A 15-year-old Washington teenager was reportedly formally charged with the murders Monday of his parents and three of his siblings, after trying to blame one of the young victims in front of investigators.
“(My 13-year-old brother) shot my entire family and killed himself too,” the teenager, whose identity is protected due to his young age, allegedly told the sheriff, according to a court document reported by CBS News Friday.
On Monday, two adults and three minors, aged 7, 9 and 13, were reportedly found dead in a home in Fall City, Washington, after an 11-year-old girl managed to flee the house. scene by slipping through a window to warn neighbors, according to the American media.
Wounded by bullets, the young survivor allegedly faked her death by “holding her breath” before sneaking off the scene while her assailant, whom she identified as her 15-year-old older brother, turned his attention elsewhere, wrote one King County detective in a statement.
According to her testimony, she heard a member of her family shouting “stop” and “help” before going through the window to get help, NBC News reported.
Only her older brother knew the combination to the safe in which the father kept the handgun used during the attack, she would have told investigators.
Emergency hospitalized, she was released from the hospital on Thursday, according to a spokesperson for Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
For his part, the 15-year-old teenager allegedly tried to place the blame on his 13-year-old brother, one of the victims of the attack, by reorganizing the crime scene “before the arrival of the first responders”, but his version would not have satisfied the investigators who made his arrest, according to detective Aaron Thompson.
The boy was reportedly formally charged Thursday with five counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
“The law presumes that our client is innocent of these accusations,” recalled the teenager’s two lawyers, Amy Parker and Molly Campera, during his appearance, calling the accused “a 15-year-old boy who likes cycling mountain and fishing and who has no criminal record.
The company Hargis Engineers, for which the father worked as an electrical engineer, said in a statement that it was “stunned and saddened by the tragic events,” according to NBC News.
The family homeschooled their four children, who were well known and involved in the community, a neighbor reportedly told the American media.
