A Montana man fatally shot eight relatives, including four children, during a Sunday dinner gathering at a home near Billings weeks after his parents asked him to leave the residence, according to a family member who spoke with The Associated Press.
Brad Ireland, whose former wife and two children were among those killed, named the shooter as 44-year-old Alan Smith. Ireland said Smith’s parents, who also died in the attack, had told him to move out, but he came back on Sunday and opened fire.
The victims represented four generations of the blended family, ranging from a great-grandmother in her 90s who used a wheelchair to a 7-year-old girl, according to Jennifer Mercer, a neighbor and family friend who organized an online fundraiser for funeral costs and other expenses and was authorized to share these details.
Police arrived at the home Sunday evening and heard gunshots coming from the rear of the house just before it was fully engulfed in flames. Investigators confirmed Tuesday that eight people had been killed, including four children, and that the suspect had suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound and later died.
Spokesperson Jeff Stovall of the Billings Police Department said the investigation has been complicated by concerns about the structural integrity of the house after the fire burned it to its foundation.
Billings Fire Department Chief Matt Hoppel said firefighters battled the blaze until approximately 1 a.m. Monday. The home is located in a subdivision outside city limits that is not required to have fire hydrants.
Firefighting efforts were delayed until the site was secured, allowing the flames to tear through the home.
Among the dead were Ireland’s ex-wife, Megan Ghekiere, and their two children, Owen Ireland, 13, and Chloe Ireland, 7. Also killed were Ghekiere’s two stepchildren with her current husband: Landon Ghekiere, 15, and Charlotte Ghekiere, 12.
“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.
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. That’s where 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 Barb Smith, soon followed, purchasing a house in Billings near their daughter’s home. Dana’s elderly mother, Evelyn Smith, lived in a nearby retirement community, Ireland said.
Alan Smith had moved in with his parents in Montana and stayed with them for years before being asked to leave a couple weeks ago, Ireland said. He unexpectedly returned to the home on Sunday evening, where the Smiths had gathered for a weekly family dinner.
Alan Smith killed his grandmother, his parents, his younger sister and the four children before setting the house on fire, Ireland said. He attempted to flee before being confronted by law enforcement, he said.
“There were many red flags and many people spoke out,” said Ireland, who lives in Arizona. “No one listened.”
Ireland described Alan Smith as a “hermit” who spent most of his days in his room on his computer.
“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 that 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 over a dispatch radio about an active shooting. After calling each member of his family, he raced across town to the Smith home.
When he arrived, the house was ablaze, and two hours later, he learned his wife and children had been killed. He said his children weren’t supposed to be there 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 quote to me every time I would say ‘I love you’ and she would say ‘I love you more,'” he said.
The shootings were the 22nd mass killing this year, according to a database maintained by the AP and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
Fifteen of those have stemmed from domestic disputes, which is higher than the average of about 50% of U.S. mass killings, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University who manages the database.
The Montana shooting is the deadliest in the U.S. since April, when a Louisiana father fatally shot eight children, including seven of his own, and shot and wounded his wife and another woman.
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