A Saturday birthday party in Colorado Springs turned into a Mother's Day tragedy when a man walked into the family gathering and fatally shot six people before taking his own life early Sunday. Nubia Marquez, along with her mother and brother, were celebrating their birthdays, her husband tells the Denver Post. Marquez lost her mom, Joana Cruz, and two brothers—the birthday guest of honor Melvin Perez and Jose Guttierez. Also killed were Perez's wife Mayra, her sister, Sandra Ibarra, and her brother, Jose Ibarra, family members say. The suspect was Sandra Ibarra's boyfriend, the Colorado Springs Gazette reports, though police have not publicly confirmed any of the identities.
Marquez's husband says the suspect, whom the family knew only as "Junior," wasn't someone he knew well, nor had he been at the party earlier. Police arrived to the scene at the Canterbury Mobile Home Park at 12:18am Sunday. The Marquezes say they left the party at 10pm Saturday and "everybody was calm" at that point, but when his wife awoke at 4am for her work shift the next morning, they learned the horrifying news. Children were present at the party, but none were among the victims, and they are all in the care of relatives, police say. The tragedy appears to be Colorado's fourth-deadliest mass shooting. (More Colorado stories.)
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