FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) The three victims whose bodies were found in an East Lewis Street home this week were shot to death “execution style,” police said.

808 E. Lewis St.

The bodies of Mohamedtaha Omar, 23, Adam K. Mekki, 20, and Muhannad A. Tairab, 17, all of Fort Wayne, were found by police inside a home at 808 E. Lewis St. on Wednesday. The Allen County Coroner’s Office said early Friday each died of gunshot wounds and ruled their deaths homicides, the second, third and fourth of the year.

Their deaths mark the first triple homicide in Fort Wayne in more than a decade.

The coroner’s office would not say how many times the victims were shot but Police Chief Garry Hamilton said later Friday that each was shot “multiple” times. Public Safety Director Rusty York said they were shot “execution style.”

Fort Wayne police were called just after 5:30 p.m. Wednesday to the the white, two-story home between Francis and Harmar streets and found the three dead inside a single ground-level room of the home. The call first came out as a “problem unknown.”

“I think sometimes it can be something as simple as a language barrier that the dispatcher wasn’t able to understand accurately what had occurred. They knew it was something significant. It happens quite a bit where it’s dispatched as a problem unknown and that means it’s an emergency run for the responding officers,” York said. “We know that the homicides occurred probably within an hour because we talked to folks who had been there a little bit earlier and returned in a short amount of time to find that this had happened.”

“With that many people involved, victims, it’s hard for one person to commit that act by themselves so there had to be some other people present. So, I’m hoping that someone saw a group of people leaving that residence or may have seen something they think may not be important, but is very important to helping us,” Chief Hamilton said. “These young people were just starting out their lives, and now, they’ve lost their lives. I need the citizens of Fort Wayne to support us to give us this information and anyone with information about this to help solve this case.”

Hamilton said Thursday that Omar, Mekki and Tairab were not known to be associated with any gang activity but said it was too early to say if their deaths were gang-related.

Hamilton said the three did not live at the home, which York described as a “party house.”

“It had been a place where young people would go. There was no adult supervision. To hang out, to drink, maybe smoke marijuana, it was one of those type homes,” York said. “Primarily young people whose parents have come from the Sudan or Chad. I wanted to reassure the community that we have no reason to believe that this was focused at these young men because of their religion or their nationality. We don’t believe that’s the case at all.”

All three had different addresses and were not believed to be related.

“I wanted to reassure the community that we have no reason to believe that this was focused at these young men because of their religion or their nationality. We don’t believe that’s the case at all,” York said. “You deploy your resources to prevent and find out as much as you can and to prevent any retribution, which can be a problem.”

Mekki’s friend, Emily McCormick, sent the following statement to NewsChannel 15: