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Billings community mourns family of eight after Sunday dinner shooting and house fire
KOMO • • nation
Key Points:
- A man named Alan Smith killed eight relatives, including four children, during a family dinner in Billings, Montana, after being asked by his parents to move out weeks earlier; he then set the house on fire and later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
- The victims spanned four generations, from a great-grandmother in her 90s to a 7-year-old girl, and included Smith’s grandmother, parents, younger sister, and four children related to his ex-wife and her current husband.
- A 12-year-old victim, Charlotte Ghekiere, heroically called 911 during the attack in an effort to save her family, according to a neighbor and family friend.
- The house fire complicated the investigation due to structural damage, and firefighting efforts were delayed because the home was in a subdivision without fire hydrants and outside municipal limits.
- Alan Smith was described by relatives as a reclusive "hermit" who spent most of his time on his computer, had no criminal record, and had struggled with employment, though he had not been previously violent.
