The 11-year-old girl who survived a mass shooting at her family's upscale mansion in Washington state said that she woke up to the terrifying sound of gunfire just before her older brother burst into her bedroom and allegedly opened fire.
The girl recalled that she pretended to be dead—closing her eyes and holding her breath—after being shot in the hand and neck, fearing her brother would return to finish the job, according to charging documents released by the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. She said that her 15-year-old brother used their father's silver handgun to shoot their parents, Mark and Sarah Humiston, and her two brothers and sister.
Narrow Escape from Death
She told the police that she believed her brother's violent actions stemmed from his frustration over failing some school tests and getting into "a lot of trouble." On Thursday, prosecutors charged the alleged teen shooter—whose identity has not been revealed because of his age—with five counts of first-degree aggravated murder and one count of first-degree attempted murder.
The sole survivor emotionally recounted waking up during the shooting and peering out her bedroom door to find her father and 13-year-old brother lying dead in a pool of blood in the hallway, according to the charging documents.
Her 6-year-old sister, who shared a room with her, was shot as she walked out their bedroom into the hallway after waking up.
After allegedly shooting her twice, her brother, who was wearing a checkered shirt, left the room and leaned over the three lifeless bodies in the hallway to check their necks and chests to see if they were still alive, as she recalled.
The girl then "pretended to play dead" when he re-entered the room and stood beside her bed, according to the charging documents.
Distracting the Murderer
She managed to escape through her bedroom window and ran to a neighbor's house when she heard her brother leave the room and make a phone call. She told police that the accused teen was the only child who knew the combination to their father's gun lockbox.
Following the tragic incident, she was taken to Harborview Medical Center and was released on Wednesday.
Prosecutors said that the teenage shooter "systematically murdered" his father, mother, two brothers, and sister, while also trying to kill his 11-year-old sister. He then staged the gruesome scene before first responders arrived, trying to blame the murders on his dead 13-year-old brother, who had been shot multiple times in the head, according to the charging documents.
Deputies arrived at the Lake Alice Road home—a beautiful waterfront property—around 5 a.m. on Monday after receiving a 911 call from the alleged attacker, who claimed that his younger brother had killed their family and then taken his own life out of fear of being caught viewing pornography.
At the same time, police received an emergency call from a neighbor who reported that the 11-year-old survivor was shot and bleeding from her neck and hand. The injured girl then identified her 15-year-old brother as the shooter.
Deputies found the bodies of the parents, Mark and Sarah Humiston, along with the young victims inside the Fall City home, prosecutors reported, and promptly took the juvenile into custody.
The King County medical examiner classified each death as a homicide, according to the charging documents.
