A fatal shooting this week in a house near Sequim apparently was prompted by differing expectations for a relationship, authorities said Friday after interviewing people who knew the three found dead Thursday.

Brother and sister James Faber Jr., 32, and Samantha Faber, 34, were found dead along with Jacob M. Hunter, 25, an acquaintance of the Fabers who had been living at their home on Sheldon Lane north of Sequim city limits, Staff Sgt. John Keegan with the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release issued Thursday.

Hunter is considered to have been the shooter.

Five people, two of them children, were not hurt in the shootings, Keegan said.

“According to statements made to detectives by witnesses, it appears that the motive centered on Samantha Faber’s unwillingness to enter into a romantic relationship with Jacob Hunter at the level he desired,” Keegan said in a press release issued Friday.

“Statements also indicate that James Faber Jr. was shot when he ran towards the gunfire in an attempt to stop Jacob Hunter, and or render aid to his sister Samantha.”

Brian King, chief criminal deputy with the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, said the weapon used in the shooting was a handgun.

Keegan said investigators don’t have anything concrete about what kind of relationship the two had.

“Individuals close to Jacob are under impression he was in relationship with her. People close to her believed that the relationship was platonic and that it was going to stay that way,” Keegan said.

One of the children was Samantha’s and one was James’, Keegan said. Also there were James and Samantha’s father and two friends of the Faber family, he added.

Detectives have finished processing the scene at the house but continue to investigate, Keegan said.

Deputies investigated a report of an assault in progress with gunshots being fired — and at least two people shot — inside a residence in the 100 block of Sheldon Lane, just north of Old Olympic Highway at about 12:15 a.m. Thursday.

Deputies and Sequim Police Department officers were able to evacuate those who were uninjured to safety, law enforcement officials said.

Attempts were made to negotiate with the shooter, and when the shooter did not respond to the officers’ command, officers entered the residence, the sheriff’s office said.

Once inside the residence, law enforcement officers discovered bodies of three deceased individuals.

Assisting the sheriff’s office were the Sequim, Port Angeles and Port Townsend police departments; State Patrol, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office; U.S. Border Patrol, Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team, Clallam County Fire District 3, and Clallam County Emergency Management.

Law enforcement officials confer at a home on the 100 block of Sheldon Lane, where a shooting left three people dead on May 14. Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash