A Washington father fatally shot his wife, two adult daughters and adult brother dead inside their Vancouver home in a murder-suicide that “shocked the conscience” of the neighborhood, police say.
“You never think it’s going to happen right next to you,” neighbor J.D. Hartman told the Columbian.
The apparent shooter had no known criminal history, and police had never been called to the house before, Clark County Sheriff Sgt. Chris Skidmore noted at a news conference Monday, according to The Columbian.
Neighbors have also described the family as “typical” and “normal,” saying they would say “hello” in passing — though they mainly kept to themselves.
But on the morning of the shooting one neighbor said they heard screaming coming from outside the home, according to KOIN.
Shots were then recorded coming from the house on another neighbor’s surveillance camera at around 10:20 a.m., the Oregonian reports.
Authorities have not yet released the names of the deceased, but property records list Stuart and Christina Rouse as the home owners.
“Unfortunately, it’s not the first time we’ve seen something kind of similar that shocks the conscience like this,” Skidmore said at the news conference.
He said arrived to the scene of Northeast 92nd Street and Northeast 115th Avenue at around 1:06 p.m. Sunday, believing the victims may already be dead after receiving a call from the suspected shooter’s relative.
The relative said he received a text message from the suspected shooter at around 10 a.m. saying that he “had harmed others,” KOIN reports.
Unfortunately, the relative did not see the text message for another four hours, and when he failed to reach his family, the unidentified relative called emergency dispatch to conduct a welfare check at the home.
For several hours after, deputies were seen standing outside the home using bullhorns to call on the shooter to leave the house with his hands up.
The police had figured since so many hours had passed since the relative received the text message, any victims inside may already be dead.
In that case, the home would be considered a crime scene — so they would have to wait for a judge to issue a search warrant, Skidmore explained at the news conference Monday, according to KGW 8.
They also knew the homeowners had firearms inside the home, and would need a SWAT team to respond.
Hartman, who moved into the street around four months ago, said he watched as the SWAT team used a battering ram to pry open the front door.
But he said the door only opened a bit, and looked like it had been barricaded.
“I had this eerie feeling that something was going on that shouldn’t be going on,” he told The Columbian.
Deputies then flew a drone into the home, and found several people who appeared to be dead, the sheriff’s office said.
Roshell Neibert, who lives across the street, told the Oregonian she heard one officer saying the camera showed three bodies in one room, another body in another room and the suspect’s body in the bathroom.
SWAT members and medics then entered the home, and determined that the five family members were already dead at the scene.
Marshall and Futeen Wills, who have lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, claimed the shooting “came out of the blue.”
They said that when they arrived home on Sunday afternoon and saw SWAT vehicles parked near their home, they initially thought it was a prank and someone had falsely called the cops on their neighbors.
It was only when they saw cops put up crime scene tape that they knew something serious had happened.
Neibert now says the whole ordeal makes her “want to be more neighborly.”
“People are struggling, and you just never know,” she said.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit is continuing its investigation, and it may take several days for the Medical Examiner’s office to conclude the causes and times of deaths for the victims.