FAIRVIEW TWP — Investigators are still trying to make sense of what they believe is an attempted homicide-suicide involving a father and son here.

Deep-seeded family issues apparently exploded Wednesday afternoon, leaving 43-year-old Christopher Joyce with gunshot wounds and 83-year-old Patrick Joyce dead with a cut neck.

Authorities suspect Patrick Joyce shot his son with a pistol as the two were target shooting in the yard of the younger Joyce's trailer on Crosbie Lane.

Christopher Joyce was hit twice, once in the side of his abdomen and once in his hip.

Afterward, the son called 911 at 12:15 p.m., state police said.

Meanwhile, the father got some kind of razor-type blade or knife, sat down in a lawn chair and sliced his own throat.

"He took his last breath when the first trooper arrived on scene," said Butler County Deputy Coroner Dennis Trzeciak, who pronounced the elderly man dead at 2:56 p.m.