Infamous Pistol-Toting Soccer Mom Victim of Murder-Suicide

Meleanie Hain, who made the news last year after open-carrying to a youth soccer game and having her permit revoked and later reinstated, was shot and killed last night in an apparent murder-suicide:

A Lebanon woman who gained national notoriety last year as a champion of Second Amendment rights after she brought her loaded handgun to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game was shot and killed Wednesday night in an apparent murder-suicide.

Meleanie Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott Hain, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. after a two-hour standoff with police outside their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street. The episode ended quietly when police entered the house after trying to make contact with anyone inside.

No cause of death was announced, and autopsies were scheduled for today, said Yocum.

Lebanon police Chief Daniel Wright was guarded with information as detectives began the preliminary stages of the investigation late Wednesday night. He acknowledged that the Hains were both found dead and had suffered gunshot wounds inside their 1 ½-story brick home in a quiet neighborhood in Lebanon's southside. He would not provide any additional details, other than to say that police do not feel any other people were involved.

District Attorney David Arnold, who was at the scene, refused to comment.

Several neighbors said they heard or saw the couple's children run from the house screaming, "Daddy shot Mommy!" shortly before the 911 Center was called at 6:20 p.m.

Murder-suicides are among the most selfish of crimes, often depriving children of both parents and destroying their childhoods and their ability to trust and relate to others during their formative years.

Like the murder-attempted suicide that took place in my town yesterday morning, my thoughts and prayers go out to the traumatized children first and foremost as I wonder what can turn "love" into such selfish, family-destroying hate.