Horrific discovery of mother who went to see her toddler at daycare but found bodies of three staff shot dead



DeLois Brown, 59, and her elderly parents named as victims

Suspect thought to have escaped on bike in Minnesota suburb



Police alerted when a mother dropped her child off at the home day care and returned minutes later because she had a suspicious feeling



Shot dead at home: DeLois Brown, 59, ran a day care in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota

A mother who had a suspicious feeling after she dropped off her toddler at a home day care yesterday returned to the house a few minutes later to make a grisly discovery of three adults shot dead.

The woman's child was unhurt and no other children were in the day care at the time.



DeLois Brown, 59, was killed in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, along with her elderly parents James, 83, and 81-year-old Clover Bolden who had moved to the area only a week ago.



Police had yet to make an arrest but were seeking a suspect in his mid-20s, believed to have fled on a BMX bicycle.

The motive for the brutal killings was unknown.



'It's a tragic day for the city of Brooklyn Park,' Brooklyn Park Police Chief Michael Davis said.



'We are going to bring whoever is responsible for this to justice.'

Two nearby community colleges were locked down for several hours after the shootings were reported at 6.30am.



Both re-opened on Monday afternoon after police spent the day canvassing the area and using police dogs to search for the suspect.

The day care, called Visions and Butterflies Child Care, was licensed to care for as many as 12 children.



Mrs Brown, 59, whose husband Joseph died in February, was listed in state records as the license holder in good standing. The license was valid until February 2013.

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Gunned down: James and Clover Bolden had recently moved to the area to be cared for by their daughter Ms Brown, who ran a day care from her home



Tragedy: Mrs Brown had moved her elderly parents into her home a week before to care for them Police Inspector Todd Milburn said the mother dropped off her child at the day care but as she was leaving, she saw a man near the house on foot, and something about him raised her suspicions.

'There was some reason for her to call back to the home,' the policeman said.

The woman called the day care and was talking to someone at the house when the line went dead.

She returned to the home and found three people had been shot. She grabbed her child and called 911. Police confirmed the victims were dead on their arrival.



No one else was inside the home when the woman returned, according to police.



He said the woman saw the same suspicious man nearby, on a bicycle, when she returned to the day care. Police said they had no information on how many children were typically cared for at Brown's home, or when they were normally dropped off.

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Armed response: A SWAT team member checks a house while searching the area for a suspect in a shooting that killed three family members

Ron Brown, DeLois Brown's brother-in-law, said her husband Joseph had died in February. Mrs Brown had just moved her parents to Minnesota from the St Louis area so she could take care of them.

'She called us a week ago today, to say they made it back safe and sound with a truckload of furniture,' Ron Brown said.

Mr Brown added that DeLois and Joseph didn't have any children together but DeLois had children before the pair were married.

A neighbor, Lisa Johnson, said that since Joseph died, the house had been busier, with more people coming and going. Johnson said she saw a moving van outside Brown's home a week ago.



Attack at dawn: Police taped off the scene where three people were shot and killed at an in-home day care in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota

A neighbor, Hakeem Hughes, 18, said he heard screaming coming from the direction of the house around 6.30am but didn't pay much attention because children often played outside the home.

When he went to catch his bus to school, he said police told him to go back inside because a gunman was on the loose.

'I'm just shocked about it,' Mr Hughes said. 'They are good people. They are innocent people.'

A few hours after the shootings, police tape was stretched around the house, a gray split-level in a modest neighborhood with children's toys in the fenced backyard.

The Hennepin County sheriff's crime lab van was parked outside, and authorities went in and out, carrying what appeared to be evidence to the van.

A small group of people stood in the street several houses down, sobbing and hugging each other.

Ms Brown's LinkedIn profile lists her as follow-up coordinator for Pink Purse Project Inc., a women's and girls' empowerment organization.

She worked for nearly nine years in the nearby Osseo Area Schools system as a child care instructor and later child care site supervisor.

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