A 15-year-old boy was charged with murder on Thursday in gunshot deaths of his parents and three of his siblings at a home in Fall City, Washington, according to court documents obtained by CBS News.
The teenager, whose name has not been released because he is a minor, was charged with five counts of aggravated murder for the killings of his parents, Mark and Sarah Humiston, two brothers aged 9 and 13, and his 7-year-old sister. , according to King County court records.
He was also charged with one count of attempted murder for shooting and injuring his 11-year-old sister, according to the documents.
The girl was in “satisfactory condition” at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Autopsies performed by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that all five victims died from gunshot wounds. The handgun used in the shooting allegedly belonged to the victim’s father, according to court records.
According to charging documents, shortly before 5 a.m. Monday, the suspect called 911 with a false story in which he claimed his 13-year-old brother “shot my entire family and killed himself too” at family home in Fall City. , which is a community located near Seattle.
However, around the same time as that call, 911 dispatchers received a second call from a neighbor who lives about a quarter-mile away. That neighbor said the suspect’s 11-year-old sister ran into his home and was bleeding from what appeared to be a gunshot wound, documents state.
The girl said her entire family was fatally shot and identified her 15-year-old brother as the shooter. The girl told dispatchers she had also been shot by her brother and “later described holding her breath and playing dead,” according to the documents. The girl later told detectives she escaped through her bedroom window.
Officers went to Humiston’s home, where they found the suspect in the driveway and took him into custody, according to court records. All five victims were found dead inside the home.
During a hospital interview with detectives later that day, the suspect’s surviving sister said she identified the firearm used in the shooting as the “silver Glock handgun from his father,” according to court documents.
She said her father kept the gun in a small safe that “he sometimes put by the front door so he could take it to work,” the documents state. She told detectives the suspect was “the only one who knew the combination to the Glock safe.”
Investigators determined the suspect “systematically murdered” his parents and siblings and “then staged the scene before first responders arrived to make it appear” that the murders were committed by his 11-year-old brother. years, according to documents.
Court documents did not speculate on a motive.
The suspect should be arrested Friday afternoon. The King County Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release Thursday that the suspect was being held at the Clark Child and Family Justice Center, which is a juvenile facility.
The teen is currently being charged as a juvenile, and prosecutors said a judge will determine whether his case “will be transferred to adult court.” Prosecutors noted, however, that moving the case to adult court does not necessarily mean the suspect will be tried as an adult because, under Washington state law, the guidelines for determining the Sentencing is different for minors, even if they are tried in adult court.
In a statement Tuesday, public defenders representing the suspect said “our client is a 15-year-old boy who enjoys mountain biking and fishing and has no criminal history.”
