Violent home invasion leaves Kirkland neighborhood rattled

KIRKLAND, Wash. — A Kirkland neighborhood is on edge after an attempted home invasion burglary ended in gunfire while two children were inside.

The hunt is on for whoever broke into a Kirkland home early Sunday morning as a family of four slept. At least one suspect was confronted by the homeowner and fled, but not before firing at the house.

The homeowner was too rattled to talk on camera. But he said he believes at least two people were involved in this burglary. He says he yelled at at least one of them before someone opened fire on his house.

In this neighborhood high above Lake Washington, there is an unusual sight — a row of Kirkland police cars outside a home they say was invaded by would-be burglars who then opened fire.

“On a Sunday morning,” said Grady Olson. “It is not what you want to wake up to at all, at all, yeah.”

Olson awoke to the sound of gunfire.

“They had caution tape up right here,” he said as he showed the police markings for one gunshot. “And then there’s going to be two more over here. So, there’s one around the sidewalk and then another one.”

Kirkland police say that just before 4 a.m. this Sunday, at least one suspect entered the house on Northeast 45th Street. A rear sliding door had been left unlocked.

Once inside, he began staging what he planned to steal. But then he entered a woman’s bedroom and she woke up. She called out to her husband. He told us he believes there were two suspects, and he confronted at least one of them.

The suspect fled, and either he or his accomplice fired at the house with the couple’s two children inside.

“I think, 3:15, they were driving around,” said neighbor Ben Vincent. “Just driving around the neighborhood. Yeah, like checking out which house, I guess, to go for.”

Vincent’s surveillance camera may have picked up the suspects’ vehicles in the neighborhood, a light-colored vehicle and another much darker car.

“And then right at the end, I guess, what, 3:40,” said Vincent. “You can see them kind of speeding away.”

It has this tight-knit neighborhood in disbelief.

“Definitely not, not in this neighborhood,” said Christine Goulier. “A little shaky, you know. But we’re pulling together.”

The homeowner says they have gotten their children out of there. He says he doesn’t know why his home was targeted.

Kirkland police are asking all the neighbors to look at any surveillance video they have from that night.

It might help them catch whoever did this.

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