Police say China Barber and Gus Bennett were victims in double murder-suicide. Barber’s estranged husband allegedly shot them, then himself. Bennett had updated his relationship status on Facebook days before the shooting.
Bennett, 20-year-old China Barber and Barber’s estranged husband, 23-year-old Robert “BJ” Sprinkle, were all dead. Mobile police said in a press release that the case was being investigated as a double homicide and suicide. Sprinkle has been identified as the shooter. Police responded to an apartment complex near the University of South Alabama at approximately 4:45 a.m. on December 10 following a report of multiple people being shot.
Officers found Barber and Sprinkle deceased at the scene. Bennett was transported to a local hospital, where he later died from gunshot wounds. Police described the case as a “domestic situation” and said they were not looking for any additional suspects in connection with the shootings.
Barber and Sprinkle had married last December, but police said they were separated. “We know all three were known to each other,” Mobile Police Department Public Information Officer Ashley Rains said Tuesday, but she could not release any additional information about a possible motive in the case.
According to a relative of Bennett, he and Barber had both been friends with Sprinkle. “There is no one left to be mad at. There is no place to put the blame,” Bennett’s sister-in-law, Elyse Bennett, wrote in a letter posted by HLN affiliate WALA. “We loved all three of them and I know that Bj will now be looked at as a monster, but I already forgive him. Even with this huge gaping hole in my heart and in my life I know that Bj had to have been in so much pain.”