Teen arrested after 5 people found dead at home in Washington state

By Nicole Chavez, CNN

(CNN) — A 15-year-old was arrested Monday after five people were found dead in a home in Fall City, Washington, law enforcement officials said.

Two adults and three children were found dead after deputies responded early Monday to multiple 911 calls of a “disturbance with gunfire,” according to the King County Sheriff’s Office. The victims were not identified but their family members have been notified.

Mike Mellis, a deputy and spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said in a Monday news conference that regarding the children who were killed, he could say only they were “young teenagers.”

Another child – a girl – was injured and taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. She was in “satisfactory” condition as of Tuesday, a hospital spokesperson told CNN.

Officials believe the victims and the suspect are “likely members of the same family, but their exact relationships are part of the investigation,” Brandyn Hull, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, told CNN.

“It does appear to be that this is a family incident, clearly a domestic violence incident involves not only a young man who’s now in significant trouble, it involves firearms. Young men and firearms,” Mellis told reporters Monday.

Mellis said the deaths were “perpetrated by firearm” and “there was no significant confrontation” with the suspect when he was arrested.

The suspect waived his presence at his first hearing in juvenile court on Tuesday, according to his public defense attorneys.

Prosecutors have not formally charged him as the case has not yet been referred to them by law enforcement, according to Casey McNerthney, a spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

In a statement, the teen’s attorneys, Amy Parker and Molly Campera, described their client as a “15-year-old boy who enjoys mountain biking and fishing and has no criminal history.”

“Again, the law says our client is presumed innocent of these charges, and we are grateful for a judicial process that requires proof and evidence before there is a judgment,” the attorneys said.

There have been at least 427 mass shootings this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one that injures or kills four or more people, not including the shooter.

A neighbor said she was “in total shock” after learning about the deaths.

“I keep bursting into tears,” the neighbor, Lynne Trowern, told CNN affiliate KING. “That is why I have to go to my daughter’s house, because I can’t be here on my own. I just keep seeing the faces of the children.”

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