A 15-year-old boy has been arrested after five members of the same family were found fatally shot in a home in Fall City, Washington.
Police found three children and two adults dead at the lakeside property 25 miles east of Seattle on Monday, after responding to multiple reports of a disturbance involving gunfire. A sixth victim, a teenage girl, was shot twice but managed to escape the home and is now in hospital.
Shocked neighbors at the gruesome scene described the young victims as “so sweet and polite” and the killings as “unfathomable”.
Mike Mellis, a deputy with the King County Sheriff’s Office, described three of the deceased as young teenagers in a press conference on Monday.
Mellis called Monday’s shooting a “family incident” and confirmed that injured teenager and the youth taken into custody live in the same home. But the specific family dynamics are not yet clear.
“It appears everyone in the house was part of the same family but the specific relationships are all part of the investigation,” a spokesperson told The Independent in a statement.
Someone in the home was able to make a call to 911. “They shot the other family members, I believe there is five total, not including the [reporting party] who’s hiding in the bathroom,” a dispatcher said during the call, according to Fox13.
Neighbors said the unnamed parents “often kept to themselves” and that the children were homeschooled, but were friendly and socialised in the community, Fox13 added.
“I only saw the children in the driveway yesterday afternoon,” neighbor Lynne Trowern told Fox. She explained that it had been quiet at the scene until around 4pm when the family came home, with one of the boys heard playing piano in the garage.
“I’m shocked,” Trowern continued. “I kept bursting into tears. I keep seeing the faces of the children, I don’t know the details or anything, but I know something terrible has happened there.”
Another neighbor told reporters at the scene: “They were so sweet, so polite. It’s unfathomable”.
Mellis told the press conference this was “clearly a domestic violence incident that involves not only a young man who’s now in significant trouble, it involves firearms”, before adding it wasn’t yet clear whether multiple weapons were used. This mass shooting marks the 25th mass murder this year, according to Gun Violence Archive.
“There was no significant confrontation with the young man that was taken into custody,” Mellis said. “What had happened had happened, it was done.”
He emphasized there was no concern to the public and he predicted no additional arrests.
“This incident was a very contained tragedy within a family or within an extended family or within the residence,” Mellis said. “As bad as it is, at least it stayed contained within this property.”
The suspect is due to appear in court on Tuesday. He is reportedly being held at the King County Juvenile Detention Center.
The Independent has emailed King County Sheriff’s Office for more information.
