CHICAGO, Ill. – Relatives said a Madison man “snapped out” as he shot and killed his pregnant wife, their baby son, and 2 nieces in Chicago early Wednesday. 32-year-old James Larry was being questioned by police at last word. Relatives told the Wisconsin State Journal that Larry and members of his family were returning a nephew to Chicago after spring break when he got to his sister’s house and began shooting.

Other media reports said Larry heard voices ordering him to kill his family and bring them back to Allah. His 19-year-old Twanda Thompson died, along with their 7-month-old son Jihad, both of Madison. Thompson was expecting the couple’s second child in July. Also killed were Larry’s nieces, 16-year-old Keyshai Fields and 3-year-old Keleasha Larry.

A friend told the State Journal that Fields was 4 months’ pregnant. Larry’s mother, 57-year-old Leona Larry Burton, was critically injured and was fighting for her life at a Chicago hospital at last word. And his 13-year-old nephew Demond Larry was also critically injured. Larry’s sister Keshia was not at her southwest side Chicago home when the shootings occurred about 4:25 a.m. Wednesday. She said her 12-year-old daughter called her after she fled to a nearby gas station. The girl said Larry chased her down a street, and she was also shot-and-wounded.

The State Journal said Larry pleaded no contest last November to attacking Thompson at a department store parking lot. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail, and was released in late February.

The suspect’s sister, Letisha Larry of Wisconsin, said that while her brother has no diagnosed mental illness, he recently started acting strangely. She claimed that while he was in jail he had become a Muslim, and had been saying Allah was telling him to kill people for the past week, sources told WBBM.

Court documents indicate the suspect has a criminal history involving drugs and theft, and was charged last September with disorderly conduct and battery after he allegedly attacked Thompson in a van in Madison, Wis.

The suspect’s 12-year-old niece managed to escape the massacre and run out of the house as her uncle shot at her from a distance. She notified the Chicago Police who arrived on the scene within minutes.

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