SEATTLE – The man suspected of killing six young people at a house party before turning the gun on himself lived with his twin brother in a north Seattle apartment and was described by an apartment manager as an ideal tenant.
Aaron Kyle Huff, 28, committed suicide Saturday morning after firing repeatedly on young men and women who had invited him to a party at a house on Capitol Hill following a rave.
“This would have been so far out of character,” said Jim Pickett, assistant manager of Town &Country Apartments, where Huff lived.
Pickett described the brothers as “very polite, very respectful. ‘Yessir. Yes ma’am. Can I help ya? … You don’t find two boys as respectful as these two always were.”
Regina Gray, manager of Town &Country Apartments, described the brothers as her “twin teddy bears” and ideal tenants who paid their rent on time and were respectful and polite toward their neighbors.
“It’s a total shock,” Gray said. “He and his twin brother are the kindest, sweetest gentlest people.”
Gray said Kyle Huff delivered pizzas and did odd jobs. She added that he would go home to Montana to do work for his mother from time to time.
The brothers moved into the third-floor apartment 41/2 years ago after leaving Whitefish, Mont., the apartment managers said.
Lt. Dave Leib of the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office in Montana identified the gunman Sunday afternoon and confirmed that Seattle police had called him Saturday night to ask about Huff.
Leib informed Huff’s mother Sunday afternoon that her son was dead and was a suspect in the shootings.
Leib said Huff, who went by the name Kyle, was charged with felony criminal mischief in 2000 after shooting a statue of a moose with a shotgun at an art exhibit in Whitefish.
Police searched the Huff brothers’ apartment Saturday night. Pickett said he saw them remove three rifles from the apartment.
The gunman was armed Saturday with a 12-gauge pistol-grip shotgun and a handgun. He was wearing bandoliers of shells for the shotgun and carrying additional clips for the handgun.
Police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said Sunday that police also found an assault rifle, multiple rifle clips with 30 bullets each, a machete and several hundred more rounds of ammunition in the gunman’s pickup truck.
Whitcomb said the gunman was “extremely dangerous,” and it was fortunate there weren’t more victims.
Pickett said he never saw either of the brothers with weapons.
Whitcomb said police were still working on a motive.
Pickett said he saw the suspected gunman’s brother as police were conducting the search.
“He gave a look to me like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’” Pickett said.
Four young men and two young women were killed in the shooting, and two people were hospitalized. Harborview Medical Center reported that the two were in serious condition on Sunday.
The victims were among about 30 young partygoers who had just attended a rave called “Better Off Undead” the night before.
None of the victims has been publicly identified, but relatives of Jason Travers, 32, Jeremy Martin, 26, and Christopher Williamson, 21, confirmed that they were among the dead. Martin was a resident of the house where the shooting occurred.
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