Charges have been filed against a 28-year-old mentally ill man accused of killing his mother and half-brother and assaulting his mother's boyfriend with an ax.

Joshua Forman Hoge, who is being held on $2 million bail, yesterday was charged in King County Superior Court with two counts of aggravated first-degree murder and one count of first-degree attempted murder.

According to court documents, Walter Williams returned to his Renton-area home Wednesday in the 15400 block of Southeast 176th Place and found Hoge, his girlfriend's son, on the stairs inside the house, holding an ax.

Hoge, according to court documents, allegedly told Williams, "I told ya I'm gonna getcha, kill you . . ." and then charged down the stairs after him, swinging the ax and striking Williams on the head. Though he was injured, Williams managed to grab the ax. When Hoge allegedly pulled a knife from his pocket, Williams struck him in the head with the ax.

Williams managed to escape from the house, stagger down his driveway and across the street, where he dropped to the sidewalk and was aided by his neighbor. Williams was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He has since been released.

When King County sheriff's deputies arrived, they found a bloody kitchen knife in the upstairs hallway and the body of Zach Kissinger, 19, under a pile of clothes. Charging documents say Kissinger had been stabbed and also had multiple wounds to his head. Deputies found a bent fireplace poker with a broken handle nearby. Downstairs, they found the body of Pam Kissinger, 49, wrapped in a comforter. She also had been stabbed.

Nearby residents, meanwhile, reported seeing a man with bloody clothes walking toward a wooded area in the 15100 block of Southeast 176th Street; a police dog later found Hoge hiding.

Hoge was treated and released from Valley Medical Center in Renton. He was then booked into the Regional Justice Center in Kent.

Williams told deputies that on May 14 Hoge said that if Williams had not been living with Pam Kissinger, she would be living with him. Williams said Hoge at the time threatened to cut him up "like a chicken."

Frank Hoge said his son was diagnosed as being schizophrenic at 15 and was supposed to take medication. He said his son often lived on the streets and had used drugs since the age of 14.