Vancouver man kills wife, daughters, brother and himself, officials say

A Vancouver man shot and killed his wife, two adult daughters and adult brother before turning the gun on himself in an apparent murder-suicide Sunday, Clark County officials said Monday.

Sheriff’s officials did not identify the people killed in the house they appeared to share near Northeast 92nd Street and 112th Avenue, between Orchards Highlands Neighborhood Park and Washington Route 503.

A neighbor’s surveillance camera registered multiple gunshots around 10:20 a.m. Sunday, the same morning a relative got a text message from the suspect saying he had harmed people in the house. That relative saw the message about four hours after the suspect sent it, tried unsuccessfully to reach family and then called authorities around 1:06 p.m.

Deputies went to the house and tried to contact the people inside for a welfare check. Getting no response and knowing there could be guns involved, they called in a SWAT team with members from the Sheriff’s Office and Vancouver police.

The team spent several hours trying to get people inside to come out, at first declaring over a loudspeaker that they were there for a welfare check and eventually ordering people to come out with their hands up, said several neighbors who watched what happened.

Still getting no response, police sent a drone into the house, revealing multiple people dead, neighbors and the sheriff’s office said.

Roshell Neibert, who lives across the street and observed the scene, said she heard one officer saying the camera showed three bodies in one room, another body in another room and the suspect’s body in the bathroom.

(This is a map of the immediate neighborhood, above, where officials say a man shot and killed his wife, daughters, brother and himself Sunday, Dec. 3.)

She said police went inside the house around 4:30 p.m. and came out within 90 seconds.

Medics and SWAT team members confirmed there were five people dead inside, the Sheriff’s Office said. A spokesperson said it’s believed they had already died by the time the first deputies arrived.

Deputies had never responded to calls at the house before, sheriff’s officials said. The suspect did not have a criminal history, according to information released at a Clark County Sheriff’s Office press conference.

The single-story house was surrounded by a collection of trucks, trailers and a boat on a residential block with single-family homes, mostly of the same style.

Neibert, 37, and her family saw large green SWAT vehicles roll up in front of the house across the street and police and sheriff’s vehicles line the block. She later checked her Ring camera and saw it had captured the sound of multiple gunshots at 10:22 a.m.

Neibert said she has rarely interacted with the family across the street, despite living in the same house for eight years. She and her daughter are now trying to help the family member who called police find the family’s two outdoor cats.

“It makes me want to be more neighborly,” Neibert said. “People are struggling and you just never know.”

J.D. Hartman, 43, who said he lives on the same block, said he didn’t know the family who lived in the house other than to exchange greetings when he saw a woman outside. He described the residents as “pretty secluded.”

He said he also saw a man who drove a red truck who appeared to live there.

“We just didn’t really know what was going on,” Hartman said. “It’s such a quiet neighborhood.”

Do you know something about this shooting? Please get in touch.

Oregonian journalist Beth Nakamura contributed to this report.

— Catalina Gaitán, cgaitan@oregonian.com, @catalinagaitan_

— Fedor Zarkhin, fzarkhin@oregonian.com, Cell: 971-373-2905