Police: Tear Gas Needed to Flush Man Who Killed Several Family Members From House — Then Once Outside, He Kills Himself

SEATTLE (AP) — Police say they used tear gas to flush a suicidal man who had killed several family members from his house — and that's when he stepped outside and killed himself.

David Wayne Campbell (Image source: KING-TV)

The Mason County Sheriff's Office on Saturday released a timeline of the standoff, which began after David Wayne Campbell, 51, called a sheriff's office supervisor Friday morning to say he had done something bad and was suicidal.

A small number of deputies initially responded, speaking with Campbell by phone and setting up a perimeter to keep him on the property until a SWAT team could arrive.

Over 3½ hours, trained negotiators tried to persuade Campbell to surrender, but "it became evident that the suspect was not going to leave the residence voluntarily," the sheriff's office said. Deputies could see him pacing inside, often holding a handgun to his head.

When they deployed tear gas in the house, Campbell came outside with a gun in his hand and yelled at police. He then returned indoors before coming out once more, putting the gun to his temple and firing as the police watched.

Authorities said they found four other bodies in a chicken coop on the remote, wooded property near Belfair, on the Kitsap Peninsula southwest of Seattle. Mason County Coroner Wes Stockwell released the identities of three of them Saturday: Campbell's wife of six years, Lana J. Carlson, 49, and her sons, Quinn and Tory Carlson, who were 16 and 18, respectively.

Stockwell said he was withholding the identity of the fourth victim pending notification of relatives.

Investigators are seen through trees as they photographs the scene of a fatal shooting Friday, Feb. 26, 2016, near Belfair, Wash. A gunman who killed four people in rural Washington state called an officer he previously encountered to say he shot his family, leading to an hours long standoff at a home Friday that ended with his suicide, authorities said. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

When deputies first contacted Campbell, a 12-year-old girl fled from the home, the timeline said. Authorities said she wasn't shot, but they used a military-surplus armored vehicle to pick her up and bring her safely past the home so she could be evaluated by medical personnel.

"Apparently she's OK," Chief Deputy Ryan Spurling said. "I don't know if this is a daughter, or stepdaughter, or what the relationship is, but she escaped from the house."

Jack Pigott, who lives down the road, said he heard gunshots Thursday night.

Campbell and Carlson were married in November 2009, King County records show. The wife had two teenage sons who were adopted from Russia during a previous marriage, Pigott said, as well as a daughter who was adopted from China. Her previous husband died of cancer, he said.

Campbell ran a business called Campbell Family Heating and Air Conditioning, according to state records, while Carlson — who also went by Lana Jane Campbell — had registered a business called Crispy Edges. She had purchased a food truck, and she and Campbell had been working on the truck but had not been able to secure the county permits needed to operate it, Pigott said.

The neighbor also said Campbell had recently been hospitalized, but he didn't know why.

"He's heavily medicated with something," Pigott said. "I've never seen him drinking."

It was common for the family to do shooting practice, Pigott said. That's what he assumed Thursday's gunfire was.

"I was getting a load of wood into the house, and I hear some gunshots," he said. "Four or five, a pause and then another round."