Suspected stalker kills couple in U.S. before committing suicide

A suspected stalker killed a couple before committing suicide in Redmond of the U.S. state of Washington early Friday morning, reported Xinhua, quoting police.

Officers found a man with a gunshot wound in the house. He died at the scene. A woman was also killed inside the house, and the suspect was located with a "self-inflicted gunshot wound" in the main bedroom, said Redmond Police Chief Darrell Lowe.

The woman's mother, who lives at the home, encountered the suspect and somehow managed to escape without injury and called the police, according to Lowe.

The identification of the couple has not been released. The suspect, identified by the Redmond Police Department as Ramin Khodakaramrezaei, 38, had been the subject of a misdemeanor stalking investigation after the female victim filed a no-contact order against him.

Khodakaramrezaei was a truck driver. He listened to the woman's podcasts. They had met on the app Clubhouse, which allows users to talk over audio chat rooms, according to a report by The Seattle Times.

The victim originally contacted Redmond police in December 2022 and again in January after the suspect's actions intensified. A temporary order of protection was signed on March 3, and a hearing was set to occur on March 17, the report said.

Friday's killings were the "worst possible outcome of a stalking case," Lowe said at a media briefing on Friday afternoon.