A woman shot her adult daughter, son-in-law and the couple's two children before turning the gun on herself on Thursday in a West Seattle neighborhood.
Police found the bodies of the man and two teenage girls as well as the older woman believed to be the shooter inside the home. The shooter's daughter was wounded and was outside the home when police arrived. Police said she told officers, "my mom has gone crazy."
The shooter was described as a woman in her 50s, said Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb. She apparently took her own life as police were outside the home.
A family member said the shooter was the family matriarch, a Cambodian immigrant. The grandmother came down stairs and opened fire on her daughter, her son-in-law and the couple's two teenage granddaughters.
"I can't believe this," said the family member, a teenage boy who lives downstairs in the home where the shooting took place. He was not home when the gunfire erupted.
The deceased were inside a house in the 9400 block of 14th Avenue Southwest, which is in the Highland Park section of West Seattle. The home is reportedly shared by 11 or 12 people from two families, according to family members of the deceased.
Police described the victims as two females in their late teens, a man in his 30s, and the shooter. Two handguns were also found at the residence, Whitcomb said.
Police say someone in the home called 911 and reported his grandmother was mentally ill and had opened fire.
According to several family members, the apparent shooter — the family matriarch — moved, along with her husband, into the West Seattle home occupied by her daughter's family several months ago to save money. But a fight had been brewing between the grandmother and her daughter within the cramped quarters of the shared house.
Other family members said the shooter had been struggling with "mental problems."
Officers responded at about 1:30 p.m. and heard gunshots from inside the house, Whitcomb said. A wounded woman was outside the house, yelling "my mom has gone crazy," police said.
The wounded woman, 40, was taken to Harborview Medical Center. She is expected to survive, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Travis Rowland said he was about a block away when he heard gunfire. Rowland said police arrived at the scene followed by a man who lived at the home, identified by police as the shooter's husband. Rowland said the man broke away from the officers and ran into the house.
Police then heard additional gunshots come from inside the house.
The man left the house and was not wounded, Rowland said.
Police said he told officers that several people were dead inside the home, including the shooter.
Initially, police were searching for the shooter, and later confirmed she was among the dead. Whitcomb said a motive for the shootings is not known.
At 2:15 p.m., the wounded woman was taken to Harborview suffering from a gunshot wound, according to hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg-Hanson. The woman, whom Gregg-Hanson said was in serious condition, was awake and alert when she arrived.
"She's going to be OK," Gregg-Hanson said.
Several people who live in the home where the shooting took place gathered at the nearby Magic Lanes Casino, where some of them work. Among them was Sa Loeun Sun, who said police have not told them what happened.
A woman at the scene said her brother, who lives at the house, told her that a dispute had erupted among the occupants on Wednesday night. He did not elaborate.
Whitcomb said detectives expect to be working at the scene of the shooting into the night. He did not expect to release additional information until Friday.
Homicide detectives were interviewing the husband of the shooter, Whitcomb said.
The shooting is the deadliest in Seattle since March 2006, when Kyle Huff, 28, shot and killed six people and wounded two others in a house in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood before fatally shooting himself.
Seattle Times staff reporters Christine Clarridge, Maureen O'Hagan, Jonathan Martin, Jennifer Sullivan, Sean Walsh, Nancy Bartley, Steve Miletich and news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.
