American man of Chicago arrested for murdering wife and three daughters 

Maher Kassem was charged with four counts of first-degree murder

By Edward Era Barbacena 

When it comes to family annihilation, the United States leads on this terrible kind of murder and this is not rare. The usual culprits are middle-aged white men.

A man has been charged with first-degree murder in the killing of his wife and three adult daughters at a Tinley Park home over the weekend, officials announced Tuesday morning.

According to the Tinley Park Police Department, Maher Kassem, 63, of 7430 W. 173rd Place in Tinley Park, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder "stemming from a domestic-related incident" that took place at the home where Kassem and his family lived.

The shooting occurred at 11:20 a.m. Sunday. Four women were wounded in the incident, and all were pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

According to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office, the victims were identified as Majeda Kassem, 53, and her adult daughters: Halema, 25, Zahia, 25 and Hanan, 24.

In a press release Tuesday, police said Maher Kassem fatally shot the family members during a verbal argument. Shortly after the shooting, he contacted the police department and said someone had been shot.

Kassem was taken into custody without incident and transported to the Tinley Park police department.

At a Monday press conference, Tinley Park Mayor Michael W. Glotz called the killings a "senseless" act of domestic violence.

"Words cannot describe how deeply saddened I am at this horrible tragedy," Glotz said. "A mother and her three daughters are gone. Murdered in a senseless act of domestic violence."

Glotz went on to say the responding officers were receiving mental health resources after responding to the scene Sunday morning.

"It's difficult to process a senseless tragedy like this," Glotz said, "especially for the first responders who are called on to deal with this situation as it's all unfolding."

Tinley Park Police Chief Tom Tilton at the press conference called the investigation "very complex," and declined to give further details about the 911 call, the suspect, or the suspect's relationship to the victims.

"We don't want to say anything that's going to negatively impact the investigation, or impact the charging decision," Tilton said.

Tilton also said that a/the weapon had been recovered at the scene, though he would not elaborate on what kind.

"I'd rather not right now," Tilton said.

According to Tilton, the Tinley Park Police Department did not have a history of calls to the home.

According Pam Kostecki, executive director of the Crisis Center for South Suburbia in Tinley Park, a "domestic violence" incident occurs when "persons within the household lose their lives to someone else in the household."

"That's what domestic violence is, when violence occurs within a household," Kostecki said during the update. "Whether related or not related to one another."

"At this point, this has nothing to do with Islam, or any other religion," Itedal Shalabi, co-founder and executive director of Arab-American Family Services, said during the press conference. "This is about power and control. This is about gender-based violence. This is about the power of one person over other family members."

Charlotte Vaitkus, who lives nearby the victims, said she knew the victims for the past 15 years through her daughter.

"We’re still in shock hours later. I can’t believe that this happened a block away from me to people that we knew," she said.