Overview
- The shooter, identified by authorities as Alan Michael Smith, 44, opened fire during a family dinner on Sunday and killed eight relatives who ranged from a 92-year-old great-grandmother to a 7-year-old child.
- A 12-year-old victim placed a 911 call during the attack while trying to help family members before she was killed, family friends and relatives said.
- After the shooting the attacker set the house on fire, responders found him with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the yard, and he later died at a hospital; the blaze and partial collapse of the structure have slowed rescue and evidence recovery.
- Relatives say Smith had been asked to move out of his parents’ home weeks earlier, but investigators report no confirmed motive, no prior police calls tied to the residence, and no known criminal record in Montana or Washington.
- The community has organized fundraisers and support for the bereaved family and the case is being reviewed as part of a broader pattern of family-targeted mass killings tracked by national registries.