Mom fatally shoots her two young children before turning gun on herself

The 31-year-old mother was reportedly in a bitter custody battle with her former spouse

A 31-year-old mother shot her two children and then turned the gun on herself inside an apartment complex in the suburbs of Portland, police said . (KTVL/Youtube)

A mother in a Portland suburb killed her two young children and then turned the gun on herself, local police say.

Officers from the East County Major Crimes Team found three bodies on Tuesday morning inside an apartment in the 700 block of Southeast 185th Avenue in Gresham, Oregon.

Ashley Palmer, 31, and her six-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son had all suffered fatal gunshot wounds, Gresham police said Wednesday.

The scene was discovered after a welfare check was called-in to the local police.

After autopsies were performed on the three, police said they determined that the 31-year-old mother and her two children had all died from gunshot wounds in a devastating murder-suicide.

Palmer was reportedly in the midst of a bitter custody battle with her former spouse, according to court records and family members who told Oregon Live.

No further details have been released by the Gresham Police Department.

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