A woman shot and killed three people and herself at a West Seattle home Thursday, injuring another woman who fled into the front yard and told officers "my mom has gone crazy," police said.
Officers responded to a report of gunshots at about 1:30 p.m. and could still hear shots being fired from the house when they arrived, police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said.
Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel told KOMO News that a man — possibly the suspect's husband — broke through the police line and rushed inside the house. Police heard more shots and the man ran back out and said multiple people were shot, and that the shooter apparently had killed herself. All were believed to be members of the same family.
Whitcomb said that when officers went inside, they found four dead, including one woman they believe to be the suspect.
In addition to the older woman, the dead were two women in their late teens and a man in his 30s, police said. Their relationships were not immediately known.
A 42-year-old woman who was injured was able to speak to officers when they arrived.
"All she said was, "My mom has gone crazy,"' Pugel told the Seattlepi.com.
The woman was in serious but stable condition at Harborview Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg-Hanson said Thursday afternoon.
Police said two handguns were recovered from the house, which is in a lower middle-class neighborhood a block north of southwest Seattle's city limits. No motive for the shootings was known, officers said.
'Bam, bam, bam'
Neighbor Bobby Miller told KOMO that police showed up almost immediately after the shots were fired.
"I just heard gun shots. I come out and cops were all over," Miller said. "Just 'bam, bam' and that was it. Then screaming over here."
Earlier, police said someone from inside the home called 911, alerting them that their "grandmother was mentally ill" and reported the shooting, according to the Seattle Times.
A four-block area in the 9400 block of 14th Avenue Southwest was shutdown, police said. Students at two elementary schools were staying within the school grounds until police cleared the area, NBC News reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.