Canadian police investigating 9 deaths at 3 crime scenes

Dec. 30, 2014: Police investigate the scene where multiple deaths occurred overnight in Edmonton, Alberta. (AP)

EDMONTON, Alberta – Police say they are investigating the deaths of seven adults and two young children at three separate but connected Edmonton-area crime scenes.

Police Chief Ron Knecht at a news conference Tuesday called the killings a "senseless mass murder."  He said the victims included a woman found Monday night by officers responding to a weapons complaint at a south Edmonton home.

The bodies of three more women, two men, a boy and a girl were discovered a few hours later at a northeast home where officers had checked on reports of a suicidal male earlier in the evening.

A man matching the description of the suicidal male was found dead in a restaurant in the Edmonton bedroom community of Fort Saskatchewan on Tuesday morning, Knecht said.