As reported yesterday , the city of Seattle was rocked when a lone gunman walked into a popular arts cafe near a local university and opened fire, fatally wounding four people before fleeing the scene and killing a fifth person in a carjacking as police pursued.
The gunman, identified by authorities as 40-year-old Ian Stawicki, later shot himself in the head. Fox news reports he succumbed to his self-inflicted gunshot wound at approximately 6pm on Wednesday.
According to the Seattle Times, Stawicki’s rampage began just before 11am at Cafe Racer, a restaurant and music venue north of the University of Washington.
When the smoke cleared, Joe “Vito” Albanese, 52, was killed along with best friend and bandmate, Drew Keriakedes, 45. Both men performed with the band God’s Favorite Beefcake, the IBTimes reports.
The names of the other cafe shooting victims were not released.
The only survivor of the cafe shooting, Leonard Meuse, was upgraded from critical to serious condition at Harborview Medical Center. He remained in the intensive care unit Thursday, said spokeswoman Susan Gregg.
Meuse’s father, Raymond Meuse, told the Times his son was shot in the jaw and armpit but was expected to survive as the bullet missed his heart and spinal column.
While authorities had no immediate explanation for the bloodshed, Cafe Racer regulars said Stawicki frequented the establishment, but due to his mental instability and random outbursts, was asked not to come back.
“He’d be totally normal and educated and all of a sudden he would just crack – and say insane crazy stuff at a certain point they kicked him out and then this morning they said you are 86’d you can’t be here would you like a coffee to go. He was nice – courteous, walked to the door and turned and then started shooting,” says a friend of the victims, Christopher Assaf.
NECN has more on Ian Stawicki and the Cafe Racer shooting in Seattle in the video below:
