READ: Man kills four members of his family then calls the police and kills himself after a standoff

A gunman killed four people in rural Washington state then called the Police to tell them he had shot his family. The Policeman who answered the call, took another officer to the caller's home but he refused to let them in and refused to leave the house.

They tried to negotaite with the shooter for about 3 hours, then gave up and called the SWAT team who burts into the home and found bodies littered all over the home.

A 12-year-old girl related to the victims survived and was taken to the hospital for an evaluation, Mason County sheriff's Chief Deputy Ryan Spurling said. Her condition was not immediately known.

"Apparently she's OK," Spurling said. "I don't know if this is a daughter, or step-daughter, or what the relationship is, but she escaped from the house."

The gunman "apparently came outside the home and shot himself," Sheriff Casey Salisbury said. "It's a terrible tragedy."
Neither the gunman nor his four victims have been identified.

A neighbour said the couple had been married for about four to five years and lived with 3 adopted children, 2 from Russia and 1 from China. He also said that the husband had recently been hospitalized and was on a lot of medications.

The neighbor also said it was common for the family to do shooting practice and that's what he thought of when he heard the gunfire.

"I was getting a load of wood into the house, and I hear some gunshots," he said. "Four or five, a pause and then another round."

"It's actually really scary because when you live out like this, you want to feel like your neighbors are someone you can rely on, not somebody you have to be afraid of because we are out in a secluded area," said another neighbor, Lynn Johnson.

Source: AP