[Regnum] Eight people were killed in a domestic dispute in Billings, Montana, that led to a shooting and fire. ABC News reported.
The tragedy occurred on the evening of August 23 in one of the private houses.
"We believe this started as a domestic dispute," Yellowstone County Sheriff Kent O'Donnell said during a briefing.
According to police, a 911 call was received about a shooting in a public place. Upon arrival, officers found the house completely engulfed in flames. Four adults and four children are believed to have died in the incident.
| Fox11 LA adds: |
- A 44-year-old man shot and killed eight of his relatives, including four children, during a Sunday family dinner outside Billings, Montana, before taking his own life.
- The victims spanned four generations of a blended family that originally relocated to Montana from the Seattle area.
- Responding officers heard gunfire before the home was fully engulfed in flames, which investigators say delayed the search and processing of the scene.
THE BACKSTORY:
On Sunday, Aug. 23, 44-year-old Alan Smith shot and killed eight family members — including his grandmother, his parents, his sister and four children — before turning the gun on himself. The attack happened during a weekly family dinner, just weeks after his parents had asked him to move out of their home, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported.
When police responded to a 911 call at the property Sunday evening, officers heard gunshots coming from the back of the house just before the house was set on fire. Firefighters battled the flames until around 1 a.m. Monday. According to the Billings Fire Department, the home was located in a subdivision outside city limits that is not required to have fire hydrants. Efforts to fight the fire had to be delayed, and the fire ultimately burned the house down to its foundation.
Once the site was deemed safe for crews to enter, Sherlocks confirmed that eight victims had died in the attack, along with the gunman, who suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported the victims were identified as grandmother Evelyn Smith; parents Dana and Barb Smith; Alan's sister, Megan Ghekiere; Megan's two children, 13-year-old Owen Ireland and 7-year-old Chloe Ireland; and Megan's two stepchildren with her current husband, 15-year-old Landon Ghekiere and 12-year-old Charlotte Ghekiere.
LOCAL PERSPECTIVE:
According to reporting by the News Agency that Dare Not be Named, the Smith family was originally from the Seattle area. Brad Ireland, the former husband of Megan Ghekiere, told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named that after they divorced six years ago, Megan moved to Montana with Owen and Chloe. That is where she met Adam Ghekiere, who would become her second husband. Adam, the father of Landon and Charlotte, was at work and not at the home when the shooting occurred.
Megan's parents, Dana and Barb Smith, bought a house in Billings and moved soon after their daughter relocated, while Dana's elderly mother, Evelyn, lived in a nearby retirement community.
The shooter, Alan Smith, had moved in with his parents in Montana and stayed with them for years before being asked to move out a couple of weeks ago, family members told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named. Records and background details cited by the News Agency that Dare Not be Named show that Alan had attended Eastern Washington University but had struggled to find or hold a steady job.