A deranged son stabbed his mother to death in front of her home along with three neighbors who heroically tried to stop him.
Aleksandr Aleksand Shablykin, 32, was gunned down by police outside the $800,000 family home in Gig Harbor, Washington, at 9.33am on Tuesday.
Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies were on their way after a 911 call reporting that Shablykin was violating a restraining order, but arrived too late to save her.
Deputies found Zoya Shablykin, 52, and three others outside, one lying in the middle of the quiet cul-de-sac a few miles from the Puget Sound.
Shablykin was shot by one of the deputies and died at the scene along with three of the victims, the sheriff said. The fourth died on the way to hospital.
Zoya took out the protection order against her son last April, claiming he ‘believed he was an Egyptian god’ and performed ‘occult rituals’ as he threatened his family for years and injured her cat.
A family friend told the Daily Mail that Shablykin’s sister Anastasia, 30, and her 11-year-old daughter were safe at her partner’s home when Zoya was killed.
Zoya Shablykin, 52, (right) was stabbed to death by her son Aleksandr Aleksand Shablykin, 32, outside her home on Tuesday morning. Her daughter Anastasia, 30, (left) survived
Zoya with her 11-year-old granddaughter, who was not present during the stabbing spree
‘Alex killed four people today – his mother Zoya and three neighbors who tried to to help her,’ he said.
‘Then the cops rolled in as he was killing the third one and they shot and killed him.
‘The response time by the police was s**t, they didn’t show up until he stabbed four people.’
The friend said it was a ‘very sad day’ for Anastasia and ‘I don’t think it has really sunk in yet, she thinks she’s having a bad dream’.
Anastasia then had the awful task of telling her grandmother – Zoya’s mother – that her daughter was dead. The whole family are Russian immigrants.
The family friend said they were in the process of setting up a fundraiser for Zoya’s funeral.
A neighbor described the grim scene moments after Shablykin was gunned down, saying he ran outside after hearing four gunshots.
He saw the knife-wielding maniac moving his arm but ‘he didn’t make it’.
‘The was on woman lying next to the mailbox stabbed and another body between the building and the neighboring one to the north, covered by white sheet,’ the neighbor said.
‘It’s so surreal, you don’t think happen in your neighborhood.’
The identities of the three neighbors are not yet known.
Zoya took out the protection order against her son last April, claiming he ‘believed he was an Egyptian god’ and performed ‘occult rituals’ as he threatened his family for years and injured her cat
Zoya was granted a protective order after he pushed her and told her, ‘Your grave has been dug up,’ according to court documents
The neighbor said the family were having problems since he moved in about seven years ago and he heard them arguing.
He said it appeared Shablykin stopped living there full time about two years ago and was only there sporadically since then.
Dispatchers said they first received a 911 call about 8.45am claiming that the suspect was violating a no contact order.
Police have since confirmed the no contact order was not yet valid because it had not been served to Shablykin, and officers were en-route to deliver a copy of the order to serve the suspect when he carried out his stabbing spree.
Zoya was granted a protective order after he pushed her and told her, ‘Your grave has been dug up,’ according to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail.
She wrote in her petition for the protective order on April 4 that she had a legitimate reason to fear for her safety as her son ‘has been threatening me, abusing me both mentally and emotionally’.
Shablykin was ‘doing witchcraft/occult behavior and doing rituals in my home, damaging personal belongings’, she wrote.
He even ‘thinks [he is] an Egyptian god!’ the terrified mother wrote, noting that she was an ‘elderly disabled woman and he is taking advantage of me and my health, recording me at my home’.
Deputies found Zoya Shablykin, 52, and three others outside, one lying in the middle of the quiet cul-de-sac a few miles from the Puget Sound
Shablykin was shot by one of the deputies and died at the scene along with three of the victims, the sheriff said
The family friend told the Daily Mail that Shablykin was schizophrenic and ‘lived in a dark place’.
Zoya wrote that on April 2, Anastasia showed up at the house and brought her daughter.
‘After arrival to my home, I noticed my house smelled very strange, my rugs from the home have been moved to the garage, the cat was missing,’ she wrote in the petition, adding that picture frames and photographs were destroyed.
‘The smoke detector was going off and my son was acting delusional. Evidence of occult rituals were present.’
At an ensuing hearing on whether to grant the temporary restraining order, authorities noted that Shablykin ‘has been having escalating mental health issues, which include grandiosity, auditory hallucinations and command hallucinations’.
Shablykin previously had a mental break about five years earlier, and his mental health improved for a while after, ‘but is worse now than it was five years ago’, the order explained.
‘His current command hallucinations tell him he is a god and that Petitioner must obey him,’ it added.
‘Several days ago, he told her that “Your grave has been dug up.”‘
Records also showed Zoya previously sought a restraining order from her son when he was first having mental health issues in 2020.
Three adults were killed at the scene. Paramedics took a fourth victim to a nearby hospital in critical condition, where they later died from their injuries
She wrote at the time that Shablykin did not like when his sister had her boyfriend over, so he went into her room with a knife and started threatening her.
‘He is threatening everyone in my family,’ Zoya claimed at the time, noting that she did not ‘feel safe in my house’.
‘He doesn’t want to work or learn, think she has a freedom to do what he wants and have everything in my house because he thinks it belongs to him,’ she wrote in the petition.
‘He is abusing me emotionally, which is affecting my health condition,’ she added without specifying what health conditions she had.
Shablykin was arrested numerous times since 2020, mostly for driving without a valid license and refusing to identify himself to officers when he was pulled over in his vehicle, according to court records that included 14 separate cases.
He was also charged with trespassing in January 2023, but the charge was dismissed with prejudice.
The Pierce County Force Investigation Team is now taking over the investigation into the stabbing rampage, and the Daily Mail has contacted the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office for more information.
