San Diego, CA: Navy couple found shot dead in murder-suicide after three-hour stand-off with SWAT officers

A Navy couple were found shot dead after a three-hour stand-off with police.
Military instructor Sekai Southern, 36, killed his wife Portia, 26, before turning the gun on himself at their off-military base home in Serra Mesa,
San Diego yesterday.
Police found the couple's 18-month-old toddler unharmed in a playpen on the same floor as the bodies in the two-storey property.

Their five-year-old daughter was at school as the tragic scene unfolded.
'We’re looking at this as a domestic-violence incident,' police homicide Lt. Ernie Herbert told The San Diego Union-Tribune.
'What prompted this, we don’t know yet.'
Police were called to the home at about 12.40pm after a neighbour reported a domestic disturbance.

An officer arrived to see Portia trying to leave the property and a man, believed to be Sekai pulling her back in, reports the Union-Tribune.
The man barricaded himself inside the residence as SWAT officers were called and a two-block area around the home was evacuated.
During the incident, Sekai had called the police and a family member to day that he had shot his wife, police Lt. Andra Brown said.

After three hours, efforts to negotiate with Sekai were unsuccessful, and SWAT officers entered the house and made the grim discovery.
Both Sekai and Portia served in the Navy and Agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and private security for the military housing also responded to the scene, reports the Union-Tribune.
The children are expected to be handed into the care of a relative.
'It’s always sad. It’s the holiday season,' Herbert told the Union-Tribune. 'It’s tough for everybody.'

Portia's father Michael Frazier of Houston, told 10News that his daughter, was a wonderful mother to her two children.
'I loved my baby' Frazier said, adding that he was not aware of any problems with her husband, Sekai Southern.
“I thought he was a pretty good dude,” Frazier told 10News.
Frazier said that although his daughter loved being in the Navy, she found it difficult to be away from her family during overseas deployment.
The police have previously been called to the couple's home responding to a report of domestic violence, reports the Union-Tribune.
In July, 2010, a woman called police to say that her husband had choked and punched her.
Officers who responded arrested the man on suspicion of spousal battery, and he was booked into jail, Lt Brown told the Union-Tribune.