VANCOUVER -- Sayge Sword was awakened before dawn Monday to the sounds of sobbing and cries for help coming from the house behind hers. Then she heard a gunshot and scrambled out of bed to alert her mom, Wendi.

Sword, 15, described the panic-filled moments leading up to the the shooting, which left two dead and wounded a third person at 13007 N.E. 52ND St. in the Orchards section of Vancouver. Police have not identified the individuals involved, but friends and neighbors said it's a family with two grown sons.

A friend said the father was laid off for a second time recently and the mother of the family worked as a dental assistant; the couple has two grown sons.

Sword said she heard "lots of cussing and sobbing and crying."

"It was really loud," she said. And then she heard a gunshot. She bolted into her mom's room.

"I heard, 'You are hurting my little brother' and 'Dad, stop!'"

She and her mom called 911. She watched as one person was taken from the house.

Vancouver police Lt. Kathy McNicholas described the incident as domestic violence and said police arrived to find two people dead. Another gunshot victim was taken to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center for treatment of injuries she described as non-life-threatening.

McNicholas did not release the genders or ages of those involved. A friend who rushed to the scene of Monday's Vancouver shooting said the father of family had recently been laid off for a second time and was depressed.

James Hamburger, who lives nearby, said his friend who lives at the home worked in construction jobs operating heavy equipment but was laid off recently and suffered from depression.

"I know it was a huge thing," Hamburger said. "He had to be working. If he wasn't, he was in a bad way."

Leah Basarab, who lives a few houses down, said she met the younger son when he came to introduce himself to neighbors a few years ago. She said he was always working on cars and would wave as she went by.

-- Helen Jung and Beth Nakamura