Seattle shooting update: Cafe gunfire kills two, shooter still on the loose, cops say
(CBS/AP) SEATTLE - A gunman opened fire at a cafe in Seattle's University district Wednesday, killing two people and critically wounding three others, police said.
Police searched for the gunman, described as a man in his 30s wearing dark clothes. According to CBS affiliate KIRO, police said the shooter was seen running away from the scene northbound. He was armed with a gun.
The shooting took place about 11 a.m. at Cafe Racer, a restaurant and music venue north of the University of Washington.
During the manhunt, police responded to another fatal shooting in downtown Seattle. Police say a man shot a woman during an apparent carjacking and fled in a black SUV. The woman died at the scene.
The SUV was later found, but the suspect remained at large. Deputy Police Chief Nick Metz said police didn't immediately know whether the incidents were related.
Evan Hill, who lives above the building where the cafe shooting happened, said the cafe was an artists' collective and performance space.
"It's the strangest place to think of a shooting," said Hill, who heard four to five shots. He said he ran to his balcony and called 911, but didn't see a suspect.
Nearby Roosevelt High School has been locked down during the manhunt. Seattle School District spokeswoman Teresa Wippel says students also are locked inside Eckstein Middle School and Greenlake Elementary, and KIRO reports that police are asking parents not to come pick up their kids.
Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Susan Gregg said all three wounded from the University District shooting are in critical condition.
Wednesday's shootings are the latest in a series of violent gun incidents in Seattle.
Last week a man was fatally shot by a stray bullet while he and his family drove down a Seattle street. Justin Ferrari, 43, a software developer, was killed when a stranger started shooting Thursday afternoon in Seattle's Central Area. Seattle police say that gunman's intended target was another person involved in a dispute with the shooter.
Ferrari's death was the second random killing in Seattle in about a month. In late April, a 21-year-old woman who recently moved to Seattle from Albuquerque, N.M., to pursue her dream of becoming a chef died of injuries suffered in an apparently random drive-by shooting near downtown. No arrests have been made in either incident.
On Tuesday, Chief Metz addressed the City Council about the spate of gun violence.
"We have a fair amount of people right now willing to hurt others with firearms," Metz told reporters Wednesday.
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May 30, 2012: Seattle Shooting: Gunman kills two people and injures three others, cops say