Five dead in Washington state murder-suicide
SEATTLE ( Reuters) — A the 12-year-old girl, escaped man fatally shot four people or was released by the gunman believed to be members of his before the suspect emerged own family then kept police from the house after hours of at bay for several hours on negotiations with law enforcement Friday before killing himself, and a police SWAT team but a 12-year-old girl thought and shot himself in front of to be the gunman’s daughter sheriff’s deputies.
escaped the carnage, authorities It remained unclear when the said. four people found shot to death Although details of the inside the home were slain.
slayings inside a rural home A neighbor, Jack Pigott, 79, near the community of Belfair, who lives across the road from about 40 km west of Seattle, remained the crime scene, told Reuters under investigation, a by telephone he heard several Mason County Sheriff’s official bursts of gunfire coming from said the violence appeared to the wooded property Thursday have stemmed from a “family domestic night and assumed it was situation.” target shooting.
“As far as I know, this is Police arrived at the home one family, the shooter was the after the suspect himself called a father and the victims were his sheriff’s sergeant on the officer’s family,” Chief Deputy Russell work cell phone to say that he Osterhout told Reuters. “did something” and asked He said the lone survivor, that authorities be sent to the residence, Osterhout said.
It was not explained how the suspect knew the sergeant’s phone number, but sheriff’s Deputy Chief Ryan Spurling said “the gunman did have a previous contact with the sergeant.”
When law enforcement officers turned up at the home they could see the man through a window and could see that he was armed, Osterhout said.
The ensuing standoff with authorities who converged on the sprawling property ended with the suspect emerging at noon and taking his own life, apparently with one self-inflicted gunshot, the chief deputy said, adding that he did not personally witness the suicide.
Osterhout said he believed the four victims were all found in one area on the property, away from the gunman. The sheriff’s office earlier released photos showing law enforcement officers with guns drawn taking cover behind their vehicles, and a row of patrol cars parked along a gravel road in a heavily wooded area.
The girl who survived was found on the property after the standoff and though not seriously injured was transported to an area hospital as a precaution, Osterhout said.
The neighbor, Pigott, recounted stepping outside his own home between 8:30 and 9 p.m. on Thursday to fetch some firewood off his porch when he heard gunshots — “four or five rounds and then a pause, and then another four or five rounds and a pause and then a couple more rounds.”