Two men were found dead Monday morning, shot inside a Puyallup-area home stocked with weapons, ammunition and body armor.
The victims, in their 20s or early 30s, had not been identified by the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office late Monday, nor had the exact means of their deaths been determined.
“We have a complicated crime scene,” said Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer outside the South Hill home Monday afternoon.
He said the bodies were discovered on the ground floor of the two-story suburban house, located in the 9400 block of 175th Street Court East in the Claridge Park development in the Gem Heights neighborhood near Thun Field.
The owner of the house, a man thought to be the father of one of the victims, arrived at the home shortly before 9 a.m. Monday and approached the back patio door. Seeing a body on the floor inside, the man dialed 911, Troyer said.
Arriving officers forced entry to the home and found the two dead men inside.
Other officers, including homicide detectives and forensics specialists, found the cache of handguns, rifle cases, ammunition and body armor, Troyer said.
“We don’t know if this is a double homicide, a homicide-suicide or an accident and suicide,” Troyer said. “It’s going to take us a while to go through the evidence. We’re going to need every tool we have for this one.”
He said sheriff’s officials would be at the scene throughout Monday and would return today.
Some had spent part of the morning on Memorial Day canvassing neighbors.
“We’ve been told by neighbors that a lot of people were coming and going” at the house, Troyer said.
One neighbor, retired Boeing worker Al Stephens, was sitting in his driveway Monday afternoon noting the hubbub caused by onlookers, reporters and TV news satellite trucks.
Earlier in the day, deputies had blocked off the entrance to the tree-lined street where the killings occurred.
“The night before, the neighbor lady heard a lot of yelling up that way. There was a lot of traffic in and out,” Stephens said.
Some of the visitors to the home “were spooky, the way they looked at you,” he said.
The killings, he said, “just don’t fit our neighborhood.”
c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com253-597-8535
UPDATE: The two men who died have been identified, and the sheriff's department has released more information about the crime. You can find that update HERE.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.