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Police: Waldorf Father Killed Daughters, Shot Wife Before Turning Gun On Himself

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A Waldorf man killed his two daughters and shot his wife before turning the gun on himself inside their home Thursday night, police say.

It was a gruesome murder scene inside a Waldorf home, as it rattled a southern Maryland community like never before.

"What's this world coming to? What was going through his mind?"

Deputies say the suspect, now dead, has been identified as 37-year-old Carlton Goodwin.

"It happened so fast. I never thought something like this could happen," says neighbor Amya Williams.

Police received several calls around 8 p.m. Thursday night.

Neighbors tell WJZ they heard screams and gunshots from outside, when they opened up their windows, what they saw was chilling.

Goodwin's wife was outside suffering from multiple gunshots wounds.

"I saw the woman outside on the front law, she was just laying there, bleeding," says Williams.

The wife "alerted deputies that something terrible was going on inside and that her husband was still inside and might be shooting her daughters," says Diane Richardson, Charles County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies arrived and were forced to make a quick entry into the home.

Once inside, they immediately find Goodwin dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and upstairs they find his 4-year-old daughter, shot to death.

They also find his 17-year-old daughter, who was shot in the bathroom. She was later pronounced dead.

"I just saw her yesterday and everything was fine. We got off the bus and I that was the last time I saw her. Now she's gone. Just like that," Williams says.

Amya Williams went to school with the teen, and like many is left trying to piece together this heinous crime. Right now, detectives say it appears to be domestic related, but are still trying to figure out what exactly the motive was.

Deputies say they have no history of responding to the home for any type of domestic dispute. They're now in contact with extended family, trying to get an idea on a possible motive.

Goodwin's wife has not yet been publicly identified. At last check, she remains hospitalized with serious injuries.

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