Police: Double homicide suspect attempted suicide

A Moundville man is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and her 14-year-old daughter before trying to take his own life. 

Two young children found the bodies of Paige Mitchell, 37, and Kaci Mitchell, 13, early Thursday morning. The children called police to the house at 154 Market St. around 9:30 a.m., said Moundville Police Chief Toby Banks.

After speaking with the children, officers went to Brad Gray's home on nearby Second Avenue, Banks said. Officers knocked on the door, Banks said, and entered after hearing a gunshot. 

Gray, 36, survived the suicide attempt and remained hospitalized with life-threatening injuries Thursday evening. 

Michael Jackson, district attorney for the 4th Judicial Circuit that includes Hale County, said Gray will be charged with capital murder if he survives.

Gray and Mitchell had been involved in a relationship with ongoing domestic violence, Banks said. Mitchell lived at the house with her two daughters and a foster child, he said.

Banks did not reveal the causes of death. He believes that the victims were killed late Wednesday night or during the early morning hours Thursday.

The deaths were devastating to many in the Moundville community, who knew either the victims, suspect or both. A prayer service was scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Moundville Baptist Church.

"Something like this is traumatizing to this community," Banks said. Banks has served as Moundville Police Chief since the beginning of this year, and was a longtime homicide investigator while working for the Tuscaloosa Police Department.

Court records show that Mitchell filed a domestic violence complaint against Gray, a welder, in 2015. 

According to documents filed by Moundville Police, Mitchell told officers that he threatened her when she went to get her vehicle from his house, telling her "I will blow you away, too." He had a gun on his hip at the time, according to the records, and tried to keep her from taking the car by hooking it up to his tractor with a chain.

He pleaded guilty to third-degree domestic violence/harassment, received a 30-day suspended sentence and was ordered to complete domestic violence classes. Records show that he completed 12 classes in Tuscaloosa. Gray was charged with second-degree assault in 2014 after attacking a man who was at his house. Court files indicate that Gray struck the man in the head with a baseball bat twice, and three more times on the back and leg once he was on the ground.

The men reached a settlement and the victim said he no longer wanted to prosecute.

Gray has two daughters and a son. His wife, who was the mother of his son, was killed in a car wreck in Moundville in 2010. 

Mitchell's husband, the father of her two daughters, died in a motorcycle wreck on the same road in 2009.