On September 23rd at approximately 1:31 p.m. officers responded to 911 calls of shots fired in the 9400 block of 14th Avenue SW. Initial information from a 40-year-old female shooting victim was that “her mother had gone crazy”. Officers arriving on scene contacted that female in the 1400 block of SW Roxbury Street. Officers could hear that shots were still being fired. The scene was fluid and very chaotic.
Information was that the suspect may have been roaming around outside on foot. As officers were arriving at the suspect residence a man in his 50′s ran into the house in question. At least two more shots were fired and the man ran back outside. Officers contacted him and he told officers that his wife had shot herself. This man did not cross a ‘police line’ or break through a perimeter as none had yet been established.
Officers entered the house and located four deceased persons: a 14-year-old girl, a 17-year-old girl, a 43-year-old man and the suspect, a 60-year-old female.
SFD medics responded to the scene but were unable to revive any of the gunshot victims or the suspect. The female gunshot victim located on the street was transported to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.
Officers and detectives discovered that there were three other people in the house when the shooting began, a child, a teenager, and the wounded victim.
Two handguns have been recovered (pictured above). The small black one is a .25 caliber Beretta and the larger one is a Taurus 9mm. Detectives are conducting a gun trace on both weapons.
There is no known motive for the killings. We have not established that the suspect has a diagnosed mental illness. There is no history of police response in the past month that this family and their friends lived at this residence.
Homicide and CSI detectives responded to the scene and continue to actively investigate. We are talking to the witnesses, and family and friends of the deceased. Our heart goes out to them in their time of extraordinary grief.
This information is preliminary and subject to change as the investigation proceeds.
Seattle Police Department Command Staff commended Southwest Precinct patrol officers and supervisors responding to the scene as well as our 911 operators and dispatchers for their exceptional performance under very demanding circumstances.