppy, strawberry-blond hair that’s really distinguishable,” Coe said. “He was in these super cute little pyjamas, like a cotton T-shirt and shorts that matched. ... He was just standing there. He wasn’t crying. He wasn’t distraught. But he also wasn’t being comforted. He was just standing there by himself.”
The Schmidts moved to Cedar Falls in 2018 and had been active in the community ever since, according to Morehouse.
Image: Schmidt and Morehead families / Facebook