House explodes in Virginia as police surround armed suspect inside
A house exploded as police were investigating reports of gunshots being fired from the property by a man.
Footage of the blast in the US showed a huge fireball shoot up into the air as the entire home went up in flames and collapsed, spraying debris all around.
Witnesses said the explosion shook nearby buildings and that they could hear it from miles away.
Officers had gone to the address in Arlington, Virginia, at about 4.45pm on Monday after neighbours said they heard the sound of a weapon being fired.
The explosion in Arlington, Virginia, could be heard and felt miles away. Pic: AP
They later determined the shots came from a flare gun, Arlington County police spokesperson Ashley Savage told reporters.
As officers tried to serve a search warrant at the home, “the suspect inside the residence discharged several rounds”, she said.
“The house subsequently exploded.”
The cause of the blast is being investigated. Pic: AP
It happened at around 8.25pm as officers were trying to make contact with the person inside – who has not been named by police.
Officials have not been able to go into the home and could not confirm whether there were any deaths. The suspect was inside when the explosion occurred, Ms Savage said.
“At this point, we’re only aware of one individual who was inside the home,” she added.
Some police officers suffered minor injuries and no one needed to be taken to hospital.
Carla Rodriguez, of South Arlington, said she could hear the explosion more than two miles away.
“I actually thought a plane exploded,” she said.
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Bob Maynes thought maybe a tree had fallen on his house when he heard the explosion.
“I was sitting in my living room watching television and the whole house shook,” he said.
“It wasn’t an earthquake kind of tremor, but the whole house shook.”
The cause of the blast is being investigated, Arlington Fire Department officials said.
FBI agents and federal fire investigators are at the scene and assisting in the investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said.
The blaze was under control by 10.40pm.
US
Five family members, including 2-year-old, found dead alongside teen with gunshot wounds at Utah home
Five members of the same family, including a two-year-old girl, have been found dead at a home in the US state of Utah.
A 17-year-old boy was also found alive but with gunshot wounds.
It is not yet clear whether he is a suspect or victim in the case, according to local police.
Roxeanne Vainuku, police spokesperson for West Valley City, a suburb of Salt Lake City, said it’s thought to be an isolated incident and “we do not believe there’s a suspect on the loose”.
A nine-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy were found alongside the 2-year-old and a man, 42, and woman, 38.
Forensic teams examine the family home in West Valley City. Pic: The Deseret News/AP
It has not been revealed how the five people died and forensic teams have been at the house as part of a homicide investigation.
Police were alerted on Tuesday by a concerned relative who entered the home through the garage and found the 17-year-old boy alive.
The boy “suffered a pretty significant injury”, Ms Vainuku said, adding that “we’ve not really been able to communicate with him”.
When officers arrived they discovered the victims in the main part of the home.
The victims appeared to match what police know about who lived at the house – a family with two parents and four children ages 2 to 17, Ms Vainuku said.
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Police were initially called to the home on Monday after a relative said the woman who lives there had not been in touch for a few days.
Officers did not get any response and left, as there was no sign of an emergency, before returning on Tuesday evening when the same women called them again.
West Valley City is about 10 miles (16km) southwest of Salt Lake City.
A death row inmate’s last words were “let’s get this over with” before he became the first person to be executed in the US state of Indiana in 15 years.
Joseph Corcoran, 49, died by lethal injection on Wednesday for the 1997 murders of his brother, his sister’s fiancee and two other men.
He had been on death row since 1999 and was executed despite his legal team and campaigners appealing to Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb to use his powers to grant clemency.
In a petition to the federal courts, including the US Supreme Court, the quadruple murderer’s lawyers maintained that he suffered from “severe and longstanding paranoid schizophrenia”.
They added that this was documented in self-published books from prison in which he described being subject to “ultrasonic surveillance”.
Deputy public defender Joanna Green said on Tuesday: “If the courts do not stay the execution, we are asking Gov Holcomb to grant clemency to Joe, a seriously mentally ill man.”
It came a day after a federal appeals court ruled that Corcoran was mentally fit enough to be executed.
Anti-death penalty groups had spent the past few days demonstrating outside Indiana’s state capitol building which houses the office of Mr Holcomb, the Indiana General Assembly and the Indiana Supreme Court.
They also delivered letters to Mr Holcomb’s office urging him to grant clemency.
Holcomb’s office did not immediately respond to a request from Sky News’ US partner network NBC News on Tuesday.
The governor announced in June that the state had procured pentobarbital, a sedative used in lethal injections, after “years of effort”.
He said at the time: “Accordingly, I am fulfilling my duties as governor to follow the law and move forward appropriately in this matter.”
An undated photo of Joseph Corcoran. Pic: AP
Corcoran’s last meal
The Indiana Department of Correction began the execution process shortly after midnight local time on Wednesday and Corcoran was pronounced dead around 44 minutes later.
The department said his last words were: “Not really. Let’s get this over with.”
Corcoran requested Ben & Jerry’s ice cream as his last meal, the department added.
Ahead of the execution, anti-death penalty campaigners criticised the Indiana Department of Correction for carrying out the process without media witnesses.
Of the 27 states that still allow for capital punishment, only Indiana and Wyoming exclude media witnesses, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.
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‘It’s going to ruin Christmas’
Before the execution, David Frank, the president of the Indiana Abolition Coalition, made reference to Christmas when he said: “One week before we welcome the light of the Prince of Peace into the world… the state in secret, under cover of darkness, plans to take the life of Mr Corcoran.”
Meanwhile, Corcoran’s sister Kelly Ernst, whose fiancee Robert Scott Turner was one of his victims, said she believes the death penalty should be abolished and criticised the state’s decision to execute her brother a week before Christmas.
Ms Ernst said: “My sister and I, our birthdays are in December… I mean, it just feels like it’s going to ruin Christmas for the rest of our lives. That’s just what it feels like.”
What was Corcoran convicted of?
Corcoran was 22 when he fatally shot his brother James, 30, at the home they shared in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
He also killed Turner, 32, and friends Douglas Stillwell and Timothy Bricker, both 30.
Five years earlier, Corcoran was acquitted of the murders of his parents, Jack and Kathryn Corcoran, after jurors found not enough evidence to convict.
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