Former Rare Staff
Initially responding to a domestic violence incident, police arrived at a California apartment to find three children dead and arrested their father hours later.
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Robert Hodges, 33, was taken into custody late Wednesday night without incident following the tragic discovery. As authorities were on the way to his family’s apartment in response to a domestic violence call, they received another phone call reporting that three children were possibly dead. Upon arrival, first responders performed life-saving efforts on Hodges’ 11-year-old son, 9-year-old daughter and 9-month-old baby boy, but were unable to revive them.
“Something like this is very disturbing,” West Sacramento police Sgt. Roger Kinney said. “The officers are absolutely impacted, along with the firefighters, and certainly the family, the neighbors — this call is going to have quite a bit of emotion. It’s horrific, and it’s very difficult to deal with. This is going to take not hours, not days, it’s going to take a long time to come to grips with what happened there.”
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West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon also addressed the devastating news saying,
All of West Sacramento stands together in profound heartbreak, shocked by the vile domestic murder of three children in our community. In a small town, each of us, whether parents, neighbors, mentors, and just plain citizens, know that protecting our children is our most sacred duty, and the betrayal of that duty in the home is unfathomable and unconscionable. Our thoughts go out to the families, friends and classmates of the young victims. Together, we grieve this loss.
Authorities have not revealed how the children lost their lives, nor have they provided any additional information on Hodges’ arrest. His wife of over a dozen years was reportedly “in close proximity” to the triple homicide, but did not witness the murders.
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