Seven people dead in Capitol Hill (Seattle) shooting | Seattle Times

[Ediacara]

Seven people dead in Capitol Hill shooting

By The Associated Press and Seattle Times staff

SEATTLE — At least seven people were killed in a shooting early today at a party at a home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, Seattle police said.

Police said one of the dead was the gunman.

At around 7 a.m. a gunman walked into a party at the home in the 2100 block of East Republican and open fire, killing at least six people.

When a police officer responded to a 911 call from the house and confronted the gunman, the man shot and killed himself, according to Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske.

More at the Seattle Times

[napi21]

1. Interesting street name! I don't mean to be judgemental, but

isn't 7AM a little unusual to still be partying? (Or starting to party?)

[Ariana Celeste]

2. Depends on what they are doing.

If coke or meth or acid are involved, that's absolutely normal.

[nine23]

14. Excuuuuuussssseee me, Ms.Celeste...

I do neither coke, meth, or acid...but I DO love a good party, not to mention dancing. Ever been out on the town in Madrid? Barcelona? Paris? Rio? Things don't even get STARTED until 2am.

Just sayin'...

:):) (Two smilies. The first is a peace offering; my post was not intended as a flame. The second is quite simply the international symbol for 24 Hour Party People everywhere...:))


</thread derail>

[Ariana Celeste]

27. Lol!

Point well taken! :D :hi:

[rodeodance]

16. I like a good party

[LynnTheDem]

3. Why is this being reported???

Think of all the parties in the US yesterday where NO ONE was killed!

***

Stupid MFing rightwingnuts; 50-60 Iraqis are killed by violance EVERY DAY in Iraq and they want "good news" reported. Imagine if 50-60 Americans were gunned down every day in the US, and that's ignoring the population difference!

[Coventina]

5. ZING!

:thumbsup:

[fishwax]

19. haha

:thumbsup:

[stillcool]

26. Actually... the state of California....

at least, that's what I've read is the comparative size of Iraq.

[smitty]

36. 50-60 Americans ARE gunned down every day in America.

[Kire]

38. ZING!

:thumbsup:

[LynnTheDem]

41. Put that per capita with Iraq.

500-600 Americans gunned down every day.

That isn't happening. Yet.

[donco6]

4. 7 a.m. party? Maybe it was a neighbor.

I know - insensitive humor.

But there's an awful lot of shootings at parties these days. Are revolvers the new "party favor" or something?

[flamingyouth]

6. OMG - this is about six blocks from me

:scared:

[liberalnurse]

7. That's a little too close for me.

Did you hear the cruisers and squad cars? :scared:

I feel bad for the Officers that had to walk into that disaster. What a traumatic scene.:cry:

[flamingyouth]

8. To be honest, I hear sirens all the time

I was just getting up then and I did hear sirens and thought it was weird because it was so early. :(

[Ediacara]

9. I used to live on 19th between Harrison and Republican

in other words, less than 2 blocks away :-(

[flamingyouth]

11. Yikes

One of my friends lives at 19th & Republican. I'm seeing her tomorrow - I'm sure she'll have quite the tale to tell. :(

[Ediacara]

28. ya, take a look at this

My old apt vs the location of the shooting:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=419+19th+ave+e,+seattle+wa&daddr=2150+e+republican+st,+seattle+wa&t=h&ll=47.622906,-122.305727&spn=0.003464,0.007317

[Pachamama]

40. Friend of mine has her house at 19th and Aloha -5 blocks from the shooting

:scared:

I just realized this after I started reading this thread! OMG! It's actually a really nice neighborhood where she is and although there are some areas by Madison St. that I wouldn't walk alone at night, Capital Hill area is a great place!

Whoa...this is so awful....

[icymist]

12. I used to live on 19th and Denny, about the same neighborhood.

I moved out two years ago because of the drug gangs. These guys started harassing everyone in my apartment building for parking our cars near their bus stop! Capitol Hill is becoming bad news, from Group Health on down to 23rd! The police do nothing about these gangs, even told me that I had to prove that it was a drug gang before any action would be taken. (I complained that things, like antennae, were being broken off of my car)

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

13. do you know why they broke off your antennae? ---it's because

they use it as a crack pipe--used to happen in Hollywood when I lived there-

[icymist]

15. These thugs were also threatening bodily harm to my neighbors...

just for being there. There's no doubt in my mind that this was harassment. Anyway, that was two years ago and I wound up leaving that neighborhood in frustration that Seattle's police department was too underfunded to be effective toward gangs.

[banana republican]

24. What Police????

I belong to a group called the "Aurora Avenue Merchants Assn"(AKA: the North Seattle Branch of the RNC) a very conservative group. But they have access to a great deal of information and their programs are very informative. Someone from city hall is at every meeting Nick Lacata being a frequent attendee, as well as two or three of Seattle's Finest.

One of the major concerns they have is with law enforcement, especially: prostitution; drug use; and police response time. During these meetings I have discovered that VERY OFTEN there are only two to three officers on duty in the North Seattle Precinct especially at that time of night.

[Ediacara]

10. UPDATE

From the same article in the Times, since updated with more info:

At around 7 a.m. a man walked into a blue rental home in the 2100 block of East Republican Street and opened fire, killing six people. More than a dozen people who attended the party were relaxing inside after a late night party when the shooting happened, said Seattle police spokesman Rich Pruitt.
....
The girl, Jesse Mullens, Suzanne's 18-year-old boyfriend, and another friend had gone to what Thorne called a "zombie rave" in downtown Seattle last night.
....
Charles Jackson, who lives two doors down from the home, said he was "just getting out of bed and I heard 'boom, boom.' "

"By the time I got out there was one more shot fired," said Jackson, 67.

Jackson put on his clothes and saw a man lying on a sidewalk who appeared to be shot.

Jackson, who has lived in the neighborhood 40 years, describes the area as relatively quiet.
*****

It is normally a very quiet neighborhood actually. Almost entirely apartments and houses, there's an elementary school and small park within a two blocks...

[wordpix2]

17. sorry, * says he can't afford to fund police & other first responders

thanks to the Iraq War and no-bid contracts to his buds in Corporate Welfare Amerika.

[keopeli]

18. Cap Hill is a great place. I lived 3 blocks from here and now 10 blocks

What consumes a mind to make it do this? End so many people's young lives, including his own? Why would a lad have easy access to so many guns?

Tragedy tragedy tragedy.

--

On a side note: One of the officials in the pic at the seattle times is a member of the church choir that I conduct and a fantastic individual! We're lucky to have this person working for our city!

[Cats Against Frist]

30. Capitol Hill is a shit hole

And I'm not your suburban type, either -- I love the city, and I love Seattle, but, apparently Capitol Hill is going downhill, fast. I heard Greenlake and fucking WALLINGFORD are overrun with gangs and drugs now, too -- spillover from Aurora, or something.

There are about a billion things wrong with law enforcement in Seattle -- mayor's a pussy, social services cut, all the money's going to "improvement" projects like those god-awful parks underneath I-5. Instead of making more parks where the homeless can shoot up, they need more services, more cops, safe injection sites, and more youth centers.

I'm not all authoritarian, but as long as I know that they can mobilize an army of police to antagonize peaceful protesters, it burns my ass that they can't get a few cops to clean up Capitol Hill.

One of my worst experiences in Seattle has been about five years ago, when I was eight months pregnant, and getting on the bus everyday to take a 1.5 hour ride to Lynnwood to pull staples out of paper for ten bucks an hour with a bunch of Russian mail-order brides. I was living in a shitty bungalow with snobby landlords, was broke off my ass, phone shut off, etc. On the street, in Capitol Hill, some disheveled street girl in moon boots and boutique pants, who was all done up like Courtney Love, approached me and asked me for some money, so she could "get her daughter a birthday present." Said "I don't have any money." Then, she asked me if I'd buy her a hamburger at Dick's. Said no. She kept bugging me, I said "fuck you," and then she called me "heartless" and said that I looked like I had money.

Here's a bit on that, from another post I made a long time ago (yes, I'm still angry):

The reason for this, is three-fold -- one, I think the world's resources are scarce, and that includes the quarters in my pocket. I refuse to give money to young, able-bodied people who hang out, all day, on Capitol Hill. Inside the Dick's are mostly Hispanic Immigrants, who I would guess also started with nothing, but are willing to peel 200 pounds of potatoes, a day, to take care of their families. Those panhandlers, who were fleecing me, in the morning, could have been standing down at the day laborer pick-up, with the Hispanics and the Asians, instead of breezing around Downtown Seattle. The girl outside Dick's that asked me for money, could have gotten on the bus with me, and come down to work at the microfiche place with the tens of Russian and Ukranian girls who worked there.

That's why I hate Capitol Hill.

[joeybee12]

20. My old neighborhood!

Yikes!

[SeattleGirl]

21. My daughter and her fiance live at 14th and Mercer.

Not that they would have been at a zombie party, but damn, I'm glad they're in Arizona this weekend!

What a sad, sad, story. :cry:

[flamingyouth]

25. Just a side note here

I know I'm out of touch, but what is a zombie party?

Sad, sad indeed. What a waste.

[TroglodyteScholar]

45. A rave for people who like to dress up like it's Halloween

About 20 people had gathered at the two-story rental house after a Friday night rave called "Better Off Undead" in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Some of the guests were "made up to look as if they were dead," Kerlikowske said.
:shrug::shrug::shrug:

[brentspeak]

22. Horrible

Our nation's gun culture + sick people = more murder and misery than there ordinarily would be.

[benEzra]

37. It appears the weapon was a sawed-off shotgun...

a weapon not associated with the gun culture (they've been banned for 72 years now), but with the crime culture.

I don't know what this guy's issues were or what the motive was, but the gun he appears to have used was highly illegal (as in, 5 to 10 years in Club Fed for simple possession).

[geniph]

49. It wasn't a sawed-off

It was a pistol-grip Mossberg. Perfectly legal weapon. Unfortunately, it happened to be in the hands of someone who snapped.

[benEzra]

51. My bad, I based that on an early report

that said it was a cutoff. Bystander probably couldn't tell what was legal length and what wasn't.

If it was a Mossberg, I'm assuming it was a pump?

[Quetzal]

23. fucking asshole

I have many friends who live in the Capitol Hill area - I hope none of them were at the party.

[mvd]

29. Just horrible

Condolences to the families of the victims. :-(

[Up2Late]

31. "...East Republican Street," "Capitol Hill," What kind of neighborhood...

...is this?

Here's another, more explicit report from The Observer (U.K.):

US gunman massacres six partygoers

[progressive_realist]

34. Actually a very liberal neighborhood

I live on Republican St., about a dozen blocks away. Capitol Hill was the gay district of Seattle, but now has a mix of just about every type of person. There is a high saturation of bars, clubs, and young people, so it is something of a party zone. Although the location where this happened is on the far side of the hill, where it is quieter and more residential.

None of my close friends were at this party, but I probably won't know for a few days if any more remote acquaintances were there.

[Ediacara]

35. It's probably the most liberal neighborhood in one of the most liberal

cities in the country. The neighborhood was called "Capitol Hill" because the city fathers wanted the state capitol moved to Seattle from the territorial capitol of Olympia, and on that hill would be all the government buildings etc. This obviously never happened.

I am not sure about the history of the street's name, but keep in mind when the city was founded (1851), the Republican Party pretty much didn't exist, and within 15 years would arrise as the nation's liberal party (obviously this role would become 100% reversed by the 1920s). I don't find the name of the street odd, as I suspect it was more of an homage to our form of government instead of an homage to one particular party. I mean, could you imagine naming a street "Natural Law Boulevard?"

[Judson39]

42. Nothing good happens after mid-night

Maybe if they had all gone home at a reasonable hour.

[InternalDialogue]

46. Yes, they were obviously asking to be murdered.

:sarcasm:

[geniph]

50. It was 7 a.m.

And I agree, nothing good happens at 7 a.m. I keep trying to tell my boss that, but getting him to let me start work at 10 instead just doesn't seem to fly.

[brooklynite]

32. My SIL lives nearby...

about five blocks away. Hard to believe in a neighborhood like Capitol Hill.

[LisaL]

33. Today on my way to a store, I saw a bunch of policemen

surrounding a guy with an automatic weapon. Thankfully it was a toy gun. Why was an idiot running around with a toy gun is beyond my understanding, but there are way too many wackos out there.

[genieroze]

39. When I first read this I thought it was a parody.

Capitol Hill, East Republican etc...

[Ex Lion Tamer]

43. Do we know if any of the victims have actually turned into zombies?

Just curious. The irony is pretty hard to escape.

[better2know]

44. shotgunned to death at zombie party -no joke

quote:
The private party following a "zombie rave" was winding down when a man walked out, returned to the house wearing bandoliers of shotgun shells and opened fire on the young crowd, police said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060326/ap_on_re_us/seattle_shooting&printer=1;_ylt=Au8SnHr4GTwFlhu7mP7lKBZH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

horrible

[icymist]

47. Seattle police searched North Seattle apartment (Related Story)

Seattle police searched a North Seattle apartment Saturday night where the suspected killer in the Capitol Hill massacre has lived for four years, according to the assistant manager of the apartment.

Jim Pickett, the assistant manager of the Town & Country Apartments on Roosevelt Way, said police raided the second-floor apartment at about 6 p.m. Saturday. Police arrived with a battering ram and a shield, but were apparently let in the apartment by the suspected killer's twin brother, who shared the apartment with the suspect.

Police brought out three rifles and what appeared to be a grenade, Pickett said.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002891174_webshooting26.html

[Ediacara]

48. POLICE NAME SHOOTER: Kyle Aaron Huff

North Seattle man is suspected shooter

By Seattle Times Staff

Seattle police believe the man responsible for Saturday's Capitol Hill massacre is Kyle Aaron Huff, 28, who had lived in North Seattle since moving from Montana with his twin brother about four years ago.

The assistant manager at the apartment where the brothers lived said police told him that Huff was the suspected shooter.

Jeff Green, a dispatcher for the Whitefish, Mont., Police also said that Seattle police contacted the department Saturday and told them Huff was the perpetrator of Seattle's worst mass murder in 23 years. Huff previously lived in Whitefish.

More at the Seattle Times

[symbolman]

52. I live in Seattle for 8 years my son was born there in 86

Capitol Hill was a crazy ass place, lots of fun, but riddled with gays (not that there's anything wrong with that), and the old joke used to be that if you dropped your wallet on Capitol Hill, it was better to "kick it home"..

Lots of shithole apartments (with great views of the space needle tho) with walls so cheap, like the old tale where the walls are so thin that if you tell your wife a dirty joke in bed, the people next door laugh before SHE does..

Anyone who's ever had to ride the buses out of there will never forget the SMELL.. I've lived in big cities all over the place and never smelled busses that STUNK so bad, too many homeless, even then.

I worked for an apartment management agency who'd send me downtown each day to pick up some Latinos to work them all day, and then the boss would stiff them, so of course I had pissed off mexicans pounding on my truck the next time I had to pick up some more cheap labor. The boss was a total asshole, once when I'd gotten about 2 grand of tools ripped off from the LOCKED lower parking space of my own apartment building, one of HIS buildings, the guy wrote me a check that just about covered a portable rechargable drill.. I finally walked off the job when I found out that half of my paychecks were being garnished by the BOSS and supposedly sent to the state to pay my child support, only the STATE never received the money! I suffered for YEARS at the hands of the courts and my ex wife over that one, the gift that kept on giving..

On the other hand I used to work in a place called "City Picnics" downtown, and one of the people washing pots and pans for me was the Indian guy from the band "Sound Garden", who used to walk around the place telling me that he was going to be famous - of course I said to him, "yeah, YOU and every OTHER BAND in Seattle.." :) dumbass me, I should have just left my awful wife and started booting up heroin and playing guitar with all these guys, would have been rich by now :)

The guy would leave tapes of Sound Garden rehearsing in the restaurant's cassette system and we'd listen to it while I vaccummed up at the end of the night, and he'd asked me all fresh faced, "Well, what do you think of our music?" I'd tell him, "Hmmm.. sounds a lot like Led Zepplin.. I could play that shit myself.." (If ONLY he'd left one of those cassettes IN the sound system when he bailed on the restaurant, sheesh, I could have sold it on E-Bay for probably a few thousand bucks..)

I once stole an Xmas tree the first year my son was born there in Capitol Hill, didn't want him to not have a tree for his first Xmas, so I grabbed one from outside the supermarket there and RAN.. slipped on the ICE right across the parking lot under a big light where the old folks home was, rolling around with a stolen Xmas tree, trying to get up and RUN some more before getting caught, stupid things like that happen in Seattle, would have never tried that in Chicago :)

Lost one of my very best friends there within the last year, made me do a lot of thinking about that place, it was fun in it's day but also in 87 or so the CRIPS and the BLOODS began moving into that neighborhood, nothing like pushing a baby stroller down the street where it used to be all happy gay guys only to see these ALIENS who killed for no reason walking past you, giving you the stink eye, knowing that you can't do a damn thing about it if they jack you up while holding a baby..

That's when I moved.. standard issue.. older part of town, once for the rich, then the gays move in and make it trendy, then the hippies move in and bring in some low lifes that start the ROT, then the gangs and druggies move in, and then it's unliveable - it's how it works in many cities..

Ballard was a great place to live after that, nice there by the Locks, but the prices were also going up in the 80's -- 60K houses went up in price to 200K in like a YEAR with no raises in pay for the workers.. the "Californication of Seattle" made a LOT of us move, couldn't afford it anymore..

Sure miss "The TriAngle" bar there - I helped create it, some of the first artwork on the walls was mine, dunno if it's even there still..

That town will get more nutso, the traffic was insane in the 80's, can't even imagine what it's like now, that alone would drive you nuts - sorry to hear about those poor partiers, this world needs more of them..