The rave was a few blocks from where I live. . . I'm wishing they'd release the names of the victims. I imagine that I knew some of the people who were there.

Tragedy on Capitol Hill: ...er rampage
By Seattle Times Staff

After partying peacefully all night with young people he'd met at a nearby rave, the heavyset man left an east Capitol Hill home around 7 a.m. He returned minutes later, draped in ammunition belts and armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol.

His first victim was gunned down on the front steps, the second on the porch. Pandemonium broke out as partygoers dived out windows while others tried to hold the front door shut in the face of a fusillade of shotgun blasts.

He killed six young people Saturday morning before turning the shotgun on himself as a police officer confronted him. Two others were hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske described the man as "quiet and humble" but knew little else about a mass killer whose crime is among the worst in Seattle history, eclipsed only by the 1983 Wah Mee Massacre that left 13 dead.

The killer remained an enigma Saturday night. The one message he left behind: the word "NOW" spray-painted on sidewalks and the steps of a home nearby.

"We have absolutely no idea of what the motive is," Kerlikowske said.

The killer was in his mid-20s, came to the area five years ago from out of state, and had had "very little" involvement with police, Kerlikowske said. The chief did not elaborate except to say his record was nonviolent. The shooter's identity was being withheld.

Kerlikowske said the victims ranged in age from their midteens to early 20s.

A witness said the man was "sloppy," about 6-foot-1 and dressed entirely in black. Witnesses said he had been invited to a party at the home after a large "zombie rave" Friday night at the Capitol Hill Arts Center. The dance had been billed "Better off Undead" and partygoers were given a discount on admission if they dressed up as ghouls and zombies.

Witnesses told police that there had been no altercation either at the rave or at the after-hours party at a small blue frame home in the 2100 block of East Republican Street. The chief said alcohol and marijuana were present in the house, but could not say whether the shooter or the victims were intoxicated.

The man left the home around 7 a.m., apparently to arm himself at his pickup parked a block away. Officers later found an assault rifle and several large-capacity ammunition magazines in the vehicle.

On his way back to the home, the man sprayed the word "NOW" in orange paint on the sidewalk and steps in front of several homes leading to the house party.

"We have no idea what that means or what significance it has," the chief said.

As many as 30 people were in the house when the man approached, draped in bandoliers of ammunition and armed with a handgun and a pistol-grip, 12-gauge shotgun — a weapon Kerlikowske pointedly said was "not for hunting purposes, but for hunting people."

Kerlikowske said the man forced his way into the home, firing randomly.

"He wasn't going after just one person because he was letting off all these rounds," said Garry Will, 20, who was inside the home with his 17-year-old girlfriend. "Everybody was cool and chill and then this guy showed up and started firing rounds out on the porch. He shot a guy and then came inside and started letting off rounds."

Will was in an upstairs bathroom, where his girlfriend had been putting on makeup, when the shooting erupted. "We heard gunshots and screaming and I opened the bathroom door and looked down the stairs and saw flashes from the gunshots. It was pretty intense," Will said. He locked the bathroom door and crouched in the bathtub with his girlfriend.

"[The shooter] came upstairs and tried to open the door," Will said. "He shot a round through the door and the bullet whizzed by my face."

Police on Saturday had not released identities of the victims. However, relatives and friends confirmed that two of those who were fatally shot by the gunman were Jeremy Martin, a 26-year-old musician and wine salesman, and Christopher Williamson, 21.

Residents of the east Capitol Hill neighborhood where the shooting took place woke to the roar of gunfire.

"It sounded like it was all around my house," said next-door neighbor Barbara Deasis. "I looked out the kitchen window and saw a body on the steps next door ... ."

William Lowe, who lives across the street, had just awakened when he heard two shotgun blasts, followed by two gunshots from a handgun and then two more shotgun blasts. Lowe said he looked through his peephole and saw an injured man stagger out of the house.

"He was obviously wounded and he was disoriented," Lowe said.

When the man opened fire, people poured from the house in search of a place to hide, said Jakob Kayser, 22, whose backyard abuts the rental home.

Kayser said two young men and a young woman, all appearing to be in their late teens or early 20s, pounded on his back door. They demanded to use his phone to call police.

They told Kayser that one of their friends was dead and another was bleeding heavily. After calling for help, the three took off, he said.

As police swarmed to the scene, uninjured partygoers were loaded into buses and taken to police headquarters to be interviewed.

Nancie Thorne, whose 15-year-old daughter, Suzanne, was in the house, learned about what happened when Suzanne's 18-year-old boyfriend called her Saturday morning.

"It's the worst phone call a mom can get," said Thorne, who went to the Capitol Hill home after getting the call.

Late in the day, a family spokeswoman declined to answer questions about what had happened to the girl.

Four young men and two women were killed by the gunman, the chief said. Five died at the scene and a sixth at Harborview Medical Center.

Two others suffered serious gunshot wounds and were at Harborview. Police have interviewed one man in the hospital and say he was coherent. A second has "life-threatening injuries," said Officer Sean Whitcomb.

Police set up a tip line (206-233-2666) and asked anyone who had seen the shooter earlier to call.

Will, who hid in the bathroom, said the gunman headed back downstairs as sirens were heard in the distance. Kerlikowske said victims and partygoers were "running out of every window and door in the house."

Seattle police Officer Steve Leonard was on patrol in the area and heard the gunfire. It took him about a minute and a half to respond to the home, the chief said. Leonard found a wounded partygoer on the sidewalk, drew his weapon and placed himself between the home and the injured man, the chief said.

At that moment, the shooter came out the front door.

Lowe, the neighbor, said he had ventured out onto his porch when Leonard confronted the shooter.

"The officer said, 'Drop your ... ' and the guy put the shotgun to his mouth and pulled the trigger," he said.

The home is in a quiet, neat neighborhood on east Capitol Hill. The houses are well-kept and the yards clean and well-tended. It was rented by several young people who share a love of techno music, friends said.

The roommates included a chef, a baker, an engineer, a wine merchant and a performance artist, said Rahul Gairola, 31, who was at the home Saturday afternoon to try to find out what had happened to one of the roommates, a woman he had met at the University of Washington.

"Music brought them all together," said a friend, Aaron Hoyle.

The house was the scene of frequent late-night parties, neighbors said, but Kerlikowske said it wasn't considered a problem.

The "Better off Undead" party, a benefit dance featuring nine DJs, drew about 500 people to the Capitol Hill Arts Center on Friday night, said Annika Anderson, the party's promoter. Private security patted down those who attended, and the dance was peaceful fun, she said.

The dance and the house party where the shooting took place had no connection except that both drew from the tight-knit community of electronic music, said Anderson, a 24-year-old theater teacher who goes by DJ Jimni Cricket.

Several of the residents at the house where the shooting took place were DJs specializing in "Goa," a hippie subculture of electronic music. Anderson said she was too busy with the dance to drop in on friends at the house party.

"This is awful. It's tragic," Anderson said. "I wish to God there's something I could do to change it. When you do a concert, you do pat-downs. But a house party, you don't know what can happen."

Matthew Kwatinetz , the artistic director of the Capitol Hill Arts Center, said about 200 to 300 people were at the center at any time. People were coming and going and he said a crew of about 15 security guards searched people for drugs, alcohol and weapons.

A rave party, more often called a rave and sometimes called a free party, is typically an all-night dance where DJs and other performers play electronic dance music.

"It was very mellow, easy and friendly," Kwatinetz said. "There were no problems, not even a raised voice. It was one of the funnest events I've been to."

Saturday afternoon, a small group of people who had been inside the house stood smoking outside police headquarters in Seattle after interviews by detectives. Most declined to talk, saying they needed food and sleep before they could begin making sense of the tragedy.

A couple of them wore paper jumpsuits because they hadn't had time to dress before hurrying out of the house. One man had blood smeared along his neck; another had blood on the legs of his jeans.

"Welcome to the Columbine of Seattle," said one young woman who declined to give her name but said her boyfriend had been shot.

"He's on the operating table now," she said.

Kinda freaked out for a second there as my daughter has not returned home from partying last night.

I hope none of your friends were involved.

Samaar said:

fantasyislander said:

All is well, just called her. She's have breakfast with friends. Must be nice.

I am so sorry~

~sends positive energy~

wow, that is just insane!

Myspace page of one of the victims:
http://www.myspace.com/sushiismyname

The Slog is following this:
http://www.thestranger.com/blog

That is terrible...

SeattleInvasion said:

so, so sad...

im sorry

I just went out to get brunch at this place where I'm a regular, and the owner, Michael, told me that only two victims' names have been confirmed, and they were both good friends of his. He looked awful.

So sad.

SeattleInvasion said:

That is terrible

So awful.

Great... now I don't feel so safe no more. Knowing there are idiots shooting up places close to where I sleep at night is not good. There is always one idiot in the world who has to ruin it for everyone.
[Edited 3/26/06 16:47pm]

That's my neighborhood as well. The house where the shootings occurred is within walking distance of my place. I'd actually thought about going out to such an event this weekend -- and I've certainly attended several of these afterparties at some random person's home -- but luckily, I had some other things I needed to do.

Obviously this is a terrible thing for those who were killed or injured, their families, and their friends. I've looked over the list of victims, and while I don't recognize any of them, it's very likely that I've met at least one of them. The electronic music community tends to be rather tight-knit -- there's usually a core group of regulars, and you're always seeing people you've seen before. I know I've met the promoter (Jimni Cricket) of the rave that took place before the afterparty.

The Slog has raised a concern that I share; i.e., that the city and police could connect this shooting to raves in general and try to kill the scene. While we don't know all the facts, it seems to me what happened was that some guy from Montana, who was likely mentally ill in some way, decided to start blowing people away randomly. He could have done it anywhere. For whatever reason, he chose this afterparty.

I've been involved in electronic music culture since 1999, which makes me something of an elder in the scene. In seven years, I've seen exactly one incident of violence. Two guys were about to start fighting over something, a bunch of people jumped up and stopped the fight from happening, and by the end of it, the two would-be fighters were shaking hands and hugging.

Granted, the drug Ecstasy probably has a lot to do with the peacefulness of these events. The Slog noted, "[The Capitol Hill Arts Center] reports that there were 19 staff security on hand for the event—which went until 4am—and report that it was a mellow scene with lots of cuddling." The bit about "lots of cuddling" basically confirms that plenty of the attendees were on E. Regardless of what you think about Ecstasy, one thing is clear: it doesn't make people violent. If anything, it has the exact opposite effect.

Fortunately, from what I've read in the Slog, the Police Chief's statement focused on cracking down upon weapons like the ones used by the shooter (i.e., 12-guage pistol-grip shotgun and semi-automatic handgun), not electronic music events.

I've already witnessed the death of one great electronic music scene (Indianapolis). I hope I'm not going to see it happen here.

matt said:

We should probably be writing letters. As the dust settles, I do think people will be pointing fingers at the rave culture. Those of us who have been there know that that's ridiculous, but most people aren't going to understand. And they aren't going to listen to the kids.

notoriousj said:

I know, it's scary. When I first heard about this last night (whilst hanging around with a bunch of raver kiddies, many of whom might have been there if we weren't at the party we were at), I had thought that the shooting happened at CHAC. I couldn't figure out how it was that I didn't hear the gunshots, as close as I am.

I don't know where you are right now, so I don't know if you're getting the local or national coverage, but I'll tell you that the reason this is such big news in Seattle is that this doesn't happen here. And it certainly doesn't happen on the Hill. This IS a safe place to be.

SeattleInvasion said:

I think I'm going to wait and see how the dust settles. As I said, the Police Chief seemed mostly concerned about the availability of the weapons involved, and I just watched a video clip of the Mayor, whose main concern seems to be the impact of the shootings upon the neighborhood.

As for how the mainstream media and the citizens of Seattle will react, I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but the Seattle Post-Intelligencer already has a thoughtful commentary by one of their reporters that asks, "So what if the victims were at a rave?"

I'm so sorry to hear this. That is not what Raves were or are meant to be.


M

That's partly why this is so shocking. In addition to being the second-worse mass murder in the history of the city, this kind of thing is unheard of in the rave scene. The... good (for lack of a better word)... nature of most of the people involved is why a total stranger would be invited to an impromptu afterparty at someone's home.

BTW, it could have been even worse. The police searched the shooter's truck and apartment, and they found other weapons, including a machete and a hand grenade. Some people at nwtekno.org have speculated that maybe his original plan was to shoot up the rave itself, but canceled that after realizing he wasn't going to get his weapons past the pat-down searches they were doing at the door.

matt said:

Well, this excerpt from a local newspaper article seems encouraging:

City Council President Nick Licata said he intends to hold a council briefing on the shooting and events that led up to it before today's regular City Council meeting.

Licata, however, cautioned against tying the rave parties to the violence that occurred afterward.

"The police chief said himself that the event they came from on Capitol Hill was very peaceful, very quiet," Licata said.

Licata wants the council to be informed of the full events that led to the shooting today, and is concerned that "some people have raised this as an issue -- connecting the raves with this incident."

"I want the Police Department and the chief to clarify what apparently is not a connection," he said. "This was a private party. You can call it a rave or whatever, but in the old days, it would have just been considered a house party."

Licata noted there did not appear to be any history of trouble with the venue or the promoter.

"The actual rave was at a legitimate place that has been operating for a long time, that had a particular kind of music," Licata said. "The word 'rave' is a marketing tool that is used to get people to show up because it sounds like something exciting or edgy is happening. In fact, it's techno music that is pretty mellow."

I've been enjoying watching politicians and journalists trying to define what a "rave" is.

it goes to show that the system of mental health care has gotten really bad in the US. that is the reason the shootings happened at all, really. the guy was totally in need of drastic help and there just is none in America that is good enough or easy enough to come by.



the people of america should make it compulsory to vote so that americans can put an end to this kind of thing!



so sad.



.
[Edited 3/27/06 2:43am]

Thats awful, really despicable. But all I can think of to say is:

Guns. No need.

oh, god, honey....



how awful.

what the heck is going on?

i don't know if anyone posted it up in here but coupla saturdays ago someone was shot in the face by muggers only two blocks from calhoun square... just keeps getting worse
[Edited 3/27/06 6:52am]