The Seattle Police Department held a press conference at police headquarters in downtown Seattle on Friday, Sept. 24 to discuss the murder-suicide in southwest Seattle

Jim Pugel, assistant chief of the SPD Criminal Investigation Bureau, laid out how the scene developed from the responding officers perspective and played a montage of 911 calls and radio transmissions between officers.

“This is one of the more profound and devastating events that many of these officers and certainly the city have seen in a long time,” Pugel said.

“The Seattle police officers, Seattle fire medics and Seattle fire fighters who all responded came to a very uncertain and chaotic scene that was rapidly evolving,” he added, also thanking the King County Sheriff’s Department for their support from the south.

Pugel specifically commended Sgt. Tony Bailey of the SPD for “his leadership that brought a lot of calm and a professional response to the terrible scene.” Bailey is a veteran on the force and Pugel said his direction likely saved the lives of officers by coordinating their advancement on the house and shooter, Chhouy Harm, 61.

Pugel said that he "Kind of broke the rule as far as describing the leadership that Sgt. Bailey gave. He was very explicit on slowing down these officers. Every officer wants to get in there and save a life. That's our goal. But he (Sgt. Bailey) was very specific about getting a "contact team" and a properly trained and equpped one before he let anyone get exposed. He did it very fast."

The 911 calls and radio traffic played for reporters painted a chaotic scene where responding officers were not sure whether the shooter was outside the house or still shooting.

The initial 911 calls, some of which officers believe came from family members within the house, said that a 40-year-old female was hurt in the front yard and shots were fired.

At one point an officer said, “Apparently the mother is mentally ill and has shot several people, we are getting everyone out of the house.”

Soon after, an officer yells, “Shots fired!”

Bailey can be heard saying, “Officer (unintelligible), hold up! Come back this way, no one approaches yet.”

Bailey can then be heard putting together a team of officers with rifles. “Do I have anyone else with a rifle? We’ll let the rifle officers deal with her.”

Shortly after, Bailey can be heard saying, “Jim Landers, she’s out on foot somewhere so just make sure you take care of yourself, you don’t have any backup at your location.”

Pugel offered several more details on the shooting.

The idea that the husband 'broke through' a police line was debunked since the perimeter was not fully in place at the time the husband arrived on the scene. "It wasn't completely contained. There were a lot of holes, for lack of a better term, at that time," Pugel said.

"When the husband went in he had a face to face encounter with his wife. He came from an unknown direction and entered the house I believe through the back door."

When the husband came out he said he thought she had killed herself.

Police do not have a clear picture of the sequence of shots fired despite other reports in the media, but said at least 20 shots were fired, all within the house. According to one of the witnesses, the shooter did not say a single word when she came out of the bedroom and began shooting.

No shots were fired outside, Pugel said.

Harm’s daughter, who was found injured outside the house when police arrived has been interviewed by police, but they are not releasing that information at this time. Pugel said she is expected to recover.

Pugel said a 7-year-old girl, believed to be a granddaughter of the shooter, and two other family members were able to escape through a window before being shot. One of the other two was 17-year-old Kevin Harm. The relationship of these survivors is not totally clear at this time, but police believe there were three distinct families, all related, living at the residence.

Pugel confirmed that Harm used two different pistols in the attack. The .25 Caliber weapon was a Beretta and the 9 mm handgun was a Taurus. The shooter, Harm, did not have a concealed weapons permit. This does not mean she was not allowed to have a gun, just that she could not be in public with it concealed. The guns were not stolen and they are tracking their initial sale.

The other family members police have interviewed knew that Harm had the guns.

When police entered the house they found the four deceased persons. Pugel confirmed that a 14-year-old girl, a 17-year-old girl and their 43-year-old father were killed. The injured mother of the two girls, and daughter of the shooter, is 40.

Police records show that the family had been living at the house on 14th Ave s.w. for a month and a half.

Pugel said the police have never had any prior contact with this family.

Those that lived through the ordeal are receiving support from victim advocates.

“There is still much that we don’t know. We do want to provide you and the community through you with as much as we can to help bring some closure to this terrible event,” Pugel said.

“All of the legal aspects aside, it is the emotional impact on the young officers, the fire fighters, the medics and ten times that for the survivors. Regardless of what she did, several people are without a mother, a grandmother and a man is without his wife,” he added when asked about the shooter’s motive.

The investigation should be concluded by the end of the day today, Sept.24.