A parent arriving for morning drop-off alerted police as violence unfolded inside a Hopkins home licensed to care for up to 10 children.
HOPKINS, Minn. — Six young children were safely removed from a Minnesota home daycare and reunited with their families after a deadly attack inside the residence left the married owners and their 7-year-old daughter dead, police said.
The violence at Brown Bear Childcare on Aug. 12 turned an ordinary morning drop-off into an emergency for families in Hopkins, a Minneapolis suburb. Police said a 41-year-old man killed his 41-year-old wife and their daughter before dying by suicide. A parent arriving with a child witnessed the attack and called police. Authorities said the six other children inside the daycare were not physically hurt.
Officers responded shortly after 9 a.m. to the residence in the 200 block of Tyler Avenue North after receiving a report of a stabbing. Police found the woman and 7-year-old girl dead from stab wounds in the basement area used by the daycare. The man was found dead from what police described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound on another level of the home.
The six children who remained inside were described by Hopkins Police Chief Brent Johnson as very young. Officers brought them out of the residence and returned them to their families. Johnson said authorities had not determined whether the children witnessed the killings, and officials did not release their names or other identifying information.
The parent who encountered the attack while arriving at the daycare became a key witness and immediately summoned police. Johnson said the circumstances were especially difficult because parents had entrusted their children to a place they believed was safe. He said responding officers also were deeply affected by what they encountered inside the residence.
Brown Bear Childcare was a licensed family child care operation. State records cited in news reports showed it had been licensed since 2019 and could care for as many as 10 children. The program had been found in compliance during visits in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Authorities had not announced that a licensing violation played any role in the deaths.
The investigation expanded later Wednesday when police in Burnsville found a 78-year-old woman fatally stabbed at a home about 20 miles from Hopkins. Burnsville Police Chief Matt Smith said investigators believe the woman was a close relative of the man found dead at the daycare and that the two cases are connected. Police said the man had been staying at the Burnsville residence.
Investigators had not determined a motive or established a complete timeline between the Burnsville death and the violence at Brown Bear Childcare. Hopkins police said they had no history of calls to the daycare residence. Officials described the incident as isolated and said there was no continuing danger to the surrounding community.
The deaths brought a large police response to the residential neighborhood and left local officials confronting the impact on families, witnesses and first responders. Hopkins Mayor Patrick Hanlon described the city as close-knit and said residents were grieving the loss. Police emphasized that the children who survived had been physically unharmed and were back with their families.
Authorities continued investigating the Hopkins and Burnsville scenes Thursday, including the sequence of the four deaths and what may have led to them. Police had not publicly identified the people who died, and no motive had been announced.
Author note: Last updated August 13, 2026.