Associated Press

FREDERICK, Md. — The father was the shooter in a murder-suicide last week that left him, his wife and infant son dead in their home near New Market, the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.

Benyam Asefa, 40, and his wife Barbara Giomarelli, 42, started arguing Wednesday evening as she gave their 5-year-old daughter a bath, said Capt. Tim Clarke.

They took their disagreement downstairs, where Asefa shot Giomarelli with a registered, 9 mm handgun, Clarke said. The bullet passed through Giomarelli and killed their 3-month-old son Samuel Asefa in his mother’s arms, Clarke said.

Asefa then shot himself, Clarke said.

The little girl got dressed, went downstairs and saw the scene, then sought help from a neighbor, who called 911, Clarke said.

He said the bodies of Giomarelli and Samuel were found in the kitchen. Asefa’s body was found in an adjacent living room.

Investigators don’t know what the argument was about, Clarke said. He said investigators have learned about previous domestic problems, but police weren’t aware of them.

Clarke said Asefa, a native of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, lost his job as a contract worker at a National Institutes of Health laboratory in Frederick Sept. 30, when the position was eliminated to cut costs.

Giomarelli, a native of Siena, Italy, had worked at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
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