Survivor, 11, of mass slaughter in lush Seattle suburb recalls morning teen brother allegedly gunned down parents, 3 siblings: Pretended to play dead
The 11-year-old who survived a mass shooting inside her family’s ritzy mansion in Washington state said she woke up to the deafening sound of gunshots just before her older brother barged into her bedroom and allegedly opened fire. The young girl said she pretended to be dead — closing her eyes and holding her breath — after she was shot in the hand and neck out of fear her brother would return to finish the job, according to charging documents released by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. She told police her 15-year-old brother used her father’s silver handgun to shoot her parents, Mark and Sarah Humiston, her two brothers and sister to death Monday morning, suspecting his murderous rage came after he failed some tests at school and got into “ a lot of trouble,” according to the emotional recap.Prosecutors charged the alleged teenage gunman — who was not identified due to his age — on Thursday with five counts of first-degree aggravated murder and one count of first-degree attempted murder. The lone survivor tearfully recalled waking up during the gunfire and peeking out her bedroom door to see her father and her 13-year-old brother lying dead in a pool of blood in the hallway, the charging docs state. Their 6-year-old sister — with whom she shared a room — was shot dead as she walked out of their bedroom and into the hallway after she woke up.
After her brother, who was wearing a checkered shirt, allegedly shot her twice, he then left the room and leaned over the three lifeless bodies in the hall to touch their necks and chests to “see if they were alive,” she recalled witnessing.The youngster then “pretended to play dead” when he re-entered the room and stood next to her bed, according to the charging docs.The girl escaped 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, explaining that the accused teen was the only child w...