Background: Police investigate after a shooting takes place in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania (WPXI/YouTube). Inset: Crystal Russ (GoFundMe).
A man going through a separation with his wife is believed to have shot her dead before turning the gun on himself when she arrived at a Pennsylvania home to drop off their children.
Crystal Russ, 44, was killed this week, her family announced in a fundraiser for her four children. William Broadus, 44, was identified by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office as the other person found dead at the scene, local NBC affiliate WPXI reported.
Russ' family believes Broadus killed her before killing himself.
On Tuesday afternoon, Russ was driving to the 6700 block of West Barvista Drive in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania. The township is just northeast of Pittsburgh.
Russ and Broadus had been married for about 10 years but were in the process of separating, the woman's family said. The estranged couple shared twins, and Russ was dropping them off when Broadus came outside the house.
The woman's family believes Broadus shot Russ while the SUV was still moving, and it crashed into a garage. He then reportedly got inside the vehicle and shot and killed himself.
Neighbors recalled hearing several gunshots that weekday afternoon.
"I said, 'Oh my God, Karen, I just heard guns,'" Nettie Schropp recounted to the area TV station. "She said, 'I heard something too,' and I said, it went 'boom, boom, boom, boom and then boom.'"
The Allegheny County Police Department said its Homicide Unit was asked to help after someone called 911 reporting a vehicle had crashed into a building. "First responders encountered two individuals, an adult male and an adult female, shot inside the vehicle," and they were both pronounced dead.
"Preliminary information shows the shooting occurred inside the vehicle as part of a domestic situation," the law enforcement agency added. "There were no other injuries reported."
Russ' cousin, Alicia Rucker, said Broadus "couldn't take the separation."
"He knew he would never find no one better than her," she added.
The GoFundMe set up for Russ says she was "so much more than the story of her final days. She was a devoted mother, a loving daughter, a cherished cousin, and a light in the lives of everyone who knew her. Her laugh filled every room she walked into, her heart made everyone feel welcome, and the love she had for her family was undeniable."
"No amount of words can express the pain of losing someone so deeply loved, but we refuse to let her last chapter define the incredible woman she was," it adds. "She deserves to be remembered for her kindness, her strength, her unwavering love for her children, and the countless memories she gave us. She was the person who could make you smile when you needed it most, whose presence brought comfort, and whose spirit touched so many lives."