Doug Stanglin

USA TODAY

In a chilling 911 call obtained by WFTV, a Florida grandfather calmly tells the dispatcher on Sept. 18 that he had killed his daughter and her six children and planned to shoot himself when police arrive.

"I just shot my daughter and shot all my grandkids, and I'm gonna be sitting on my step, and when you get here, I'm gonna shoot myself," Don Spirit says, describing the killings in Bell, Fla.

Spirit, 51, fatally shot his 28-year-old daughter, Sarah, and her six children: Kaleb Kuhlmann, 11; Kylie Kuhlmann, 9; Johnathon Kuhlmann, 8; Destiny Stewart, 5; Brandon Stewart, 4; and Alanna Stewart, who was born in June.

"Everyone of them are dead," he tells the Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office dispatcher.

The dispatcher, trying to get more information and keep him on the phone, asks, "What kind of gun do you have?'

Spirit: "It doesn't matter what kind of gun I got. They are all dead. When you get here, I will shoot myself and then you can figure out what kind of gun it is."



At another point, he says,"All the kids are dead in the house."

Dispatcher: "How many people?"

Spirit: "Six kids and one adult."

Dispatcher: "Six kids and one adult?"

Spirit: "Yeah, one of them is a baby."

As he vowed in his 911 call, Spirit shot himself after deputies arrived..

"After a brief verbal exchange, the suspect sustained a self inflicted gunshot which resulted in his death," the sheriff's office said Tuesday. "As of this time, no clear or definitive motive can be determined."

Sheriff Robert Schultz earlier described the community as "devastated" by the killings.

Preliminary autopsy results indicate that the victims were shot with a .45-caliber hand gun that was recovered near the suspect, the sheriff's office said Tuesday in a statement on its Facebook page.

"All of the children's bodies were located in various locations inside the residence, while the bodies of the two adults were found outside the residence in separate locations on the property," the statement said.

Spirit, who had an extensive criminal record, had served time for illegal possession of a gun in connection with the fatal shooting of his 8-year-old son, Kyle, in 2001. Although the shooting itself was ruled accidental, Spirit -- as a previous felon -- was not legally permitted to possess a firearm at the time.