Deranged Gunman Kills Multiple Victims at Montana Home, Including Unknown Number of Children

An unimaginable tragedy unfolded in a quiet Montana neighborhood Sunday evening, where what police initially described as a "family disturbance" ended with gunfire, a home consumed by flames, and multiple adults and children dead.

Even a day later, authorities in Billings are struggling to fully process the scene.

The precise death toll has not yet been released. Neither have the names or ages of the victims. But Yellowstone County Sheriff Kent O'Donnell confirmed the grim outlines Monday: Multiple adults are dead. Multiple children are dead. And the suspected gunman is dead as well.

What happened inside the house on White Star Circle is still being pieced together. But the sequence authorities have described is horrifying.

Billings police received a 911 call at 6:01 p.m. Sunday concerning what investigators believe began as a family disturbance. Then dispatchers heard something in the background. Gunshots.

Montana police said multiple children and adults were killed in a shooting and fire at a home in the West Billings End on Sunday. The male suspect is deceased, police said. pic.twitter.com/69ot3LCTj5
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Officers rushed toward the home, arriving roughly 11 minutes later. But the shooting apparently wasn't over.

Assistant Billings Police Chief Shawn Mayo said officers could still hear gunfire as they arrived. Then they saw smoke. What had begun as an active-shooter response was rapidly becoming something even worse: The house itself was burning.

Police encountered a man in the backyard and took him into custody. Authorities said he had suffered an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

He was rushed to a hospital but later died. By then, however, flames were spreading through the residence — and emergency crews faced a terrible problem. Firefighters were there. But they couldn't simply rush inside.

Police were responding to an active shooting, the scene had not yet been secured, and officers had heard gunfire coming from the property. Fire crews had to wait until law enforcement could determine that it was safe for them to approach. During that delay, the fire grew.

"The delay and limited access presents significant challenges," Billings Fire Chief Matt Hoppel said. "Fire conditions continued to worsen and the residence ultimately became heavily involved and was consumed by fire."

Footage from Billings pic.twitter.com/FTIhFuASet
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That left firefighters confronting the worst possible outcome: People were inside the burning home, but crews could not safely reach them while an active-shooter situation was unfolding around them.

Authorities later confirmed that multiple victims were found dead. Among them were children. How many remains unclear.

Officials have deliberately withheld the exact number of dead, along with their ages, genders, and relationships to one another, while investigators work through a badly damaged and potentially unstable crime scene.

Authorities said, however, that the victims and the suspected shooter have all been identified. There is also no indication that another suspect is being sought.

"We believe all parties involved have been identified and all are deceased," authorities said.

Police have not announced a motive. That leaves an enormous unanswered question hanging over White Star Circle like a black cloud: What could possibly have happened inside this home that ended with children dead, adults dead, the suspected gunman mortally wounded, and the house itself burned to the ground?

The fire didn't simply destroy the structure. It potentially destroyed or damaged evidence that investigators would ordinarily rely upon to reconstruct a homicide scene.

Then came the water necessary to extinguish it. Sheriff O'Donnell said the combination of severe fire damage and the water used to fight the blaze would complicate the recovery and examination of evidence.

Authorities kept both entrances to the cul-de-sac closed as investigators continued working through the wreckage. Residents who had initially been evacuated were eventually permitted to return to their homes, and police said there was no continuing danger to the public.

But the neighborhood they returned to was now the scene of an atrocity. There is something particularly haunting about the circumstances because the emergency response itself illustrates how quickly the situation spiraled beyond control.

More information is expected Wednesday after investigators have had additional time to examine the property and notify those affected.

"Our thoughts are with the families, loved ones, and all those impacted during this incredibly difficult time," the Billings Police Department said.

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