Man charged in murder of ex-girlfriend, injured daughter

A Boeing engineer accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and wounding their daughter was charged yesterday with first-degree murder and attempted murder.

Richard SaintCalle, 36, of Federal Way was arrested Thursday, not far from the home of an estranged wife who police say also may have been in danger.

About 1:30 a.m., SaintCalle shot Keymhare Germain, 32, and their 13-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Germain, in Germain's Federal Way apartment after he learned his former girlfriend was engaged to another man, charging papers say. SaintCalle called Germain's fiancé about 10 minutes before the shooting, screaming and demanding information, the prosecutors say.

SaintCalle told his 17-year-old son to leave the area "if he valued his life," the charging documents say. Instead, the son banged on neighbors' doors in the Rainier Meadows Apartments, asking them to call 911.

When police arrived, they found Germain dead of several gunshot wounds and the girl wounded in the chest and arm. The son and his friends, who were nearby at the time of the shooting, had heard SaintCalle arguing with Germain for hours. One friend jumped off a balcony to escape the shooting, and others watched SaintCalle speed away in his blue BMW, charging papers say.

After a pursuit, King County sheriff's deputies apprehended SaintCalle in the Renton area when he crashed into a Circle K store. Police found a loaded 12-gauge shotgun in his car that they think he planned to use to shoot his estranged wife.

"Detectives believe that was the case because of the route he took coupled with previous threats toward her," said deputy prosecutor Tim Bradshaw.

Bradshaw said the estranged wife had a protection order against SaintCalle, which would have barred him from possessing a firearm. Germain also had applied for a protection order in the past, but at the time of her death there was no valid protection order. The son told police SaintCalle had made previous threats to kill two ex-wives and another daughter, prosecutors say.

Court records show SaintCalle has had a number of driving violations, a conviction for harassment and has been arrested for malicious mischief in a domestic incident and for stalking.

Elizabeth Germain remains hospitalized and her medical condition has prevented police from interviewing her.