James Canty spoke with 911, sobbing Wednesday morning before firing the shots that killed Michelle Barrows, 32, and himself inside their Meriden home.
“I’m sorry. Please come to my house,” a man says to a 911 dispatcher.
He is barely understandable through his sobs. Some are so high-pitched that the 911 dispatcher mistakes him for a woman.
"What's the matter?" the dispatcher says. "OK, you've got to calm down. What's the matter? Ma'am? Hello?"
Then we hear five gunshots. Canty continues to cry and then there is silence.
The 911 dispatcher continues to say hello and there is no answer.
Local
The chilling call came in about 8:15 a.m. Wednesday from a home at 54 Spice Hill Road.
The SWAT team was sent to the house and found a Barrows and Canty, 37, dead inside.
Their bodies were in the family room. Both had gunshot wounds, police said. In the Canty’s hand was a gun. The deaths are being treated as a murder-suicide.
The apparent cause of death is gunshot wounds to the head. The state medical examiner’s office will perform an autopsy.
The couple was dating, according to police, who indicated that both lived at the same address.
A neighbor said Barrows and Canty moved in across the street from her about two years ago and had been fixing up the tan split-level house since, she said.
