A gunman who killed his wife, their daughter and three children in a horrific murder-suicide in rural Tennessee posed in a “Friday the 13th” mask just months before he rioted and committed the murder-suicide.
Gary Barnett, 48, published the post on Facebook just days before massacring his estranged wife Regina Barnett, their daughter Britney Perez and three children and setting fire to the Marion County home around 9 p.m. Thursday.
Barnett then turned the gun on himself. A fourth unidentified adult was found by police with three gunshot wounds and flown to the hospital.
In an October 2022 post, several months before the fatal shooting, Barnett is pictured wearing the Jason Voorhees mask from the Friday the 13th horror film series.
In the movies, the masked killer terrorizes people by stabbing them with a giant knife.
In a TikTok video that Barnett also posted to Facebook last week, one woman says, “One really screwed up thing that guys experience after a breakup is when their ex doesn’t just pretend he’s a bad man, but just to make her do it.” “No guilt about the way she treated him.”
A gunman who killed his wife, their daughter and three children in a horrific murder-suicide in rural Tennessee posed in a “Friday the 13th” mask just months before he rioted and committed the murder-suicide
Barnett also posted a quote from Marvin Heemeyer on Facebook: “I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable.” Sometimes reasonable men have to do unreasonable things.’
Gary Barnett, 48, has been named as the family killer who massacred his estranged wife Regina Barnett, their daughter Britney Perez and Perez’s three children before setting fire to the home in the Sequatchie area of Marion County
It has now been revealed that Regina had issued a restraining order against her husband a month ago, according to court records. A judge had approved a no-contact order against Barnett that was still in effect at the time of the murders. Regina wrote in court documents, “My future (ex)husband threatened to shoot me and he verbally abuses me every day.” He also threatened to shoot my dog. He also keeps between 50 and 60 guns in his room. I’m afraid he’ll get drunk and shoot me.
The horrific scene in Sequatchie, Tennessee, following the deaths of six people in what authorities are describing as a domestic incident
Barnett also posted a quote from Marvin Heemeyer on Facebook: “I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable.” Sometimes reasonable men have to do unreasonable things.’
Heemeyer was an American auto repair shop owner who demolished numerous buildings with a converted bulldozer in 2004 in Granby, Colorado.
Meanwhile, ex-wife Regina had issued a restraining order against her husband a month ago, warning that she feared he would kill her in a drunken rage, court records show. A judge had approved a no-contact order against Barnett that was still in effect at the time of the murders.
Regina wrote in court documents, “My future (ex)husband threatened to shoot me and he verbally abuses me every day.” He also threatened to shoot my dog. He also keeps between 50 and 60 guns in his room. I’m afraid he’ll get drunk and shoot me.’
In a TikTok video Barnett also posted to Facebook last week. One woman says, “One really screwed up thing men experience after a breakup is when their ex not only pretends he’s a bad man, but also spreads it just so she doesn’t feel guilty about how she treated him. “
Gary Barnett, 48, used Facebook to post twisted posts in the months leading up to the massacre of his estranged wife Regina Barnett, their daughter Britney Perez and three children before setting fire to the Marion County home around 9 p.m. Thursday
Gary and Regina Barnett are pictures of happier times on Facebook
It was previously revealed that Regina’s daughter Perez had visited her at the home at the time of the murders.
A neighbor, Sylvia Cooper, told WTVC she heard glass shattering and then about five gunshots.
Shortly thereafter, flames could be seen coming from the house. Firefighters from several communities were called to the scene of the fire to extinguish the blaze.
At least two of the victims died as a result of smoke inhalation, officials said.
“It’s a domestic political situation that has obviously been going on for a while.” We have confirmed the deaths of six people. They were removed from the scene and taken to Nashville for an autopsy. “The crime scene has been turned over to TBI,” Sheriff Burnett told the media.
“It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.” “You hear about things like that, but this is one of the worst things I’ve seen in my entire career as a police officer,” the sheriff added.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is taking the lead in the investigation. The sheriff said there was no further danger to the community and that everyone involved in the incident was held accountable.
The victims were taken to Nashville for autopsies.
According to police, the perpetrator set the house on fire after shooting at some family members. Two of the victims died from smoke inhalation
Marion County Sheriff Bo Burnett described the scene as “one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”
Mass murders of families have become an alarmingly common tragedy across the country. They have occurred on average almost every 3.5 weeks over the past two decades. According to a database compiled by several media organizations, there were 17 in 2022.
Ten were homicides and 14 were shootings. The database defines mass murder as four or more people killed, not counting the attacker. \
Sequatchie, Tennessee, is one of more than 30 communities reeling from a mass murder of families in the past two years, a list that includes both wealthy and poor communities and excludes no race or class.
In the last two years there has been a mass murder of families in places as large as Houston or as small as Casa Grande, Arizona, killing four or more people, not counting the perpetrator.
In family murders where the perpetrators take their own lives, the motives can remain speculative, but police often cite financial problems or relationship problems as reasons.
“Mass killings of families immediately draw the attention of people in a community, but rarely attract the level of national attention that mass killings in schools, places of worship or restaurants enjoy,” said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University who studies family killings and mass killings has engaged in murders for decades.
Fox, who helped compile and maintain the database for AP and USA Today, said that’s because it didn’t inspire the same kind of fear in the public. He noted that police often issue notices that there is no danger to the public soon after the murders are discovered.
“It’s a nice, safe community, but family massacres happen regardless of the crime rate in the area,” he said. “We’re talking about internal factors and I think that’s why it’s difficult for people to see themselves in situations like this and why the reaction is sadness rather than fear.”
According to the database, mass killings of family members are actually the most common type of mass killings, accounting for about 45% of the 415 mass shootings since 2006. They occur twice as often as mass shootings in which citizens are killed.
Most, but not all, are handguns, only about a third are in households with a history of domestic violence, and most of the attackers have no violent or criminal history, said Fox.
There is no state agency that prosecutes murder-suicides nationally. So, a few years ago, policy analysts at the Violence Policy Center — a nonprofit educational organization that conducts research and public education on violence in the United States — began gathering details from news reports to create an annual transcript report. The latest 2020 version looked at murder-suicides, including many mass killings, in the first six months of 2019.
Michael Haight, 42, fatally shot his wife, her mother and the couple’s five children after he was investigated for child molestation in one of the most notorious suicide killings in recent years
The study found that 81 percent of homicide-suicides occurred at home, and 65 percent involved intimate partners.
The study also found that among homicide-suicides in which more than three people were killed in addition to the attacker, six of the 10 over those six months were incidents in which one person killed their children, partner and themselves.
Fox said most murders fall into two categories. The first is proxy murder, in which the killer, out of anger or resentment, kills the children, who are seen as an extension of their partner’s arm.
The second is proxy suicide motivated by desperation or depression, usually job loss, and the perpetrator kills the children as an extension of himself.
“He wants to spare them the misery of living in this horrible world,” Fox said. “Over the years there has been a decline in the community. Decades ago, there was a time when neighbors would come by with casseroles and offer emotional support when you were struggling to support your family or lost your job. “A lot of people don’t know their neighbors these days.”