More information is emerging about the troubled lives of two brothers who gunned down their family before turning the gun on themselves in a murder-suicide.
The sick siblings, identified on Tuesday as Farhan Towhid and Tanvir Towhid, shot four family members inside their home in Texas.
The bloody scene of carnage was only discovered on Monday morning, although it is believed the brothers committed the horrific crime on Saturday.
There were six victims in total — the two brothers, their parents, sister, and grandmother. The bodies were found by police who had conducted a wellness check on the Allen home at 1 am on Monday.
The brothers, who were from a Bangladeshi family, suffered from depression, according to local media reports.
Police were allegedly notified by a friend about Farhan’s rambling suicide note, which the teenager had linked to from Instagram. In the note, the 19-year-old details how he and his older brother Tanvir, 21, had “hatched” a plan back in February to kill themselves and their family. This was their resort if they could not “fix everything”. The brothers had attended UT Austin, and Farhan’s twin sister, Farbin Towhid, had a full scholarship to NYU.
Part of Farhan’s note read, “The plan was simple. We get two guns. I take one and shoot my sister and grandma, while my brother kills our parents with the other. Then we take ourselves out.” He added, “If I killed just myself, they would be miserable. I love my family. I genuinely do. And that’s exactly why I decided to kill them.”
The brothers’ parents were identified to be Towhidul Islam, 54, and Iren Islam, 56. Their grandmother Altafun Nessa, 77, was in the United States visiting from Bangladesh. She was reportedly to go back home next month.
Farhan’s post also spoke of cutting himself, and how he was upset with how ‘The Office’ had ended. The post also mentioned how easy it was for his brother to buy a gun and how he had been suffering from depression since grade nine, in 2016. He wrote, “The only reason for existence is happiness”.
Allen Police Sgt. Jon Felty, added, “Two brothers entered into an agreement that they were going to complete suicide and from that, it went to where the entire family was taken with them.” Speaking about the notification he had gotten from Farhan’s friend Felty said, “The friend had seen the post that his friend made on Instagram, and that’s what made him call and say that he was concerned for his wellbeing.”
Faiza Rahman, who was close friends with Farhan said, “I haven’t mended the two versions of him in my head yet. You know the one who I knew and was so close to and would talk to for like hours upon end about anything, and like the one that did this. Like this was supposed to be himself showing how much he loved them, and I know it doesn’t make sense to us.”
Quamrul Ahsan, of the Bangladesh Association of North Texas, said: “Get to know your family first. Talk to your kids and your children and see what they’re up to. Talk to your neighbors so nothing like happens like this anymore.”
I find this impossible to understand, what a shame.