Teen in custody after five people found dead in Washington state home shooting, police say

A 15-year-old boy was arrested Monday after five people were found dead inside a Fall City, Wash., home in an incident “involving a firearm,” law enforcement officials said.

Two adults and three of their children were found dead after deputies responded to 911 calls Monday morning about a “shots fired disturbance,” according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.

The victims were Mark and Sarah Humiston and their three children, and the suspect is their 15-year-old son. KING, CNN affiliate reported.

Mark was an electrical engineer and Sarah was a registered nurse, KING5 reported. The children killed were “young teenagers,” Mike Mellis, a deputy and spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said at a news conference Monday.

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

“This appears to be a family incident, clearly a domestic violence incident involving not only a young man who is now in significant trouble, but also firearms. Young people and guns,” Mellis told reporters Monday.

There have been at least 427 mass shootings this year in the United States, according to the report The Gun Violence Archivewhich, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one that injures or kills four or more people, not including the shooter. Gun violence is the main cause of death among U.S. minors, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 1,100 children and teenagers have died in mass shootings this year alone, according to the archive.

The deaths in Washington state were “committed with a firearm” and “there was no significant confrontation” with the suspect when he was arrested, Mellis said.

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

Prosecutors have not formally charged him because the case has not yet been brought to their attention by law enforcement, according to Casey McNerthney, a spokesman for the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

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

“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 ruling,” the lawyers said.

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

“I’m still in tears,” neighbor Lynne Trowern told KING5. “That’s why I have to go home to my daughter, because I can’t be here alone. I keep seeing the kids’ faces.”