West Chester homicides: All 4 victims gunned down, police continue search for suspect

The deaths of four family members found dead Sunday night in a West Chester Twp. apartment were all homicides caused by gunshot wounds, according to the Butler County Coroner’s office.

Killed were Shalinderjit Kaur, female, 39; Amarjit Kaur, female, 58; Parmjit Kaur, female, 62 and Hakiakat Singh Pannag, male, 59.

West Chester Police were quiet Tuesday about the investigation. Barb Wilson, Township spokesperson, said Tuesday afternoon there are no suspects in the quadruple homicide.

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But investigation efforts were very visible, especially in a pond behind the apartment where the homicides occurred.

A Bureau of Criminal Investigation dive team jumped into the water Tuesday searching the same pond where a local dive team searched briefly Monday.

Rick Karvosky lives about a few dozen feet away from the lake where investigators were searching on Tuesday and “could see them holding something, carrying something up the the shore and they put it in a white bucket.”

“They picked something up, and they took a bunch of measurements,” he said. “One of the guys was walking with a metal detector and all of a sudden looked up and shouted, and everybody rushed towards him.”

Karvosky didn’t see what investigators found.

He recalled Sunday night, saying he didn’t hear anything but he “saw flashes,” and then he saw something on the news and “knew it was something bad.”

Karvosky has lived in the apartment complex for two years and is “upset” by the shooting.

“Things like that don’t happen here,” he said.

Since the apparent shooting, West Chester police have stepped up their presence, but residents were told by a detective on Monday they believe it was an isolated incident and everyone in the complex is safe.

At about 9:40 p.m. Sunday, officers were dispatched to 4562 Wyndtree Drive in the apartment complex for a report of four people down, according to Police Chief Joel Herzog. In the frantic, 911 call, a male tells dispatchers, “My wife and my family are on the ground bleeding.”

The dispatcher asks how many people are down, and the caller screams, “four, four, four.” At open point, the caller says the victims are bleeding from the head and he does not know if they are breathing.

Members of a temple where three of the four people slain in West Chester Twp. shooting attended were mourning their loss Monday.

Jasminder Singh, president of the executive committee from Guru Nanak Society Sikh Gurudwara Sahib of Greater Cincinnati, said he has known the man killed at the the Lakefront at West Chester apartment complex Sunday night for 11 years.

“He was a great friend, he was a great dad, he was a great grandfather and he was a great husband,” Singh said.

The man, his wife and his daughter were at the temple just yesterday, Singh said.

“When I find out it was him, shock,” Singh said. “He was totally fine yesterday. Especially when you know somebody that many years. He was a great guy.”

Singh said the man was mostly a “Sunday guy,” but his wife and daughter regularly helped out in the kitchen at the temple, preparing food for the congregation.