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the suicide in Parshall "until all aspects have been nailed down."
• The pastor and the sheriff said Christian Schuster notified authorities of the shooting, saying an unknown man had killed his family.
• "His brother was on top of him and as soon as he saw the guy leave, he called 911," Halvorson said. "He hung up on the deputy and said he was going in to the other room to hide."
• Patterson said the children had been living with their grandparents, Martha and Harley Johnson, for about two months. Their mother had been suffering from some "emotional issues" and moved across the state to the Grand Forks area, he said.
• Harley Johnson was out hunting at the time of the killings, Patterson said.
• "It's a time of great confusion for Harley, with the storm of events," said Patterson, who believed the surviving children were being cared for by state Social Services. "He's doing the best that anybody could."
• Eagle killed himself Sunday night in Parshall in front of a deputy and a highway patrolman. Halvorson said Eagle walked out of his friend's house and stabbed himself. The sheriff would not say why the officers were at the house.
• New Town and Parshall are on the Fort Berthold reservation, home to the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara, who are known as the Three Affiliated Tribes.
• Johnson and her grandchildren were not tribal members, but Eagle was.
• Halvorson said Eagle was familiar to law enforcement officials in the area. He was arrested in March after leading authorities on a 100-mile, high-speed chase in western North Dakota in a stolen pickup truck pulling a trailer, the sheriff said.
• Eagle pleaded guilty in August to unauthorized use of a vehicle and was sentenced to a year in jail with 10 months suspended and three years of supervised probation, court records show. He was ordered to pay more than $45,000 in fines and restitution.
• Halvorson described the Johnsons as "very upstanding citizens" who had both recently retired. Martha Johnson was a private pilot and had helped authorities in the region with search missions, he said, noting she also had a concealed-carry gun permit.
• "I gave her the test," he said.
• Patterson said Martha Johnson was a longtime member of the church, and her grandchildren recently helped serve dinner at a church function.
• "They acted like little waitresses and waiters," he said. "They were all nice little kids."
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