Murder Suicide

A murder suicide refers to an act, event and/or crime scene where a perpetrator commits one or more murders and kills himself. The motivations for such act include religious beliefs (such as suicide bombing), self-punishment because of guilt, joint suicide, the intention to prevent future pain (a father killing his family before himself to prevent them from being tortured by invaders), preventing someone from harming others, or accidentally killing oneself during self-defense. For instance, a headline reads “Customs officer fatally shoots wife, kids in murder-suicide."