BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- A Bellingham man violated a protective order Friday night, shooting and killing a woman on Lummi Nation land before committing suicide.



According to a news release from the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office, Lummi Law and Order, along with Whatcom deputies and FBI Bellingham agents, responded about 11 p.m. Friday (Oct. 19) to a disturbance at a home in the 2500 block of Little Beaver Road.



Reports indicated that a female resident had been shot multiple times and that the shooter had then taken his own life.



Responding officers found 32-year-old Essie E. Cagey of Bellingham with gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen area. Medics took her to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where she died of her injuries.



A 37-year-old man, Alakana L. Halemano of Bellingham, was found dead from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.



Investigators said Halemano and Cagey had argued earlier in the evening, and Halemano was at the home in violation of a protective order that had been granted after a previous domestic assault in 2017.



Halemano left the home for a short time and then returned shortly before 11 p.m. He and Cagey began arguing again in a rear bedroom of the home, and then shots were fired.



Two adults and three other children who were inside the home heard the shots. The man rushed to the bedroom and found Cagey suffering from gunshot wounds. Halemano was lying on the floor and appeared dead, police said.



None of the others who were inside the home at the time were injured.



Investigators recovered a handgun from the scene.