Heroic 12-year-old desperately tried to save family from massacre in her last moments after relative opened fire during Sunday dinner
A 12-year-old girl desperately tried to save her family by calling 911 when a relative opened fire at the family’s weekly dinner.
Charlotte Ghekiere dialed emergency services from inside the two-story house in Billings, Montana just after 6pm on Sunday to report that Alan Smith, 44, began shooting at the family dinner.
Gunshots could still be heard in the background of the call. Within just three minutes, the house was set on fire, Interim Yellowstone County Sheriff Kent O’Donnell said.
Family friend Jennifer Mercer praised Charlotte’s heroic act of bravery.
‘She tried to save her family,’ Mercer told the Billings Gazette, through her tears.
‘And her mom and dad both agreed she lived by her favorite quote: “I love you more.”‘
Charlotte died in the mass shooting, alongside with her brother, Landon Ghekiere, 15, their step-mother, Megan Ghekiere, and their step-siblings Owen Ireland, 13, and Chloe Ireland, seven.
Smith also killed his own mother, Barbara ‘Barb’ Smith, 69, and father, Dana Smith, 72, as well as his elderly grandmother Evelyn Smith, 92, before taking his own life.
It is now believed Smith engaged in the rampage after he was kicked out of his parents’ home.
Charlotte Ghekiere, 12, pictured with her brother Landon, 15, has been hailed as a hero for calling 911 after her step-uncle opened fire at a family dinner on Sunday
Landon and Charlotte were killed in the massacre, along with their step-mother, Megan Ghekiere, and their step-siblings Owen Ireland, 13, and Chloe Ireland, seven. Their father, Adam Ghekiere was working at the time
Alan had followed his parents to Billings after they moved to Montana from Seattle. Public records show the family has been in the state since 2020.
‘He was like a hermit,’ Adam Ghekiere, the father of the two older children, told the US Sun. ‘It got to the point where his mom didn’t enjoy living in her own house with how he was acting towards them.’
The parents finally kicked Alan out of the house a few weeks ago, Ghekiere said, and they had thought he was staying with another family member out of town.
‘So up until last week, we thought he was out of state because he said, “You know, I’m gonna go somewhere warmer.”‘
But when the family had their weekly dinner at his parents’ house on Sunday, police say he barged in at around 5.49pm.
About 11 minutes later, neighbors said they heard what they thought were firework, and at 6.02pm dispatchers received a call from what they described as a ‘female’ voice inside the house.
When officers arrived on scene just 10 minutes later, they found the residence already ‘fully engulfed’ in flames, Billings police said. They also heard gunfire coming from inside the home.
Officers quickly spotted Alan outside in the back of the burning house and at around 6.13pm, a deputy ‘heard a final shot, which was broken away from the rest of the shots,’ Sheriff O’Donnell said.
Alan Smith, 44, opened fire at the family dinner before setting fire to his parents’ home. He is pictured with his sister, Megan
Alan Smith, left, with his mother, Barb Smith, and father, Dana Smith, at his sister Megan’s wedding to Brad Ireland in 2010
When police officers and sheriff’s deputies entered the backyard at around 6.22pm, they found Alan with a self-inflicted gunshot wound and began CPR.
He was later pronounced dead at a local hospital as firefighters continued to battle the blaze at the home until around 1am on Monday.
They had been hampered in their efforts as the house sits outside Billings city limits on county land where fire hydrants are not mandatory.
‘They had to haul in truckloads of water, set up a temporary tank and pump out of that tank,’ O’Donnell recounted.
‘So the fire suppression portion of this was very, very difficult.’
Meanwhile, Ghekiere, who works as an airport rescue firefighter, heard about the active shooting over the dispatch radio while at work.
‘I checked my kids’ locations, both Landon and Charlotte, and no one answered. I called Megan’s cellphone too,’ he recounted.
Without getting any response, Ghekiere said he raced over to his in-laws house – and was able to see the flames from a mile away.
‘I feared the worst right then,’ Ghekiere said.
Emergency crews then prevented him from getting too close to the house, saying it was still considered an active-shooter scene.
He finally learned two hours later that his wife and children were killed.
After the shooting, the house was then set on fire, trapping the family inside as it burned to the ground. Police say Alan was spotted outside in the back of the burning house, where he turned the gun on himself
Aerial photographs taken after the blaze was extinguished on Sunday show that very little remains of the residence
His children were not even supposed to be at the Smith’s house that night, Ghekiere said, noting that the family normally had their get-togethers on Friday nights – but decided to postpone it to Sunday last week due to his work schedule and one of the children’s scheduled sleepovers.
‘I don’t think he expected my kids to be there,’ the grieving father said of his brother-in-law, whom he branded as a ‘monster.’
Brad Ireland, who is grieving the heartbreaking loss of his 13-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter, has also claimed that there were warning signs of Alan’s troubles.
‘There were many red flags and many people spoke out,’ Brad told the New York Post. ‘No one listened.’
Alan lived at home with his parents but spent his days holed up alone in his room on the computer, Brad said.
‘No one knew what he did in there 24/7,’ he said, adding that Alan had been unable to hold down a job despite getting a degree from Eastern Washington University.
He had also been verbally abusive, Brad claimed, though he said to his knowledge Alan had never been violent, and records show Alan had no previous arrests and was never previously charged with any other crime.
Brad Ireland, Megan’s ex-husband, said there were missed red flags
Megan and Brad had two children together, a son, Owen, and daughter, Chloe
Ireland had divorced Megan six years ago, after which she moved to Montana with their children.
There, she met Adam Ghekiere, and the couple tied the knot last year.
Megan’s parents soon decided to follow their daughter, buying the house in Billings near her home while her grandmother, Evelyn, lived in a nearby retirement community.
Family friend Mercer has since described the family as ‘very loving and close,’ saying the children all got along and that their parents remained amicable even after divorcing.
‘I feel like our entire community is devastated, even people that never knew any of them,’ she told CBS News.
This undated photo provided by Erica Schneider shows, Owen Ireland, front, Landon Ghekiere, center, Charlotte Ghekiere, back left, and Chloe Ireland, back right in helmet
A memorial was set up for the slain family members near their home in Billings, Montana
As family members now struggle to accept the devastating losses, separate online fundraisers have been set up to support Ireland as well as the Ghekiere siblings’ mother and stepfather.
A third GoFundMe was also created to support Adam, who it said ‘dedicated his career to helping others on their worst days.
‘Now, he needs our help on his,’ reads the fundraiser, which is raising money to support the grieving father with funeral and memorial expenses, time away from work and counseling.
‘No amount of money can lessen this loss. Not even close,’ friend Michael Solberg wrote. ‘Our hope is simply to give Adam the time and financial security to grieve without having to worry about returning to work or paying the bills.’
As of Thursday morning, the fundraiser had netted $110,845, while the fundraiser to help the Ghekiere siblings’ mother and stepfather stood at $77,813 and the Owen and Chloe Memorial Fund received over $35,000 in donations.
