Woman kills three family members, then self in Seattle

A woman is believed to have shot four members of her family, killing three, before taking her own life in West Seattle on Thursday afternoon.

Police said the people shot - two women in their late teens, a man in his 30s, and another woman - were found dead about 2:15 p.m. at a house in the 9400 block of 14th Avenue Southwest.

The suspected shooter, an Asian woman in her 50s or 60s, was among the dead, said Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel, Seattle Post Intelligencer reports.

The drama started when gunshots were heard in a typically quiet neighborhood, and police and paramedics rushed to the house. Only a few minutes after the police arrived, more shots were fired, and they cordoned off the area in response. SWAT units who were nearby were dispatched to the scene.

A man, soon after, arrived and broke through the police tape and ran into the house. He came back out, saying that there were several people inside the house and that his wife had shot herself. The three other victims were a man in his late 30s and two women in their late teens.

A motive for the shooting has not been established, and a relative of the woman said that she had no idea what could've have happened to cause her to commit a crime like this. According to a relative, the woman and her family were from Cambodia, and police have had to call in interpreters to question family members, Channel 6 News Online reports.