A family member who had recently been told to move out of a Billings home has been identified as the suspected gunman accused of killing eight people at Sunday dinner before the house was set on fire with some victims trapped inside.
Alan Smith, 44, was named by family spokesman Brad Ireland after the killings that left children, parents and a 92-year-old wheelchair-bound great-grandmother dead.
Ireland said Smith’s parents had asked him to leave the home only weeks before the shooting. They were among the people killed.
Smith came back Sunday and started shooting at the family, Ireland said. He later died after shooting himself.
The victims included Megan Ghekiere and her children, Charlotte, 12, and Landon, 15, The US Sun reported. Adam Ghekiere’s stepchildren, Chloe, 7, and Owen, 13, were also killed, along with the 92-year-old great-grandmother and two other family members.
Ireland had his own direct tie to the carnage. His ex-wife Megan and his children Chloe and Owen were among the dead.
Adam Ghekiere, a rescue firefighter, was working at an airshow when the first warning came over the fire department communications system about an emergency near his in-laws’ home.
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He tried to call the house, then checked the locations for Charlotte and Landon.
“I tried calling the house and no one answered. I checked my kids’ locations, both Landon and Charlotte, and no one answered,” Ghekiere told The US Sun.
By the time he reached the area, responders were still holding relatives back because the shooting threat had not been cleared.
“By the time we got to the house, they wouldn’t let us get any closer because it was still under an active shooter status. I feared the worst right then,” he said.
A 911 call captured the sound of gunfire before flames took over the home. Interim Yellowstone County Sheriff Kent O’Donnell said the house was burning within three minutes.
The call also carried a horrifying warning for responders.
“There is also going to be an unconscious child inside of the home,” the dispatcher said.
The dispatcher did not know whether the child had been shot or was breathing. Crews were told one fire engine was already positioned nearby and another had been requested.
The first report of an active shooting reached Billings police at 6:01 p.m. About 10 minutes later, officers arrived to find the residence already overtaken by fire.
Billings Fire Department Chief Matt Hoppel said the response was complicated by limited access and the lack of fire hydrants in the area.
“The delay and limited access presented significant challenges,” Hoppel said. “Fire conditions continued to worsen, and the residence ultimately became heavily involved and was consumed by fire.”
Dark gray smoke rose above the area as the home burned.
Behind the burning house, the suspected shooter was later seen outside before another burst of gunfire, police said.
Smith was taken to a nearby hospital with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and later died.
In Oregon, another suspected murder-suicide began not with a welfare check or a shooting report, but with firefighters responding to a vehicle fire at a rural Forest Grove property.
Forest Grove Fire Department crews found five people dead early Saturday morning and alerted deputies at 5:27 a.m.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said Benjamin Charles Parker, 36, killed his girlfriend, Stella Jade Kimsey, 26, at the home where they had lived together at 47350 Northwest Otis Lane.
Stella Kimsey’s mother, Rowan Karla Kimsey, 60, and grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Kimsey, 85, of Portland, were also killed.
Two more victims were found on the property, Stella Kimsey’s best friend, Linsey Mae Haraldsen, 26, of Portland, and Haraldsen’s partner, Alvin Raymond Chu, 27, of Portland.
The violence also extended to animals at the home. Deputies found two cats and two dogs dead, and officials said a third cat later had to be euthanized at a veterinarian because of its injuries.
After the bodies were discovered, authorities focused on Parker and traced his cellphone about three hours away to Enumclaw, Washington, KATU reported.
Investigators also checked the license plate from one of the victim’s stolen cars through their Flock camera system. The system showed the vehicle had entered Enumclaw five times without leaving.
Enumclaw police later found Parker dead inside a car parked behind a grocery store. A gun was still in his hand, and he had suffered an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
No other weapons were found in the car, Enumclaw police said. Evidence from the vehicle was sent back to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon.
Devin Allys, 27, Stella Kimsey’s former boyfriend, told The Oregonian that a deputy called him at 10:30 a.m. Sunday because officials were concerned about her.
The deputy asked who lived at the Otis Lane property, what vehicles belonged there, whether Stella worked, when Allys had lived there and the names of her mother and grandmother.
Allys said he and Stella had dated for just over four years before breaking up about three years earlier. During their relationship, they lived in the main house while her mother lived in a cabin down the hill.
Sheep, chickens and goats had also been on the property when he lived there, Allys told detectives.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office Detective Unit is leading the Oregon investigation with help from the Washington County Major Crimes Team.
Authorities have not said why Parker may have killed Stella Kimsey, her relatives, her friends and her pets, or whether he set the vehicle fire at the Forest Grove property before leaving.
