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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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Leave a Comment:
I need a gun in case I run into Zim or Trayvon's cousin.
Looking at the guy's photo he's making a number of fashion faux pauxs.
When going on shooting sprees you should wear camo and combat boots.
I'd wanna dress in all black like a ninja or a swat team
An awful tragedy and may God bring peace and comfort to all the victims and their families.
It is important to maintain perspective lest we do ourselves and societal safety at large a real disservice when we make this a platform for anti-gun policies and shrill voices call to disarm law-abiding citizens.
The standard liberal reaction is to call for more gun laws when clearly mental illness is the motivating and primary factor in this instance or serial criminal behavior and repeated recitivism is a result of the Liberal confiscation of our criminal justice system. We as a society must demand not more gun control laws but truly effective and tangible actions to balance our criminal justice system from it's current state of imbalance for the rights of criminals; at the expense of societal safety.
It is virtually impossible for mental commitments and incarceration to be ordered by police and judges for someone like this deranged individual within this system that has been wrested away from we the people and our well-being; for the rights of those preying upon society. Lets not forget the revolving door that allowed the horrific killing of the Lakewood, WA police officers in that coffee shop two years ago by an individual that shouldn't have been on the street.
Do we want to fix the problem of sensless murders and violence at the root and real cause? Clearly those in government and media that oppose legal and responsible ownership just want to gain political capital and rail against guns and in this folly would do NOTHING to solve the real problem and issue at the root; the complete imbalance of our Criminal Justice and Mental Health institutional systemic dysfunction.
Unfortunately, there is no criminal justice system in this Country. There are criminals, there is justice, and then there's the system. Lawyers are great at playing the system but not too good at the justice part of it.
I hope someone arrested that gun for the crime it commited. and someone should have told him it was not his fault it was the gun's fault and he did not have to commit suicide. Oh wait the gun killed him before he had a chance.
"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."
That's right Mr. Frishak, Libya IS safer than Seattle because people who are armed, and know that others are armed, think of the consequences before they start shooting.
The only thing that, "gun control," and "gun free zones," promote is killing fields where the would be perp. KNOWS that there is no one who can stop them.
You can not make a person a killer by putting a gun in their hand. And. the only way you can stop a killer is with a gun in your hand.
Mr. and Mrs. gun control advocate, please look at the scenario below and be honest!
This is how it happens, the perp. NEVER gives any warning.
You and your kids are out for a nice quiet dinner. Someone walks into the restaurant, by your table, or booth, and draws a machete, or a firearm, and starts killing people around you.
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
There is always the normal reaction by the untrained person: scream, if it will come out, pee your pants and put your arms and hands in front of you, or wrap yourself around your kids, like that is going to stop a blade or a bullet. You will see everything that happens until the killing ends, or your lights go out.
Or, for a family that takes personal responsibility seriously: Draw your self-defense firearm and shoot the perp.; immediately.
In the pee your pants scenario one of you may actually survive to bury the rest of the family, and be haunted by the memories forever.
In the second scenario one of you has to live with the fact that; to save myself, my family, and as many of those around me as possible, I was forced to shoot the perp. to death.
I have no, 0, absolutely NO, desire to ever be in that situation. I do not ever want to have to respond with deadly force. However, what happens to me is usually completely out of my control.
On a beautiful summer night, my pregnant first wife and I were put in a terrible position while walking in a well lighted college area.
On our right was a long chain link fence, on our left, a grassy area and a two lane road. Completely without cause or warning, a car suddenly stopped, and SIX perp's. quickly got out of it. They were coming toward us across the fifteen feet of grass, shouting obscenities, and armed with a large hunting knife.
I asked them to leave, then I told them to leave; they kept coming. They couldn't see it, however, I already had my hand on my firearm from the moment that they stopped, they left at a dead and drunken run as soon as I leveled my firearm on the one in the lead, the one with the knife.
My wife and I had done nothing to bring this attack about, however, this is exactly how crimes go down. There is no or little warning, and if you are not willing and able to respond, bad things, like death and maiming happen, and VERY quickly.
That was 1969. I was nineteen years old, in a college town of forty -thousand, including 10,000 students, in a well lighted area, holding my wife's hand, and minding our own business. The streets, and everywhere else, have gotten much more dangerous since then.
I am very happy that I was not required to shoot any of the perps. However, had they taken two more steps, I was prepared to shoot to defend us because they were putting me in a position where that was my only option.
Are you ready and able to defend yourself and your family? It's your responsibility you know.
Amen brother. I have escorted a hit and run driver to the scene of a serious injury accident I witnessed simply by following him to the end of a cul de sac and his seeing my firearm tucked in my front waistband while I explained the legal ramifications of his not returning in light of my description of him and his license notations.
I have also had a gun drawn down on me late one evening investigating a womans screams. I called 911 but then screams became quite acute so I went out to investigate. He pulled and pointed a weapon at me from some distance but after my drawing my own quickly and taking cover behind a car hood the attacker fled (without having to fire my own weapon). She was unharmed.
This incident sounds like a CIA setup from the script of Three Days of the Condor.. but the homebase is disguised as a coffeeshop and the patsy is this guy who they claim is "mentally ill" who then committed suicide.. But wait.. didnt they report say he left his gun in the car... oh guess he "found" another one and shot himself... sure..
I KNEW a conspiracy theorist would crawl out of the woodwork eventually.
If by "conspiracy theorist" you mean someone that doesnt blindly believe everything the compromised media spoon feeds the sheeple and can postulate other scenarios when something seems fishy... well then... ok
OK... but CIA setup?? Seriously? A VERY active imagination.
well.. it was the CIA in "Three Days of the Condor".. now we have many more covert/clandestine govt intel agencies.. CIA, DOD, NSA, and I'm sure secretive depts inside the Dept of Homeland Security..
After learing about Operation Northwoods (where military generals wanted to blow up civilian aircraft to blame on communists and use as a "false flag" to declare war.. or Operation Mongoose.. or the operation where the CIA planted weapons buried in a beach in either Honduras or Nicaragua (forget which and the name of the op).. and hired a fisherman to "find" the cache.. to give cause for involvement under the guise of "defending against weapons stock piling"... the initial reports that the British intel agent found stuffed inside a luggage bag in his bathtub had committed suicide even tho there was a padlock on the zipper that would have been impossible to lock from inside the cramped bag...
just sayin that there are plenty of examples where govt agencies are hyper reactive and even moreso in this "War on Terrorism"..
And judging by MSNBC's agenda of hosts like Al Sharpton and Ed Shultz (Ed is the Rush Limbaugh blowhard of the left), and their editing of the 911 calls from the Trayvon/Zimmerman case and their putting up pics of him as a 9 or 12 yr old to influence the viewing public... This report by them only gives me "some" information.. and not "totally" true information... just sayin
OK... you got me with the last paragraph!!!
Have a great day..... and a better tomorrow.
TY... you too
We also have many private security firms owned by and staffed with experienced individuals who were trained by and previously worked for government security and intel agencies.
How do these people get the guns? I have no idea where to go or what to do to get a gun. I am going to find out. The brother knew he had so much anger inside. I wish he had done something. Terrible, horrible. A person could go crazy just thinking how the fickle finger of fate comes down. I was in Seattle a couple months ago and loved it there. I went to a little hole in the wall coffee place. a random nut could have come in easy. Sitting ducks. Horrible.
"How do these people get guns?"
The same ways everybody else gets guns. Handgun aquiring:
Method 1: Go to gun store, put down deposit and fill out papers, wait 10-14 days, return w/ $ balance and pick up firearm.
Method 2: Look for a (ghetto-ish) drug dealer (better odds if also a gang member) and arrange an "underground" purchase.
Method 3: Break into the house of a LEO (law enforcement officer), soldier, or shooting sportsman (target shooter, IPSEC compeditor) when they arent home and take what they have.
New laws would only be a big inconvenience to Method 1. Criminals dont obey laws (methods 2 & 3) so new laws dont worry them.
I hope that helps.
facebook ipo..
From the text of the report:
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.”
WHY???
Several people have just been killed inside a Seattle coffee cafe.
A customer exiting the cafe witnessed the shooter entering the cafe.
In the immedeate aftermath of the killings, the witness is set upon by a number of people determined to convince him that he is mistaken - that the person he saw enter the cafe was not the shooter.
Why is it top priority to convince this witness that he is wrong?
It it because the shooter he saw enter the cafe:
does not match the description of the man in the police photograph,
does not match the description of the man who shot himself in the street across town in front of a uniformed police officer,
and does not match the description of the man inside the cafe in the security video provided to the media???
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 Ra
Way too many murders and loss of life and way too many guns.
I own'em, I shoot'em and they're registered but I don't carry them.
Maybe we should go the Australian route. Only for hunting and shooting!
I can't stand the NRA! No way should anyone have automatic weapons or concealed carry.
Most of these aholes buy guns by the dozens for whatever. They don't even know how to use'em safely!
They're scared O'Bama will come get their guns or restrict sales or whatever. Its the fear factor that the NRA
uses to sell more guns. Same theory that the repubs use to scare voters, lie like hell and instill fear!
Seattle is the shocking example of what unlimited tax-deductible political PAC money will purchase attempting to unseat the incumbent President ---
----professionally produced and staged real life and death political propaganda.
In response to JAMES CHANG (#5.6 - Thu May 31, 2012 4:07 AM EDT) : Really!?! Really?!? I'm trying to figure out how to put this to you, but all that I could think of is "REALLY!?!?". Lets look at it this way "Hypothetically speaking": A man (we will call him the Bad Man) walks into a cafe - his intention to shoot and kill someone, with a concealed weapon (gun). There are other patrons in the cafe who are armed, one of these armed patrons has the unique ability to read the mind of the Bad Man and predict that he is about to start killing innocent people. This armed patron pulls out his gun and shoots the Bad Man before the Bad Man could pull out his own gun and shoot up at least one other person. Unfortunately he shoots more people before any one else can process what's going on. Wouldn't that make the person who can read minds a murderer just like the Bad Man? Once the mind reader shoots and kills the Bad Man he has no proof that the Bad Man was going to commit murder because he has shot him and no other person in that room is a mind reader, so there is no one to corroborate the mind readers story about why he suddenly shot a man who walked through the doors (not displaying any weapons).
I am the only one??? Cant be!!!
Hate to say it but I have to agree with our right to bear arms on this one. Some of you say that no guns is better.... but your "perfect world" scenario fails to factor in that the law breakers don't care about your rules and will have a gun anyway. Just us law abiding citizens won't. So we will be the victims of someone who won't follow your rules. BUT if that person knew that everyone in there was armed or possibly armed, they'd think twice before doing something stupid. It would take citizens standing up for themselves and their families a few times and shooting back to get the message out. The message would get out though.
I live 2 blocks from Cafe Racer and patronized the cafe regularly. I have heard detailed accounts of what happened inside the shop. The idea that more guns would have somehow saved those who were killed is preposterous. The killer shot the victims execution style with no warning. Those who carry guns have a false sense of security and are making this country more dangerous for the rest of us.