Former Marine fatally shoots parents and two family dogs, walks into police station in blood-stained clothes to confess
CRESTVIEW, FLORIDA: A former marine killed both his parents and two of his dogs before going to the police station while still wearing his bloodied clothes and confessing to the crime.
Jacob Daniel Price, 30, entered the lobby of the Crestview Police Department shortly after 4 am this past Wednesday, November 13, with blood on his shirt and said he shot his parents and two family dogs, according to a press release by the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office.
When OCSO deputies responded to the residence on 6269 Equine Drive, they found his mother Jolene Price, 51, and his father Robert Price, 56, deceased in the master bedroom. Both of them appeared to have sustained gunshot wounds to the head.
They found two deceased dogs inside the house, one was found in the bed with the victims while the other was on the dining room floor, reported the Northwest Florida Daily News. Like Price's parents, the dogs too appeared to have been shot.
The police also found two German Shepherds that were unharmed. They were handed over to the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) and are expected to be taken in by another family member.
Sheriff's deputies said they were still investigating the incident and that, while he was living with his parents at the time of the shooting, the motive was still unclear. Autopsies on his parents will be carried out by the First Judicial Circuit Medical Examiner's Office.
Price has been charged with two counts of premeditated murder and two counts of aggravated animal cruelty in connection to the crime.
The 30-year-old reportedly served as a field radio operator in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2009 to 2013 and was deployed twice between 2010 and 2011 under Operation Enduring Freedom—the government's official name for the War on Terror instigated due to the September 11 attacks.
A Marine Corps spokeswoman said Price had left while he was still a private because "the character of his service was incongruent with Marine Corps’ expectations and standards."