Murder-suicide

A murder-suicide (or murder suicide) is a setting where a person first kills one or more people, and then commits suicide. This can happen in different ways: The person might do a suicide attack, where he or she kills himself or herself, and in the process kills other people as well. People might also kill themselves after killing other people, to escape state prosecution, or because they believe they are guilty, and deserve to die.

The September 11 attacks, killing nearly 3000 people including the 19 hijackers, was the deadliest murder-suicide attack.

Many school shootings are murder-suicides. Different religious groups have also decided to die together: The Order of the Solar Temple has become known for a few of these events, in 1994 and 1995. Heaven's Gate was an UFO religion, which committed suicide together in 1997. In the case of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God it isn't clear if their deaths in the 2000s were mass suicides, or a mass murder: Some of the victims had stab wounds, while others had been strangled.