Deaths of the Le family an ‘unspeakable tragedy,’ and the relative who killed them, ‘evil,’ DA says

As law enforcement pulled the final remains of a young family from the ashes of their home on Friday morning, the weight of what was lost began to set in across a tight-knit Delaware County community.

“We are hurting. We are in pain,” said East Lansdowne Mayor Majovie Bland.

“This is a horrible, unspeakable tragedy,” said Jack Stollsteimer, Delaware County’s district attorney.

Among the victims were Xuong Le, 40, and his 37-year-old wife, Britni McLaughlin Le. The two were loving and devoted parents who had spent 17 years — nearly half their lives — married, and raising a family in East Lansdowne, family said.

There was their eldest daughter, Natalya, 17, a junior at Penn Wood High School who sometimes kept her hair in light pink braids. Then their second child, Nakayla, 13, an eighth grader at Penn Wood Middle School who played volleyball, cheered, and attended a local dance academy.

“When she was on stage you just couldn’t take your eyes off of her,” a family friend wrote on Facebook.

And then there was 10-year-old Xavier, a student at East Lansdowne Elementary and the baby of the family.

Also among them was the alleged gunman: 43-year-old Canh V. Le — Xuong’s older brother. Police believe, based on conversations with surviving family, that he shot and killed his relatives before opening fire on two responding police officers, then setting the family’s home ablaze.

Still, as of Friday, law enforcement officials said it’s still not clear what led Le to commit what Stollsteimer described as “a horrible evil.”

He said Le’s mother, Chin Le, told investigators she overheard her son arguing with his 13-year-old niece, before threatening to retrieve a rifle. Chin Le and her husband, Huong, fled the home in fear, he said. Huong Le called 911 for help, reporting that his granddaughter had been shot by his son. In the background, Stollsteimer said, dispatchers could hear the sounds of gunfire.

“He just went haywire,” Stollsteimer said of Le.

When local police arrived, they were met with gunfire. Two officers, both 22-year veterans of the force, were injured: one shot in the forearm, the other in the leg. Both have been released from the hospital.

First responders, battling continued gunfire, were not able to get inside the house and reach other family members before the structure became engulfed in flames and collapsed.

Investigators may likely never know the full story of how the killings unfolded and why: Most of the evidence and remains were destroyed inside the inferno. Stollsteimer said the Medical Examiner’s Office would now begin the “gruesome” process of trying to identify each person, likely using dental records and DNA, and determine exactly how they died.

“These are charred remains. They are unrecognizable human beings,” Stollsteimer said. “This is just a horrendous, horrendous thing.”

“They have literally lost everything they have,” he said of the surviving Le family. “They lost everybody they loved, and they lost their home.”

Investigators also retrieved the melted remains of a rifle — which they believe was the weapon used in the shootings — but it was unclear who had purchased the gun, or how long it had been in the home.

Court records show that Le had been arrested nearly 20 years ago for making terroristic threats, but details of that incident remain unclear. Stollsteimer said he had no information on the case.

Members of the McLaughlin and Le families have declined interviews as they process their grief. In a statement, the McLaughlins described Britni and Xuong as “loving and devoted parents to their three children, their extended family, and their beloved friends.”

“Our hearts are broken and we vow to cherish the memories of our loved ones, and we will work to ensure that their legacies live on,” the family said.

On social media, memorials started to pour in. Photos showed the family enjoying trips to Disney and to Phillies games. Friends shared memories of growing up alongside the parents, who were both born and raised in the Delaware County area.

At Penn Wood Middle School, where Nakayla Le was a student and member of the volleyball and cheer teams, students and staff wore pink and gray on Friday to honor the young girl they knew as “Kayla.” Friends wrote notes in Sharpie on her school locker, and filled it with cards and stuffed animals.

“You’ll always be my best friend,” wrote one girl.

On Instagram, friends recalled how she wanted to become a nail technician, and CCSD Dance Company shared videos of her performing in bright, glittery costumes, soaring through the air and tapping her feet.

“Always willing to learn and teach something new. She was a beautiful young lady with a golden heart,” read a post from the middle school’s cheer Instagram page.

Nakayla and her siblings were all students in the William Penn School District, and their deaths marked the second tragedy for the school community just this week. On Monday, a 15-year-old student was shot and killed by another teen.

“I can’t stop thinking about it all,” District Superintendent Eric Beacoats wrote to the community. “The death of anyone puts a lot of things into perspective.”

One bit of good news came Friday, Stollsteimer said, as the second officer who was injured in the shooting was released from the hospital. East Lansdowne Police Officer John Meehan, 44, was wheelchaired out of Penn Presbyterian to applause. His colleague, David Schiazza of Lansdowne, was released Thursday afternoon.

Back on Lewis Avenue, neighbors struggled to make sense of the tragedy as investigators packed up. Heavy equipment remained as borough officials finished demolishing the unstable skeleton of the home.

Carmen Minchala, who had lived next door to the Le family for about a year, sat on a stoop, wrapped in a blanket. She had been unable to get into her home since Wednesday, and the damage to the structure was so severe — the basement flooded from fire hoses and the walls unstable from the nearby flames — that she won’t be able to live there again anytime soon.

Gianna Milano stood and watched the cleanup of the crime scene. She recalled being on Baltimore Pike Wednesday afternoon and seeing the police vehicles “going 100 miles per hour.” She felt a kind of dread that, instinctively, told her something was horribly wrong. When she followed a plume of smoke to the burning home, her fears were confirmed.

She visited Lewis Avenue Friday out of respect for the Les.

“That was a house, a family,” she said. “And now it’s all gone, for nothing.”

Staff photographer Jose F. Moreno contributed to this article.