Family fight turns fatal in West Seattle
Police: Woman kills son-in-law, granddaughters, self
SEATTLE – 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 downstairs and opened fire on her daughter, her son-in-law and two teenage granddaughters.
The deceased were inside a house 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.
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 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.
Officers responded about 1:30 p.m. and heard gunshots from inside the house, Whitcomb said.