TORRINGTON -- One man is dead and a woman is recovering after being shot multiple times at a home on Highland Avenue in Torrington.
Residents in the area identified the man and woman as a married couple.
An excavator was at the scene moving debris from what was left of the home throughout the afternoon because the house collapsed into the basement. Only the garage was left standing.
Police said it started at 7:11 a.m. with a domestic disturbance call.
Neighbor Aaron Spring had just sent his high school kids off for the morning, and he was getting his elementary school kids ready for the bus when he heard the woman screaming. Spring said he ran across the street to help the woman who was bloodied and laying in the snow. She was on the phone with 911.
"I ran over to try to help and she yelled for me to get back," Spring recounted. "I could see she was bleeding, she was in a lot of pain, but then I realized he was still in there with a gun."
As officers were getting out of their cars as they arrived on the scene several more gunshots went off, according to Spring. Police later said that the shots didn't appear to be targeted at them, but rang out inside the house. Right after that, the house caught fire.
Police said the woman was rushed to Waterbury Hospital. Officers surrounded the house and called in a SWAT team.
"We tried for a good 40 minutes or so to try to get whoever was inside to come out," Detective Kevin Tieman said. "The gunshots ended up stopping and that's when the house became fully engulfed."
Once it was determined that it was safe, firefighters moved in to put out the flames.
Police then obtained a search warrant, and eventually were able to go through the home. They found the presumed shooter dead and sent his remains to the office of the chief medical examiner.
The man was identified as Kevin Thompson, 41. He lived at the address of the house fire.
A gun was also found near his body.
The woman who was shot was also identified as Kelly Thompson, Kevin's wife.
As the whole scene was unfolding, a reverse 911 call went out to neighboring homes telling people to stay in place. Some schools were delayed because buses could not reach neighborhoods blocked off by emergency responders.
The fire sent plumes of smoke high into the air which could be seen from all over Litchfield County.
