Mike Peerman heard the screaming outside his Raleigh Hills apartment Sunday afternoon while he watched a football game on TV.

Peerman ran outside and heard a single gunshot.

A woman bolted out the back door of his neighbor's two-story apartment, across a cement pathway from Peerman's unit.

"He shot my sister," Peerman said the distraught woman screamed.

She told Peerman her sister was dead and a man was also shot, Peerman said. The man – the shooter – had shot himself under the chin, she said.

The woman frantically asked Peerman and his girlfriend to call police, he said. The woman had a cellphone in her hand and was on the phone with 911, but struggled to report what occurred.

Peerman's girlfriend took the phone from the woman, he said, and told dispatchers to send police to the Broadmoor Manor Apartments, 7900 S.W. Brentwood St., just outside Beaverton.

The woman ran back inside the apartment, Peerman said, then returned outside with an uncovered red-and-white cooler. She handed it to Peerman. Inside, he said, was a silver handgun.

"Here's the gun," she told Peerman. "Take it; get it away."

He stashed the cooler, with the gun, on top of his refrigerator, while he waited for police, he said. He thought about running to his neighbor's apartment to help, but decided against it, unsure of what he'd find inside.

Peerman described the scene Monday in an interview with The Oregonian outside his apartment. His account provided the first glimpse into what apparently unfolded just before 2:20 p.m. Sunday.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office has released few details about the shootings. Investigators have made no arrests and have not released the names or ages of the woman who died or the injured man. They also have not said whether they lived together.

Peerman said the man and woman appeared to be a couple in their mid to late 20s. He didn't know their names.

When deputies arrived, they encountered a chaotic scene, said Sgt. Bob Ray, a sheriff's office spokesman. They found a woman fatally shot inside the apartment and a wounded man.

The man, who is at a hospital, is expected to survive. The woman's death is considered a homicide, Ray said.

He declined to describe the man's relationship to the woman or if he was the suspected gunman. Deputies have said the public is not believed to be at risk.

Peerman, who is in his 50s, said he has lived at the complex for six years and has never seen anything similar to what happened Sunday. "It was pretty crazy," he said.

As he spoke, he pointed out what he believed to be a bullet hole in a back window of the apartment where the shootings occurred. The hole, he said, wasn't there before Sunday.

On Monday, a dry, browning flower, cut from a hydrangea, lay on the pavement to the left of the window on the back porch of the apartment. Near it, the red-and-white cooler sat without a lid, Peerman said.

On the front porch, someone had left a paper bag containing what appeared to be discarded medical supplies including gloves and what looked like a bloody bandage. A pair of white shoe covers lay discarded beneath the two steps leading to the door.

Peerman said the couple had moved to the apartment during the summer. Before Sunday, he hadn't heard of any issues or fights, he said.

"This place is kind of like an echo chamber," he said. "If people are talking, you can hear it. If they are yelling you can definitely hear it."

Peerman said he saw the couple nearly every day. He'd say hello when they passed one another. The man, he said, seemed "aloof," but his girlfriend was always friendly.

Sometimes, Peerman said, the man was dressed in what appeared to be military fatigues. But Peerman did not know what their jobs were.

On Sunday, Peerman noticed that the woman's boyfriend had parked his truck in a different spot, away and out of sight from the unit, he said. Peerman's girlfriend had seen the woman arrive at the apartments with her sister, her sister's fiancé and her parents. About 10 minutes later, the shooting occurred, he said.

Peerman and his girlfriend believed the woman was possibly moving out of the apartment and brought her family to help her. Ray, the sheriff's office spokesman, said someone was moving items out of the apartment at the time of the shooting. The helpers called 911 when the shooting occurred. Ray did not identify the people, who were questioned and released, and did not say how many shots were fired.

Peerman's girlfriend heard two to three gunshots, but at the time, she thought a door was slamming, Peerman said. He only heard the screaming and the single gunshot outside because he couldn't hear much over his television.

Neighbors in one unit, he said, told him they heard about six shots.

Peerman said when the police arrived Sunday, he was in the middle of Brentwood Street to meet them. The first deputies parked down from the apartments near a church and slowly approached with guns drawn. Peerman waved them to the location; they told him to show them his hands.

As they neared, Peerman told them he had the gun, he said, but they didn't seem to pay attention. Peerman's girlfriend came out of their apartment, still on the phone with a 911 dispatcher. The wounded woman's sister met deputies.

More and more police arrived, Peerman said, and about 30 minutes after the shooting, they entered the open back door with ballistic shields in hand.

Peerman said he later saw officers rushing up and down the path between the apartment buildings. He assumed they were looking for the gun, he said, and told them he had it. They grabbed the weapon. Peerman asked the police about what happened, but they declined to say.

Authorities remained on scene into the night, bright lights shining along a pathway between Peerman's apartment building and the couple's.

On Monday morning, the apartments were quiet, with many unlit. Occasionally, people walked or drove down Brentwood Street, passing two small pieces of ripped black-and-yellow police tape alongside the road.

-- Rebecca Woolington