Mother killed in stabbings at Pierce County home where 5 died identified
People close to the 32-year-old man suspected of fatally stabbing four people Tuesday outside a Pierce County home, including his mother, before he was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy say the family is facing “unimaginable heartbreak.”
The police have not identified a suspect or the victims of the attack, which began after a 911 caller said their son came to their home in the violation of a no-contact order in the 14000 block of 87th Avenue Court Northwest.
But court records, relatives and a man close to the family identify one of the victims as Zoya Shablykina, 52, who had previously sought protection orders against her son, Aleksandr Shablykin, 32. Records show Shablykin struggled with his mental health in recent years, and his mother reported his threatening behavior with a knife in 2020.
The weight of the loss of Zoya Shablykina and Aleksandr Shablykin has created “overwhelming” stress and uncertainty for the man’s 30-year-old sister, Anastasiya Shablykina, and her 11-year-old daughter, according to a post on GoFundMe for the family.
The three other victims of the fatal stabbing have not yet been identified by the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office. The GoFundMe post said the three were neighbors who selflessly tried to help when they heard cries for help.
The fundraiser for funeral expenses was put up by Robert Knowles, the father to the 11-year-old girl who is raising her with Anastasiya Shablykina. He said they had allowed Aleksandr Shablykin to stay at their home in Orting over the last year or so.
In a phone call Thursday, Knowles said Aleksandr Shablykin came to live at his home after the man was arrested about a year ago when he “had an episode” at his mother’s house in the Purdy area on the Key Peninsula.
Aleksandr Shablykin was taken to Wellfound Behavioral Health Hospital after the incident, according to Knowles, and he was diagnosed bipolar. Knowles said the man was gentle when he was taking his medication, but he had recently gone off his medication.
“He was not a bad guy. He was just a sick guy, with no direction really,” Knowles said.
Zoya Shablykina had a strong faith, Knowles said, and she attended church at the Slavic Christian Center in Tacoma three to four times a week. The late senior pastor of the church, Peter Sayenko, sent a letter to Pierce County Superior Court in a family law case in 2019 that said Zoya Shablykina joined their church in 2001, shortly after she immigrated to the United States from Russia.
In her own letter to the court, Zoya Shablykina said she was widowed in 1997.
Reached by text message Thursday, Anastasiya Shablykina was not available to speak, but she shared family photos of herself hugging her mother, her mother’s cat, Pushok, nestled on her lap and her brother sitting with her young daughter.
“He wanted a family,” Anastasiya Shablykina said of her brother.
This story was originally published February 26, 2026 at 12:01 PM.
