TOOMSUBA – Authorities conducting a welfare check discovered four members of the same family shot to death in a Toomsuba home early Tuesday morning.

The victims were identified as Edna Durr, 65; her daughters Kiearra Durr, 27, and Tomecca L. Pickett, 42; and Pickett’s son, 5-year-old Owen Pickett. 

A Lauderdale County deputy sheriff discovered the victims inside a home at 4019 Butts Road around 8:15 a.m. Tuesday. The deputy also found Kiearra Durr’s 3-year-old child uninjured in the home. An ambulance transported the female child to a local hospital for a check-up.

Chief Deputy Ward Calhoun said the shooting likely occurred late Monday evening, but that a timeline hadn’t yet been established.

Demetrus Durr said the victims were his mother, two sisters and nephew. Durr also said that his 3-year-old niece had health issues, thus the reason for the wellness check.

“Whoever did this, they don’t deserve to live,” Durr said. “Justice is going to have to be served.”

Durr said he had an idea who was responsible but declined to name anyone.

Technicians from the state crime lab’s were called in to process the scene, and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrived around 10:30 a.m. to provide additional assistance.

Around 3 p.m. Calhoun said law enforcement planned to stay for a few more hours as the technicians processed the scene, noting the lights and blow-up tent set up to provide shelter from the rain.

Contrary to rumors on social media, students at Lauderdale County schools were not in danger Tuesday, Calhoun said. The sheriff’s office posted on Facebook that a school was momentarily locked down so a member of the victims’ family could be told about the shootings.

“There was a family member at the school being picked up to be made aware of what had happened,” Calhoun said. “There was absolutely no danger at any school of any kind.”

Calhoun said no suspects have been identified in the shootings, but investigators believe the victims knew the killer.

“We are leaning more toward somebody that knows the family or was known by the family,” Calhoun said.

Near the crime scene, a crowd of more than 50 neighbors and family members huddled under umbrellas and stood stunned, trying to understand the sudden deaths.

“This whole community is like family,” said Katrina Wallace, a life-long resident and friend of the family. “This is happening in my neighborhood?… We’ve never had anything like this in our neighborhood. Never. How do you just take somebody’s life like that?”

Anyone with any information about the case is urged to call East Miss. Crimestoppers at 1-855-485-8477