A father murdered his partner and their child at the home daycare the family owned in Hopkins, Minnesota, Wednesday morning before turning the weapon on himself — a slaughter that unfolded in front of six other children in what should be the safest place a parent can leave a kid.

The stakes for ordinary Americans are plain: a parent dropped off a child at Brown Bear Childcare and witnessed the attack, according to the Associated Press. You trust a daycare with your child's life, and instead you get a phone call no parent should ever receive.

Hopkins Police Chief Brent Johnson said officers responded to a domestic call around 9 a.m. at a home on the 200 block of North Tyler Street. They found a man, a woman, and a juvenile dead. The perpetrator was among the dead. Johnson told reporters the deceased were part of the same family that owned the home.

"There's no worse scenario than this, where you drop off your child somewhere you think is safe, and you get that phone call," Johnson said at a news conference.

Six other children inside the home at the time were unharmed and reunited with their families, according to authorities. The New York Post reported the murders happened "in full view" of the other children — detail the other outlets soft-pedaled or omitted entirely.

Authorities have not disclosed what weapon was used. Johnson said officers were "shaken by the scene they found inside the home," adding: "I could see on the look on their faces that this was one of those ones that you'll remember for your entire career, if not life."

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey offered the usual political boilerplate — "hearts and prayers" — and said he'd contacted Hopkins Mayor Hanlon to offer assistance. No word on what assistance a neighboring mayor provides after a family annihilation.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Patriot News both identified the victims as the man's "partner" and child, while the Post described the woman as his "wife." KDHL Radio was more circumspect, referring only to a "deceased juvenile, male and female." The weapon question matters because the establishment press will inevitably use whatever object was involved to push the same tired policy demands — while ignoring the harder question of what kind of culture produces a man willing to slaughter his own child where other people's kids can watch.

No amount of legislation fixes a civilization that has stopped producing men capable of protecting their families instead of destroying them.