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Subscribe to RSSA gunman identified as Ian Stawicki, 40, opened fire in a Seattle, Wash., café and a downtown parking lot, killing five, critically wounding one, and eventually taking his own life. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.
Updated 6:20 a.m. ET: SEATTLE – A man killed four people in a Seattle cafe and a fifth person in a nearby carjacking before shooting himself dead, police said late Wednesday.
The five victims brought the number of homicides in Seattle so far this year to 21, matching the total for all of last year, and left city leaders wondering what could be done to stop the bloodshed.
The suspect, Ian Lee Stawicki, was described by his family as mentally ill, news reports said.
For most of Wednesday, police didn’t know whether the shootings at a north Seattle café and a carjacking murder five miles away were related.
They only knew that a tall, white man with a trim, dark beard had entered a small coffee shop around 11 a.m. and shot five people, killing four. And they knew that half an hour later, someone had fatally shot a woman in the head and driven off with her black Mercedes SUV.
Immediately police issued a warning to residents of Seattle’s University District: Don’t open your door to strangers. Dozens of detectives combed the city, armed with images of a suspect standing alone in the Café Racer, one hand on his hip, another on an object that appeared to be a gun. In the image, stools were overturned, coffee cups spilled.
Police found the Mercedes abandoned in West Seattle, a neighborhood across town. A gun was in the driver seat.
Read more on the KING5 website
Around 4 p.m., a plainclothes officer spotted Stawicki - a 40-year-old from Ellensburg, a college town in central Washington State who used to live in the University District, according to state voter records. He fit the suspect’s description. The officer called for backup.
When Stawicki saw a uniformed officer approach, he knelt down in the middle of the road and shot himself, Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel said. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center. Late Wednesday night, hospital spokesman Steve Butler confirmed to NBC News that the suspect died.
Within the hour, police announced that the shootings were related and that Stawicki was suspected of the Cafe Racer killings and of shooting a woman several times for her SUV.
Two men were killed and three more people were seriously wounded in a shooting at a Seattle cafe by a gunman who fled the scene on foot. KING's Linda Brill reports.
His brother, Andrew Stawicki, 29, told the Seattle Times that his brother was mentally ill.
"It's no surprise to me this happened. We could see this coming. Nothing good is going to come with that much anger inside of you," Andrew Stawicki told the Times.
The bodies of two men remained at Café Racer throughout the day. The woman died at the hospital, NBC station KING5-TV reported. A fifth victim also died at the hospital, Harborview spokeswoman Susan Gregg told the Associated Press Wednesday night.
Café Racer, a coffee shop and restaurant known for its impromptu jazz sessions and diehard regulars, sits at the north end of the University District near the sprawling University of Washington campus. It is four blocks from Roosevelt High School, which was on lockdown as police searched for the suspect.
At the Trading Musician store next door, store manager John Herman said they didn’t hear any sounds until police converged on the scene.
“Our first customer of the day had just come from Café Racer, and he thought he walked out right as the person walked in,” Herman told msnbc.com. “He thought he saw the (shooter) but other witnesses say that he may have actually seen a victim.”
Trading Musician employees hang out at Café Racer, Herman said, and the store holds its holiday parties there. Herman said other Café Racer employees had arrived and were standing across the street. The owner had also arrived and had been escorted by police to the crime scene, he said.
The Emerald City, generally considered a safe place to live, had 19 murders already this year. Last year there were 20. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.
“They seem very upset, but I don’t know if it’s about the fact that it happened, or because they lost somebody,” he said. He said the Trading Musician was effectively closed, but that employees hadn’t left.
Ted S. Warren / AP
A Seattle police officer stands outside a cafe where gunman opened fire on Wednesday.
“We’re just waiting to find out what has happened to our extended family,” Herman said.
Ibrahim Frishak, who was power-washing a sidewalk across the street from where the carjacking occurred, said he heard gunshots and saw a car peeling away, The Stranger, an alternative weekly newspaper, reported.
"I just got back a week ago from Libya on vacation to visit relatives," Frishak told the paper. Everyone over there carries guns, he said, adding, "Now I think Libya is safer than Seattle."
At an afternoon news briefing, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn said he told police that their "highest priority is to find the shooters and bring them to justice." He also asked political leaders to look into gun laws and the culture of violence to see what can be done to keep weapons out of the hand of offenders.
Even before the shootings on Wednesday, Seattle was dealing with an outbreak of violence that has stumped police officials, who have blamed it on gangs and weapons. Wednesday’s shootings brought the number of homicides in Seattle to 19, nearly as many as 2011.
Last Thursday, Justin Ferrari, a 43-year-old software engineer, was gunned down while running errands with his children in the Central Area. No arrests have been made in that investigation. And over the holiday weekend, four-drive by shootings, one that left a bystander wounded, were attributed to gang activity.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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You know...all you liberal whack jobs that want more stringent gun laws just don't get it. If you tighten up gun laws the only people it will hurt are the law abiding citizens. The criminals don't just walk into a sporting goods store and buy a gun...no...they do that on the black market...so the criminals then would be the only ones with guns and the good law abiding citizens will be unarmed...Stop drinking the democrats koolaid. I say we take the warning labels off everything so that you whack jobs will just kill yourselves off by pure ignorance.
Well said. Unfortunately in our society, we protect the stupid ones via too many lawyers. There was a time when the dumb ones did themselves in through the law of natural selection. In this sue happy world we live in someone ignorant enough to stick a screwdriver in their eye can win a multi-million dollar lawsuit from the screwdriver manufacturer, thus making them more attractive to the opposite sex so they can then breed and spread their defective genes. 100 years ago anyone that stupid would have died off before having that opportunity.
I think this also explains the decline of this once great nation...it's being run by lawyers.
Unfortunately we cannot legislate "mental illness" out of existence. The world is full of crazies and will continue to be so especially with the pressures of modern life and the economy. No mental case is permitted to own a firearm, but they come up with one if needed. No arsonist should carry matches, but they do and they burn down buildings and no one should drive intoxicated but they do and kill more people in the US than all the guns do.
Does carrying a firearm guarantee that I will not be shot or killed in a random confrontation such as this one...of course not, however it does give me a "chance" at survival that I would not have without it. To kill 5 people with a handgun indicates that this guy walked up to each one of his victims and shot them at close range or he was a Wild Bill Hickock with a handgun. While he walked up to me, I would have had a "chance" to draw my weapon and engage...perhaps with little or no success but I will have had an opportunity to defend myself and not just be slaughtered.
How many innocent people have be murdered before the nation wakes up for gun control? People here are brainwashed by NRA that gun control is unconstitutional. What is defferent between mass murders in Syria and here?
Hotsake40....
The Supreme Court of the United States disagrees with you. They also believe, rightly so, that the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is and INDIVIDUAL RIGHT and is therefore guaranteed by that document as one of our inalienable rights.
It really IS that simple.
Try reading other news sources. Yahoo quoted his father as saying he was disgruntled-just like many other liberals in Seattle. He's an OWS type that went off the deep end and gun control wouldn't have stopped him.
Hotsake40.... you sir are an idiot...and may the next criminal that does not own a gun legally take you out...and while he is at it I hope that a law abiding citizen that "LEGALLY" carries a concealed handgun just stands by and watches...because you sir...need to be kicked out of the gene pool.
Just because someone defends a Constitutional right that you do not believe in does not mean they are "brainwashing" anyone. The second amendment to the Constitution clearly spells out that right. You are obviously "brainwashed" by the liberal media into believing that no rights are worth protecting unless YOU believe in them. You would disregard portions of the Constitution that YOU disagree with.
As for the differences between mass murderers in Syria or here, there is no difference at all; and all of them need to be executed regardlessof their address. You however, would disarm the peaceful citizens of Syria and put them at the mercy of the murderers. This is the liberal answer to violent crime, punish the law abiding. If you choose not to protect yourself and be a sheep at the mercy of wolves, that is your prerogative. But don't try to force your cowardice on me via legislative dictat!
I am very pleased that this person killed himself,and I'm sorry that we have a justice system that's so liberal. This could have been years in court,costing the taxpayer millions. It's a shame when something like this happens,but at least we won't be feeding/clothing/educating another person on death row.
Once again, a crazy person kills people. His relatives knew he was crazy for years. His behavior got more bizarre. His brother is quoted as saying he had mental problems.
In our politically correct-contaminated society, this means he should be coddled and allowed to wander the streets as he wishes, decide on his own treatment, accept or reject his medication, etc.
I realize there were civil rights violations in "State Hospitals" in years past. Pursuing these violations resulted in closing the majority of these facilities and dumping lunatics into the general population. The next week there was a "homeless problem." Civil rights violations still continue unabated. Only now it is people who are innocently going about their business who are suffering and dying, not the criminally insane. I am in favor of a process of mental hospitals to "house the homeless" who are mentally unable to conduct a safe life. Sure, they should be closely monitored to prevent cruel treatment. Yes, most of the mentally infirm are safe to be in the community. Many who are not, as in this shooter, are known to be dangerous for years, and finally do what has been obvious.
"described by his family as mentally ill" well when were they going to warn the rest of us? They should be held accountable!
I guess, coming from the perspective of a Northerner, a black one at that, it's true that overall Southerners are more polite and hospitable than Northerners. It's the racist Southerners who spoil it for the rest of them. At the end of the day, though, North and South have their share of a-holes. Period.
Huh???????????????
Besides the reference to a-holes... what does that have to do with this thread? Did MSNBC get you on the wrong post?
LIBERAL GUN CONTROL FARCE
Control (if there is such a thing) would only take away guns from the law abiding citizens. Meanwhile the people who want to kill will still have a gun. If somebody in the coffee shop would have had a gun and new how to use it, the shooter would have been stopped right then and there. It is our constitutional right to have a gun our government understands the 2nd ammendment right protects not just our personally but the country as a whole. Japan refused in invade the US homeland during WWII because they knew there "would be a gun behind every blade of grass."
So you have done a comparion of the people who legally own guns and have committed a crime and or killed someone to the illegal gun owners who have committed a crime and or killed someone....
I would almost bet that people who legally own guns are responsible for kids shooting themsleves/other kids, taking gun to school, shooting up schools, coffe shops, crowds,
Lets doa real comparison and see who just how much legal gun owners are responsible for the things listed above....right or wrong, good or bad.... lets do the research..
This is the land of the free in case you people have forgotten about a little something called the constitution. It is not illegal to own guns. In fact, it was a way of life for hundreds of years. Owning a gun is part of being self sufficient. If you want the government controlling every aspect of your life please by all means move to China. Research what how nice it is when you have no rights at all as a citizen then tell me that you want control.
frankie-1003...
actually, those studies have been done over and over and over and over again.
They continually arrive at the same conclusion. LEGAL responsible firearms owners are no more responsible for the actions of others than you or I are for the drunk that kills.
Of course, there is the occasional aberration where a child gets his/her hand on a firearm due to the carelessness of a parent or guardian, a case in point, the 3 yo that killed his sister... the handgun was the off-duty firearm of a Police Officer who was careless. Now the officers career is over AND he's being prosecuted.
And who if anyone do you suppose he reported that observation to prior to this act?
Yea rite and and pigs fly
Oh? Then move there and be safe.
Stop blaming the guns. We need better mental health facilities. Many people on the streets belong in a mental hospital. This is why these incidents happen.
the guy was mentally sick so what a question to Smart America, How are gonna stop mentally sick people from easily getting guns????
Shoot the mentally ill people. Why are they alive anyway?
Let me ask all gun owners a question. Why do you need to have gun? I didn't ask about your right own a gun. I would like to know why you need to have a gun.
OldCurmudgeon:
It's all about liberty and the pursuit of happiness
We need a gun to protect ourselves against idiots like this.
the need to have a gun is about as comparable to the need to have an iphone. yes, some people are addicted to guns and some people are addicted to iphones and would suffer mentally without them, but they still do not truly need them.
i don't need guns, i enjoy them. i don't need a smartphone or a sports car either, but i enjoy them. all of them are legal to own and use (with the limits of the law, of course). about the only thing anyone really needs is food, water and shelter.
you see if you hunt it is one thing but to sit around paranoid and needing a gun to protect yourself is something else. I had to carry a weapon for 36 years, I never shot it except at weapons qualifications. The shootings I investigated(personal opinion here) most would have been prevented by not having a gun around.
Most people are moral thinking beings and hesitate to shoot somebody because they understand the finality of the act. The unthinking people who do shoot are paranoid, selfish people who don't think about the consequences and don't care.
The lax gun lawws make it so the unthinking paranoids can easily get a gun. Yeah, we've all heard the tried old cliche" guns don't kill people, people kill people", but are lax gun laws making it easier?
I put up my weapon when I retired and I hope I never need and I refuse to live my life as if I do.
I do not need a gun,I want to have a gun.
Why does anyone need a dog or a stamp collection or anything else other than food/water shelter and clothing.
I need one. I work in Little Haiti in Miami. A mile from here a guy tore another man's face off and ate it. Any more questions?
How often does that happen? Is it worth the lax gun laws that let everyone get a gun. Here there is no background check, no waiting period, no license required just put down your money and get a gun.
As I recall the police shot the guy and he refused to stop the attack even after he was shot so how is having a gun going to stop someone like that?
There is a FED backgroung check,takes about 5 minutes at a gun store or pawn shop,they call it in.
You can buy from an individual and some gun shows without a check.
old curmudgeon...
Interesting. Where is that? Or, are you speaking of persons that already possess a carry permit, or retired LEOs? I have a carry permit, and technically do NOT need to have a background check when I buy a firearm. The dealer I usually go to STILL runs the background check. As he says, you never know what might have happened between the last purchase and this one.
And I carry for the same reason YOU carried on the job. To protect myself (actually my family first then me.). If the police have that luxury, why shouldn't "civilians"?
How often does that happen?
Zombie attacks? Rarely if ever. I am willing to bet, though, if you could ask the guy who got his face ripped off if he wouldn't have minded having a gun that day, his answer would have been YES. Most people only see the need for one long after it's really needed.
It seems hypocritical to me that someone who carried a weapon for 36 years just can't see the need for others to carry. Just like most "gun ban" politicians that have the luxury of armed escorts everywhere they go, but want the rest of us to just take the bullet and roll over without any chance to protect ourselves.
Question to old curmudgeon; if I'm a law abiding citizen carrying a legal weapon, just what the hell do I have to be paranoid about? Carrying a firearm allows me to NOT be paranoid. A firearm on my person means you can only deal with me through persuasion. It removes force as a factor for you to coerce me to do anything.
Great, another mentally unstable person with access to a gun.
Thank You NRA!!
OH YOU
Ironic name "WilliamOfRites"...the NRA didn't put the gun in this guys hand...some scumbag black market salesman did...STOP DRINKING THE KOOLAID!
Gee, what organization facilitated that I wonder??
If you ban guns,this was one of the criminals that never would have turned his in.
Ya get it yet?
Guns aren't the problem. Frontal lobes are. Bring back lobotomies!
If everyone carried a gun these nuts would think twice before going on there rampage just think he might been shot before he got off a round and everyone would of went home safe today huh?? Except the Killer. Sure would cut down on this type of things, I would bet money on it too
USMALE-1057587
Exactly, because he killed himself in the end the only logical conclusion is that he wouldn't have committed all those murders if he thought he was going to be killed.
Which year did you join MENSA again??
"these nuts would think twice before going on there rampage" the funniest comment, thank you. I think we found the solution.
FYI, you should use it in your daily life....... someone with a sick mind, when he/she thinks twice, the other thought with will be another sick thought.
for the general population "you can not solve a problem, in the same state of mind in which was first created"
Just think if you walk into a bar or coffee shop, intent on killing as many people as you can and you see everyone in there armed with all kinds on hand guns Glocks 9mm semi,s what do you think this guy would have done huh??what would you have done??..he would of turned around and ran or got his coffee and left ...Guns give these nuts a feeling of power and no one can hurt them or do anything about it...take that feeling of being superman away and you'll see all this stuff come to a halt
He killed HIMSELF in the end, do you really think he cared about his own life??
Logic isn't your strong suit USM, face up to it.
All the customers with guns are going to stop this guy? I do not think so. This guy was going to kill people and then himself it did not matter to him if everyone in the coffee shop was armed or not. If it did matter he would have found another place to kill, like a preschool or a church or a hospital. But your answer for that is lets give all the preschoolers guns so he wouldn't go there. Arming everyone is not the solution. It is the Problem.
If there had been ONE person in that cafe armed and ready to use it, there wouldn't be 5 dead in there ...probably just one: the crazy shooter.
and the gun-nuts speak...the one thing I don't want to see, and it is very possible, is innocent people hit by stray bullets during a "shoot-out" this idiot wants. Collateral damage is not acceptable for the sake of having this "freedom" which seems so sacred to gun-nuts.Anyway of trying to get this from happening again would only be misconstrued as " gun control"......F*ck the NRA.
terrie-2006096.....what would people do if the cities are laying off policeman,firefighters,ems workers? the police are too over whelmed. i believe there should be no cuts from these services so the dumb @@@ people whom run your cities so they can balance there budget.
SEMPER FI
DANNY P
So I should just sit there and be executed? You can do that all you want. I'll risk having to make sure my bullet is accuarately at the killer.
JOHNNY86..i agree with you 100%. i too would make sure my shot did not stray.no, i am not saying you should get shot,never from me. i am very pro active in the 2ND amendment and believe every legal citizen of this country should have a weapon in there homes. the police are over whelmed and you ca not rely on them to be there to save you,or at least i wouldn't.
SEMPER FI
DANNY P
Search for Detroit Police Station Shooting video.
this a video for all you people that think it is so easy to defend yourself. a shooter goes on rampage in a POLICE STATION, where you have TRAINED POLICE armed and ready, and the only reason they survived was because they had BULLET PROOF VESTS.
I agree with marine55, but we have a prefect storm, lax gun laws and tea partiers wanting taxes cut. I know form experience Police are the first service they cut. So look out for more and more bloodshed.
albkik.... so what you suggest is that no-one have the right to defend themselves against a crazed individual, only the police.
So, everyone else should just put a sign on that says, UNARMED SHEEP. I'm UNWILLING to DEFEND MYSELF AND WANT THE POLICE TO DO THAT FOR ME.
YOU might like or desire that situation. Personally, I'll continue to carry and be prepared and hope I NEVER need to use my concealed handgun again. (I have used it once in the defense of another.)
OK;this guy was nutty as 3 dollar bill. should have been some where safe long time ago. but our society has so many rules;its so damn hard to understand! the people whom need help are a like revolving door in and out of hospitals,when they need to be locked up for safety.
i have ccw permit and carry every time i leave my home, and i have have over 21 years military service to back up my traing in the Marines.taking a life is nothing easy to do,but you do it to protect your family and yoour self from harm. would i have shot this guy, u bet!
SEMPER FI
DANNY P
RETIRED
LAS VEGAS
Thank you for your service. It really means a lot to me and my family.
We would rather see all these people dead because someone might have got injured by a stray bullet??? NOT...seems the Cops cant stop this stuff from happening and sense gun control only affects the registered owners and users what good would it do?? Nuts and crooks will just buy them on the black market...and that wont ever change..More gun control wont change a thing
Thanks Danny P, for your service to this country and keeping us all safe
If they would have pulled him over for speeding or something, he never would have shot anyone.
http://www.cafemom.com/articles/pregnancy/137677/cops_taser_pregnant_woman_3?utm_medium=sem2&utm_campaign=prism&utm_source=outbrain&utm_content=0
They taser pregnant women in Seattle.
I don't know what is more disturbing, the incident itself or some of the commentary above. My sympathies to the families and the community for such a loss. Mental illness can be a devastating disease to the bearer, the family and whomever the individual comes into contact with. I am just sorry they didn't mention any sort of intervention to address what they claim they "saw was coming" whether it would have worked or not. As far as gun control, no way would I not want to have the ability to assist in a situation I might find myself in with a weapon of equal measure. Guns don't kill people, people do.
Seattle allows mentally ill people to carry weapons?
No. Federal law doesn't either. I have concealed carry permit in WA. You have to be fingerprinted, have your background checked by law enforcement for criminal and mental records and they can deny if any are found. The problem is when judges wont' or can't commit mentally ill so nothing is on record, or obviously if one doesn't want to follow the law or comply just buy an illegal weapon as most criminals in possession of weapons are doing so illegaly anyway. There are like ZERO instances each year of legally licensed Washington Concealed Carry License holders committing any crimes with their weapons.
He was a gay man denied marriage and contraceptives who was layed off by Bain Capital and could have been Odumbo's son.
How pathetic that you would take the deaths of 5 people so lightly. Shame on you.
I need a gun for squirrels and such.