Montana man reportedly asked to leave parents’ home before opening fire

A man killed eight of his relatives, including four children , as they gathered for dinner at a Montana home, weeks after his parents asked him to move out, authorities said Wednesday.

The attack unfolded early Sunday evening on White Star Circle just outside of Billings, at a home owned by victims Dana Smith, 73, and Barbara Smith, 72, officials said.

The homeowners were killed along with Megan Ireland-Ghekiere, 39, and her four children Owen Ireland, 13, Chloe Ireland, 7, Landon Ghekiere, 15, and Charlotte Ghekiere, 12, authorities said.

Evelyn Smith, 92 — whom interim Yellowstone County Sheriff Kent O’Donnell called the “family matriarch” — did not live at the home but was there Sunday for dinner when she was killed.

O’Donnell identified the shooter as 44-year-old Alan Smith, saying he carried out a “very complex” attack.

Smith is the brother of victim Megan Ireland-Ghekier and thus an uncle to all four of the younger victims, Billings police said.

Smith had once lived in that house and had been asked to move out weeks earlier, Brad Ireland — Megan Ireland-Ghekiere’s ex-husband — told The Associated Press. O’Donnell confirmed that Alan Smith had once lived at the house but wasn’t currently residing there when the violence unfolded Sunday.

“This is an ongoing criminal investigation with eight victims, making this very complex,” O’Donnell said.

The killings wiped out members from four generations, said Jennifer Mercer, a neighbor and family friend who set up an online fundraiser to help cover funeral costs and other expenses, and was authorized to release these details.

Smith arrived at the home at about 5:49 p.m. and 11 minutes later neighbors believed they heard the sound of fireworks, officials said. That kind of noise, especially in the summer, wouldn’t necessarily alarm anyone, O’Donnell said.

But at 6:02 p.m., dispatchers received a call from a “female” voice inside the house, and Yellowstone County sheriff’s deputies arrived at 6:10 p.m., officials said.

“The one thing we do know is that Charlotte was the hero,” Mercer said. “Charlotte called 911 and she tried to save her family. And that’s something the family does want out there.”

She described the family as “very loving and close,” saying the children all got along and that their parents remained amicable even after divorcing.

“I feel like our entire community is devastated, even people that never knew any of them,” Mercer said.

Police officers and deputies “confronted the suspect in the front yard, where he retreated into the house,” O’Donnell said. More “gunshots were heard within the household” before the shooter went to the back of the property, O’Donnell said. At about 6:13 p.m., a deputy “heard a final shot, which was broken away from the rest of the shots,” according to the sheriff.

By about 6:22, police officers and sheriff’s deputies “made entrance into the backyard” and located a male victim there with a gunshot wound beginning life-saving measures on him, O’Donnell said.

“At this time, it wasn’t known that he was actually the suspect of all this,” O’Donnell said. “He was just a person down, and law enforcement did what they’re trained to do. They got him out of the hot zone and provided what first aid they could. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.”

Firefighters fought the resulting blaze until around 1 a.m. Monday, according to Billings Fire Department Chief Matt Hoppel. The home sits in a subdivision outside of city limits that isn’t required to have fire hydrants.

“They had to haul in truckloads of water, set up a temporary tank and pump out of that tank,” O’Donnell said. “So the fire suppression portion of this was very very difficult.”

The Smith family was originally from the Seattle area. Ireland said that after he and Megan Ghekiere divorced six years ago, she moved to Montana with their children.

There, she met the man who would become her second husband, Adam Ghekiere, who was working and not at the home when the shooting occurred.

Her parents, Dana and Barbara Smith, soon followed, buying a house in Billings near their daughter’s home. Evelyn Smith, Dana’s elderly mother, lived in a nearby retirement community, Ireland said.

“They were nice,” neighbor Donna Heisler, 67, told NBC News on Tuesday. “I talked to Barbara the wife at a couple of garage sales.”

Heisler said her neighbors appeared to enjoy their privacy.

“They kind of kept to themselves. Really weren’t a very outgoing couple,” Heisler said. “They weren’t the socialites on the block so you’d see them once in a while but they weren’t overly outgoing.”

She added: “And coming from a bigger city maybe more the way they preferred to have it.”

Alan Smith moved in with his parents in Montana and stayed with them for years before being asked to move out a couple weeks ago, Ireland said. The suspect then unexpectedly returned to the home Sunday evening, where the family had gathered for a weekly dinner.

“There were many red flags and many people spoke out,” said Ireland, who lives in Arizona. “No one listened.”

Alan Smith was a “hermit” who spent most of his days in his room on his computer, according to Ireland. “No one knew what he did in there 24/7,” he said.

Alan Smith had attended Eastern Washington University but had been unable to find or hold a job. A search of criminal records in Montana and Washington found no record Alan Smith had ever been arrested or charged with a crime.

Ireland said that, to his knowledge, Alan Smith had never been violent, though he could be verbally abusive.

Friends of the victims have set up two GoFundMe accounts to raise money on behalf of Adam Ghekiere and his ex-wife, Erica Schneider.

Adam Ghekiere, who works at the airport in Billings, told the AP that he heard about an active shooting over a dispatch radio. After calling each member of his family, he raced across town to the Smith home.

When he arrived, the house was ablaze; two hours later, he learned his wife and children had been killed. His children weren’t supposed to be there, he said, because family dinner was usually on Friday.

“I don’t think he expected my kids to be there,” Ghekiere said, referring to his brother-in-law. “Monster isn’t even enough to describe what he did.”

Ghekiere said police confirmed his daughter, Charlotte, was the one who dialed 911 from inside the house.

“I keep hearing her — every time I would say ‘I love you,’ she would say ‘I love you more,’” he said.