Prosecutors in Washington State charged a 15-year-old boy on Thursday with the murder of his parents and three siblings this week near Seattle.
The teenager has been in custody since Monday, when officers found the five family members shot dead at their home in Fall City, an unincorporated community about 25 miles east of Seattle.
The suspect staged the scene before the officers arrived to make it appear as if his 13-year-old brother had killed himself after shooting the other family members, the authorities said.
The 15-year-old called 911 around 5 a.m. and said his brother had killed the family because he had gotten into trouble for looking at pornography, Leesa Manion, a King County prosecuting attorney, said in the charging documents filed on Thursday.
The suspect is being detained in Seattle in a youth facility and, if found guilty, could be sentenced in juvenile court to life with a presumption of release after 25 years, the authorities said. But if requested by the prosecutors, a judge might move the case to an adult court, where guilt could bring a life sentence without the presumption of release.
Prosecutors have also charged the teenager with the attempted murder of his 11-year-old sister, who they said survived by playing dead and then escaping through a window to a neighbor’s house.
Minutes after the 15-year-old’s 911 call, that neighbor called the emergency service to say an 11-year-old girl had shown up with possible gunshot wounds. She told the dispatcher that her 15-year-old brother had shot her family, the authorities said.
A judge has ordered the news media to not release the suspect’s name. The prosecutors identified his parents as Mark Humiston and Sarah Humiston and said the three dead children were the suspect’s 13- and 9-year-old brothers and his 7-year-old sister.
The authorities have not identified a motive.
The suspect waived his right to appear in court for his first hearing on Tuesday and was scheduled to appear in court again on Friday, the authorities said. He was assigned public defense lawyers, who said he had no criminal history.
The King County Department of Public Defense did not respond to a request for comment late Thursday.
The suspect’s 11-year-old sister told detectives that he had recently gotten into trouble for failing some tests at school, the authorities said. She also told them that her 15-year-old brother was the only one among the children who knew the combination to a lockbox that contained the pistol that officers found at the scene.
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