US army recruiter kills teen, himself in murder-suicide

A US military recruiter has killed a young girl in his home and then killed himself in an apparent murder-suicide in the state of Maryland.

31 year-old army staff sergeant Adam A. Arndt shot and killed 17 year-old high school senior Michelle Miller in the city of Germantown, before turning the gun on himself in a murder-suicide, said Montgomery County police on Monday.

Detectives arrived at Arndt’s house Monday morning to find the two lying dead on the floor.

Miller’s parents said she had rushed out of the family’s house the night before in order to help a friend who was suicidal.

Miller met Arndt while discussing plans for her to join the Army Reserve, though she was still a high school student.

“She wanted to be a psychologist, and she wanted to do battle-related psychology,” said Michelle’s father.

Arndt was a 9-year veteran who had served overseas in Korea, Germany and Turkey.

Shooting cases across the United States have continued unabated following a massacre at an elementary school in the state of Connecticut last December, when 20 children and seven adults were killed.

Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot and killed in the United States.

The US averages 87 gun deaths each day as a function of gun violence, with an average of 183 injured, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab and the Centers for Disease Control.

The year 2012 has been a record setting year for gun sales in the US.