Cleveland Man Suspected of Killing Wife, Sister-in-Law, 3 Children Commits Suicide

Police say the man suspected in the slayings of his wife, sister-in-law and three children in a home killed himself after being confronted by police.

Cleveland police Lt. Thomas Stacho said 33-year-old Davon Crawford shot himself in the head Friday afternoon while holed up in a bathroom at a house believed to be the home of a relative.

Police surrounded the home and forced their way through the front door, Stacho said.

Across the street from the home where Davon Crawford shot himself in the head, several dozen people lined up behind yellow police tape and cheered as a sheet-covered stretcher was removed from the house.

Police launched a "massive manhunt" Friday for Crawford who was suspected in one of Cleveland's worst shootings in recent years.

The victims were found Thursday night on the second floor of a two-family home on the city's west side, police said.

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Crawford's new wife, Lechea Crawford, 30, was among those killed. The couple married Monday, relatives said.

"We have a massive, massive manhunt," Stacho told reporters at a Friday news conference hours before Crawford killed himself.

Police identified the other victims as Lechea Crawford's sister Rose Stevens, 25, and her three children: Destiny Woods, 4; and 2-year-old twins Dion and Davion Primm. Another child was being treated at MetroHealth Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Susan Christopher said.

Authorities had previously said the victims were one woman and four children; there was no immediate explanation Friday for the discrepancy.

Two boys in the house, ages 12 and 13, managed to flee unharmed and one called 911, officials said.

A 2-month-old infant Stacho said belonged to Crawford and his dead wife was unharmed. It wasn't immediately clear which youngster was in the hospital. There were a total of seven children in the home.

Crawford escaped on foot; his car was still in the driveway. A police helicopter assisted in the manhunt and authorities were checking transit system buses.

"It's probably one of the worst multiple shootings that I've seen in a long time," said Police Chief Michael McGrath.

He warned that anyone assisting Crawford in eluding police would be prosecuted.

Stacho said investigators had been bewildered by interviews with people "purporting" to be family members who gave different first and last names for the victims.

"There's family dynamics we don't understand yet," he said.

Crawford served almost five years in prison for voluntary manslaughter, according to prison records. He was released in 2000, returned to prison on a felonious assault conviction and released again in 2007.

"We know how dangerous this is," Stacho told reporters. "We have every reason to believe he is armed, possibly with multiple weapons."

Outside the home, Lamar Arnold told The Plain Dealer that Crawford, whom he recognized from a police photo, was the man who had married his daughter on Monday.

Arnold said his daughter had sent him an unusual cell phone text message at 7:47 p.m. Thursday saying "Call me, live your life, love it."

"Then I tried to call her about 12 times, and there never was an answer," he said.

Police said there were two rental units in the house, and all the victims were killed in the upstairs apartment. The building is on a tree-lined street of older, mostly two-story frame houses and some apartment buildings.

India Cobb told WJW-TV she saw Crawford, whom she identified as a cousin, earlier Thursday and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"It didn't seem anything was wrong or anything like that," Cobb said. "He just got married ... He just had a baby girl. I don't understand what went wrong. I don't know what happened. I'm still trying to find out myself."

While on parole, which ended last year, Crawford passed several urine tests for drugs, paid his child support, had a full-time job and no run-ins with authorities, according to Andrea Carson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

A crowd milled around late Thursday near the home, including some who said they were family and friends of the victims.

Shortly after midnight, about four hours after the shootings, several women whom police had let into the cordoned-off area came back in tears, got into a car and left. Another woman walked away from the scene.

Click here for more on this story from MyFOXCleveland.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.