Kazakh Human Rights Commissioner Confirms 2 Teenagers Killed in US

The two teenage boys killed in the US state of Washington had been adopted in Kazakhstan, the office of the Kazakh human rights commissioner said in a statement on Monday.

ASTANA (Sputnik) – On Friday, a man living outside of the town of Belfair in Mason County, Washington, called the police and reported that he had shot two children, a woman and another person. The man shot himself hours after police had arrived. Preliminary information alleged that the two teenagers may have been adopted in Russia. Later reports claimed the teenagers may have been born in Kazakhstan.

"It is confirmed that the victims of the tragedy, 16 and 18 years old, were adopted in Kazakhstan by US citizens, but were registered with the embassy of our country. In this regard, the specific circumstances of their adoption need to be clarified," the statement said.

Since, according to the Kazakh law, the older boy had reached the age of majority, he had to have chosen between the US and Kazakh citizenship. However, no data on his choice was immediately available, the commissioner’s office said.

"The human rights commissioner’s office is in working contact with the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Education’s Committee for the Protection of Children’s Rights and other concerned departments," the statement added.

On Saturday, Deputy Sheriff of Mason County Ryan Spurling said earlier that the killed children may have stemmed from Kazakhstan, while the county's Coroner Jane Pentz told Sputnik that, according to police, the boys were of Russian nationality.

Later in the day, Dan Reeber, US State Department representative responsible for diplomatic security matters in Seattle told Sputnik that the State Department could not confirm the citizenship of the two killed boys.