Montana man kills 8 relatives, including 4 kids at Sunday dinner

Key Points:

• A man identified as 44-year-old Alan Smith killed eight relatives, including four children, during a Sunday family dinner outside Billings, Montana, weeks after his parents asked him to move out.
• The victims spanned four generations, from a 90-year-old great-grandmother to a 7-year-old girl; the house was set on fire after the shooting, complicating the investigation due to structural damage.
• Among the victims were Smith’s parents, grandmother, younger sister, and children of his ex-wife Megan Ghekiere, who was also killed; a 12-year-old girl, Charlotte Ghekiere, heroically called 911 during the attack.
• Alan Smith was described by family as a reclusive individual with no prior criminal record, who had been asked to leave his parents’ home shortly before the incident; he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the shooting.
• This shooting marks the 22nd mass killing in the U.S. this year and the deadliest since April, with domestic disputes accounting for a significant proportion of such incidents.