Teen son escapes family slaying; 4 dead
LAKELAND (AP) – His father and stepmother had fought before, and 13-year-old Nathan Bellar had no reason to believe their latest exchange would turn violent.
After an argument on Sunday, though, the teen watched his father gun down the woman as she tried to take her sons to their grandparents’. Nathan ran back through the house and heard his father shoot his younger brothers, but the gunfire wasn’t over.
His father chased him through the cluttered garage and took aim, but tripped on a bicycle before he could get off another fatal shot. As Nathan ran screaming to the safety of a neighbor’s house, the father killed himself in the front lawn.
The teen was staying with his grandparents Monday, a day after investigators said Troy Ryan Bellar, 34, shot and killed his wife, Wendy Bellar, 31, and their 5-month-old and 8-year-old sons. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the surviving teen was quiet and cried some after the shootings but also helped detectives piece together the deadly sequence of events.
“His entire family is gone,” Judd said.
“What he witnessed, what he was engaged in, most people in this world will never witness,” the sheriff later added.
Wendy Bellar was carrying 5-month-old Zack James Bellar out the front door in a car seat when Nathan Bellar saw his father follow them with a 7.62 mm rifle, Judd said. She intended to take the infant and her 8-year-old son, Ryan Patrick Bellar, to her in-laws for the night but was shot down on the screen porch.
Nathan told deputies the earlier argument gave no indication that the evening would turn violent. Investigators said they had not found any suicide note, and a motive remained unclear for the killings in Lakeland, between Tampa and Orlando.
“They argued a little bit, but nothing significant,” Judd said.