The school day Thursday ended like any other: Teachers at Bell Elementary School in Florida put the siblings on their bus to go home—but with no clue of the horror awaiting them, officials said. About an hour later at 4 p.m., the children—remembered fondly as “happy-go-lucky”—were dead.
“It’s a tough, tough morning at Bell Elementary School,” Gilchrist County Schools Superintendent Robert Rankin said at a news conference Friday. The six siblings — ranging from ages 11 to just 10 weeks old — were fatally shot along with their mother, 28-year-old Sarah Lorraine Spirit. The gunman was identified as Spirit’s father, 51-year-old Don Spirit, a convicted felon…
Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News
More Must-Read Stories From TIME
- Extreme Heat Makes It Hard for Kids to Be Active. But Exercise Is Crucial In a Warming World
- Pelosi's Visit to Taiwan Has Badly Damaged U.S.-China Relations, But Not Irreversibly
- Reality TV Has Reshaped Our World, Whether We Like It or Not
- Progress Is Not A Given. It is Won: The Connection Between James Baldwin and Toni Morrison
- The Inflation Reduction Act's Name Says A Lot About The Climate Fight
- How Reservation Dogs Became More than Just Must-See Television in Its Second Season
- The U.S Will Soon Have Space Force Ambassadors Around the World
Read More From TIME
