Teen among 4 people shot dead inside Texas home on New Year’s Day, investigation underway

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ORANGE COUNTY, TEXAS: Four people, including a teenage girl, were found dead inside a home in Orange, Texas, on New Year's Day in what cops believe was a triple murder-suicide, as per the Messenger. 

City of Orange Police Department officers arrived at the house on the 2400 block of North 8th Street just before 8 am on Monday, January 1, following reports of a shooting.

Who are the victims?

After arriving inside the home, the cops discovered four bodies. All had died from gunshot wounds. Investigators are treating the incident as a homicide, believing the gunman was among the four dead.

The deceased were later identified as 17-year-old Janiya Lewis, 34-year-old Porsha Kiel, 53-year-old Bobby Kiel. All of these victims were from Orange. However, the fourth victim, 33-years-old Lester Lewis was from San Augustine. 

Orange sits close to the border with Louisiana, around 100 miles east of Houston. When a relative of Porsha Kiel's told local CBS affiliate KFDM that officials were operating under the assumption that Lester Lewis shot the Kiels and Janiya Lewis before taking his own life.

Neighbors mourn after tragic incident

Neighbors were shaken by the deaths of victims they were “friendly” with. “Definitely sad. And I feel bad because that’s my neighbor and we’ve been here a long time. We are very friendly,” one anonymous neighbor told KFDM before offering help.

He added, “If they need help, definitely I’m going to step in there and help them out. Anything they want.”

Neighbor Chris Enard separately told local ABC and NBC affiliate KBMT that he was speechless that Bobby Kiel, someone he has known for two decades and saw barbecuing on Sundays, was killed at the very start of the new year.

“I don’t have words right now. I came off of work about 2′ o'clock in the morning and cop knocked on my door,” he said, before adding, “He was like did you hear any gunshots at like 8′ o'clock in the morning? I was like yeah I’ve been hearing firecrackers and stuff go off.”

“About 9′ o'clock, I saw the yellow tape and I was like man what the hell happened,” Enard added.