Police say two deaths in Redmond were murder-suicide

A man fatally shot his estranged wife as she was leaving for work Tuesday morning before turning the gun on himself in the parking lot of the Redmond apartment complex where the woman was living, police said.

The murder-suicide took place about 9:10 a.m. at the Archstone apartments in the 4300 block of 156th Avenue Northeast, said Jim Bove, Redmond police public-information officer.

The victims were an estranged husband and wife in their late 30s or early 40s, Bove said. Their names were not yet released Tuesday.

Bove said the woman was staying with a friend at the apartments, and was leaving for work when the man confronted her in the parking lot near the leasing office for the complex. The woman was shot several times in the torso, said Bove, and the man then turned a 9 mm handgun on himself, firing one shot into his temple. Police recovered a 9 mm handgun near the man's body and found a .357-caliber Magnum tucked into the back of his pants.

A black Mercedes-Benz sedan belonging to the man was removed from the scene and taken into evidence.

The woman was believed to have worked at Microsoft, whose main campus about two blocks south of the apartment complex. The site is to the east of Highway 520 and Overlake Transit Center at Northeast 40th Street.

A Microsoft spokesman on Tuesday declined to comment on whether the woman was an employee.

The area inside the apartment complex was restricted with crime-scene tape for several hours after the shootings and an awning was set up to protect the crime scene from rain.

Bove said a male roommate of the victim heard the gunshots and called 911. He said some people witnessed the shootings and were being interviewed by police.

Bove said this was the first slaying in Redmond since 2004.

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times technology reporter Benjamin J. Romano

contributed to this report.