Zoya Shablykin, Gig Harbor, Pierce County, Washington state mom stabbed to death by her son, along with woman’s three neigbhors who had tried protecting her outside her home in cul-de-sac. Aleksandr Aleksand Shablykin id as woman’s son with history of mental health woes shot dead by responding officers. Mom had filed order of protection against son in April only for it to never be served.
A Washington State woman who previously filed an order of protection against her son was on Tuesday stabbed to death by the 32-year-old man. Also killed in the ensuing violence along a cul-de-sac in Gig Harbor were the woman’s neighbors who had fought to defend the woman.
Zoya Shablykin, 52, and three of her neighbors were found outside her Gig Harbor home valued at $800K in Pierce County after enduring horrific stab wounds. One of the neighbors at the time had been rushed to hospital where they were declared dead.
Upon arriving at the scene, just on 9.33 a.m, following an initial 9 a.m call a deputy with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department shot and killed the woman’s son, since identified as Aleksandr Aleksand Shablykin.
32-year-old Gig Harbor stabber had been the subject of ongoing violations and mental health woes
The stabbing spree at the normally quiet cul-de-sac at 87th Avenue Court NW, left five people dead, including the stabber who had been the subject of ongoing violations and mental health woes.
The tragedy comes after Zoya filing an order of protection against her son in April 2025, yet for reasons not immediately clear, officials were unable to locate the man and physically serve him.
Zoya took out the protection order against her son on April 4, in which she cited her son making threats against her life, destructive behavior at her home along with setting off fires at the family residence according to KOMO News.
The filing claimed Aleksandr ‘believed he was an Egyptian god’ and performing ‘occult rituals’ as he threatened his family for years and injured Zoya’s cat. In her application the mother cited her own son undergoing mental health crises including describing her son as schizophrenic according to the dailymail.
Russian immigrant family tragedy at Gig Harbor
A family friend told the outlet, ‘Alex killed four people today – his mother Zoya and three neighbors who tried to to help her.’
Adding, ‘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 Zoya’s daughter, Anastasia, 30, and her 11-year-old child, adding, ‘I don’t think it has really sunk in yet, she thinks she’s having a bad dream’.
Offered a neighbor who had witnessed the scene, ‘It’s so surreal, you don’t think happen in your neighborhood.’
The identities of the three neighbors who were killed are not yet known.
Deranged 32-year-old son thought he was an Egyptian God
The family friend described the family as being Russian immigrants.
The neighbor said the family were having problems since Zoya’s son moved in about seven years ago and that he often heard them arguing.
He said it appeared Shablykin stopped living there full time about two years ago and was only there sporadically since then.
It was while living at the family home that friction involving Aleksandr Aleksand Shablykin escalated.
Zoya was granted a protective order after he pushed her and told her, ‘Your grave has been dug up,’ according to court documents.
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.
Mom Zoya files petition against son, Aleksandr Shablykin
In her petition, Zoya had written 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’.
‘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.
Records cited by the dailymail also showed Zoya previously seeking a restraining order against her son when he was first having mental health issues in 2020.
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 along with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.
