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| Police work a crime scene after a shooting near Third Avenue and Pine Street in downtown Seattle on Wednesday. (Amanda Snyder / The Seattle Times) |
The area around Third Avenue and Pine Street has long been one of the grittiest in downtown Seattle, a grim reputation underscored Wednesday when gunfire erupted during the evening commute, leaving a woman dead and seven others injured, including a 9-year-old boy, and a suspect or suspects still at large.
It
was the third shooting in the downtown area in a little more than 24
hours, including an incident earlier Wednesday afternoon where
police shot
and wounded a man who was reported to have had a gun. On
Tuesday, a 55-year-old man was
found dying from a gunshot wound in a stairwell at Westlake
Center, less than a block away from Wednesday’s mayhem.
The
shooting Wednesday occurred around 5 p.m. outside the McDonald’s on
the southeast corner of the intersection, just as hundreds of
commuters crowded into one of the busiest transit corridors in the
country. Witnesses reported a volley of gunfire and a surge of
panicked people running for cover.
Douglas
Converse was standing right outside Westlake Station when he heard
the gunfire. Converse, 60, said he saw two people collapse near Pine
and Third.
“I
saw a couple of bodies go down,” Converse said. “I saw everybody
go running, and I wanted to see if I could be any help.”
Police
Chief Carmen Best, who responded to the scene, said the shooting
happened after a dispute outside the McDonald’s. Police
believe there were multiple shooters, but they don’t know how many,
and it wasn’t clear Wednesday whether any of the injured had been
among the shooters or part of the argument.
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