Man Shoots Wife, Her Mom, Then Himself

A Tacoma man whose wife was leaving him fatally shot her and her mother Sunday before killing himself, police said.

The Pierce County medical examiner’s office identified the dead as Sovanny Heng, 33, his wife, Soung Pheach, 27, and her mother, Ey Rin, 47.

Pheach was at the house packing her things Sunday afternoon, and Rin was helping her, police spokesman Jim Mattheis said.

“They were splitting up today,” Mattheis said. “It was a planned deal between the two families. He was trying to get her to give him another chance.”

But when Pheach refused to reconsider, Heng got an assault rifle from the trunk of his vehicle in the garage, Mattheis said.

“His best friend was trying to stop him and got ahold of him,” Mattheis said. “He went inside, pushed his friend and his sister aside, shot the two victims and then turned the gun on himself.” All three died at the scene, Mattheis said.

Several people were in the house at the time of the shooting, he said.

The couple’s three children were sent to stay with relatives, said KOMO-TV in Seattle. The children are 7 and 4 years old and another is 5 months old.

Mattheis said the two older children were playing outside when the shootings occurred.