Detroit Firefighters' Grisly Find

Detroit police are searching for a man in connection with the shooting deaths of three of his young children and the wounding of a fourth.

Firefighters made the discovery Tuesday evening when they responded to a house fire, police officer Christopher Cole told CBS Radio News.

"As they went in, they found four children in the basement, ages 1 to 9, shot. One was critically wounded, the other three were fatally wounded," he said.

The fourth child, the oldest, a girl, is expected to survive, reports Mike Hempen of CBS radio station WWJ-AM.

The father of the children, Anthony Lamar Bailey, 37, is wanted for questioning by police. "He's a suspect not only in the shooting of the children, but police also say he then set the house on fire as a way of covering up the shooting," said Hempen.

Police believe he fled the scene on a bicycle.

"They say he does not drive, he does not own a car," Hempen added.

"We're using all of our resources to find this guy," Deputy Chief Tara Dunlop said. "We're pulling out all the stops."

Those resources included helicopters with searchlights flying over the neighborhood Tuesday night.

Tommy Samuels, 38, of Detroit, was visiting his brother in the neighborhood when he saw police cars speeding down the street. He followed them to see what was going on and saw firefighters bring out the children's bodies.

Samuels said that the firefighters tried in vain to revive one of the children, who appeared to be a girl about 2 years old.

"They tried to save that baby," he said. "They really, really, tried. They kept pounding on her and pounding on her."

Cole said neighbors reported Bailey had been raising the children and that he was in the middle of a divorce with the children's mother, who has not been seen for about one month.

Samuels, the father of children ages 6, 3 and 1, said he couldn't understand how something like this could happen.

"This is sad, sad, sad," he said. "I've got three kids of my own and I love them to death."