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 Details of the slayings in Belfair, about 25 miles (40 km) west of
Seattle, remained under investigation, including when the victims
were killed and why the gunman might have targeted them.
The violence appeared to be a "family-domestic situation," a Mason
County Sheriff's official said.
"As far as I know, this is one family, the shooter was the father
and the victims were his family," Chief Deputy Russell Osterhout
told Reuters.
The medical examiner would determine the identities and cause of
death of those involved.
 Osterhout said the lone survivor, a 12-year-old girl, escaped or was
released by the gunman before the suspect emerged from the house
after hours of negotiations with law enforcement and a police SWAT
team and shot himself in front of sheriff's deputies.
A neighbor, Jack Pigott, 79, who lives across the road from the
crime scene, told Reuters by telephone he heard several bursts of
gunfire coming from the wooded property Thursday night, and assumed
it was target shooting.
Police arrived at the home after the suspect himself called a
sheriff's sergeant on the officer's work cell phone to say that he
"did something" and asked that authorities be sent to the residence,
Osterhout said.
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It was not explained how the suspect knew the sergeant's phone
number, but sheriff's Deputy Chief Ryan Spurling said "the gunman
did have a previous contact with the sergeant".
The latest round of deadly U.S. gun violence came a day after a man
near Wichita, Kansas, fatally shot three people to death and wounded
14 before he was slain by police at a Kansas lawnmower factory where
he worked.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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