Five people were found dead inside a north Phoenix home after a shooting Thursday in a suspected family dispute, police said.

The names and ages of the three men and two women weren’t immediately released, but police said they all were adults.

A woman who was able to leave the home told officers that it was a family dispute that had escalated, police spokesman Sgt. Trent Crump said.

“Our dispatcher could hear shots fired in the background while that call was coming in,” Crump said. “A caller had been able to escape the home at that point, get out and start to give us information.”


Officers discovered the bodies after an hours-long barricade in a residential neighborhood. Witnesses at the scene said they heard the sound of muted gunshots about an hour after a standoff began.

A SWAT team used a robot to search the house before sending in a dog and officers, Crump said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many people fired shots, but police said they weren’t looking for any outstanding suspects.