05:54 PM PST on Saturday, March 25, 2006

KING5.com and Associated Press

SEATTLE - A gunman packing a shotgun stormed into a house on Capitol Hill Saturday morning and shot and killed six young people before taking his own life. Three others were injured in the shooting spree. Two of the three have critical injuries.

The victims, four men and two women, were in their late teens and early 20s, police said.No one is being identified yet.

"It's one of the largest crime scenes the city has ever had," said Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske.

At a news conference Kerlikowske said "these appeared to be almost execution-style shootings." Bodies of the shooting victims were found in several places in the house.

The gunman has been tentatively identified. He was in his late 20's, came from out of state and had lived in the area for five years, Kerlikowske said.

He was described as about 6-foot-1 and around 225 pounds. There was no argument in the house and witnesses described him as "quiet and humble."

The man was invited to the house by some people he met earlier at a "zombie rave" party. There were about 20 people in the house when he left the hourse shortly before 7 a.m. He returned a few minutes later with a shotgun and semi-automatic handgun. He fired off dozens of rounds, first shooting at two people outside the house, then entering and killing three in the living room.

He then went upstairs to seek more victims. Two girls were hiding in a bathroom but the gunman was not able to get inside so he fired inside the door, said Kerlikowske. They were not wounded.

An officer arrived at the house at 2112 E. Republican Street after hearing shots fired. He found one person staggering out of the home with a gunshot wound.

When the officer confronted the gunman and ordered him to drop his shotgun, he put the barrel in his mouth and fired.

KING

The shooting happened on E. Republican Street in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

"People in the neighborhood shouldn't be concerned" that this area of single-family homes was targeted," Kerlikowske said.

The gunman was wearing bandoliers of shells for the shotgun and carrying additional clips for the handgun. In his truck, police found an assault rife and multiple "banana clips" carrying 30 bullets each.

Kerlikowske said the gunman mainly used the 20-gauge pistol-grip shotgun, "a weapon not designed for hunting purposes but for hunting people."

Police also found an assault rifle in his black Dodge pickup.

Police said they did not know if drugs or alcohol were a factor, though Kerlikowske said marijuana and alcohol were found in the house.

William Lowe, 59, who lives across the street, said he heard six shots fired shortly after his alarm went off at 7 a.m. He looked through the peephole of his door to see people scattering from the home, some with faces painted and hair dyed -- "part of their party culture," according to Seattle Police spokesman Rich Pruitt.

The young people who had been to a "zombie party" were wearing make-up and were splattered with fake blood, to look dead, Kerlikowske said.

Police said they did not know if drugs or alcohol were a factor, but spokeswoman Deanna Nollette said several of the occupants had come from another party and continued partying until the time of the shooting. She said investigators did not immediately know whether any of the victims had been sleeping.

The gunman also left messages in orange spray paint around the neighborhood with the word "now."

Witness describes rampage

Twenty-year-old Gary Will was in the upstairs bathroom with his girlfriend when the shooting began.

KING

Gary Will and his girlfriend were hiding in a bathroom when the shooting began.

“I cut the screen on the window on the roof to try and get through the window on the roof but it wasn't going to open far enough,” he said. “I didn't want to make so much noise to where he knew we were in there.”

Will could only sit and wait as the gunman approached.

“We heard lots of gunshots and then we heard silence and then we heard him coming up the stairs and he wiggled, he tried to get into the bathroom, he shot around the bathroom door and then went around to the bedroom to get through that bathroom door but it was locked too,” he said.

At that point Will heard police sirens and the gunman left the house. Eventually Will came downstairs.

“I didn't really look, I didn't want to look,” he said. “I had four or five friends there, one of them I still don't know where she's at.”

Will was with a group of friends at a rave party on Capitol Hill Friday night. They went to the home on East Republican Street for an another party. He said nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

“Nobody there was really getting smashed or anything, it was really chill it was really chill, and there was no argument no fighting or anything at all and this guy just shows up and starts letting off rounds,” he said.

Friends arrived at Harborview Medical Center to check on the shooting victims. They are still confused over who the gunman was about his motive.

Tenants were quiet

Aaron Hoyle, 25, of Renton, said about five 20-somethings lived in the blue, two-story bungalow with white trim, and that some were promoters of warehouse parties. Hoyle hadn't been to the home in about three months, but heard about the shooting on the news and came to see if his friends were OK. By late morning, he still didn't know.

The home, which according to King County property records is owned by a man named Gregg D. Doyle, is just a few blocks from Miller Community Center, where Little League baseball games were under way Saturday morning.

Neighbor Doug Nufer, who lives on the same block described the residents as "a bunch of musicians, 20-year-old white kids, just kind of normal kids."

He said they seemed to have weekly parties, "but their parties were pretty low-key. You wouldn't even hear music blasting from their house and there were never any events where people were getting into arguments."

Saturday's shooting is the worst one in Washington since 1983, when 13 people were killed in a robbery at a Seattle International District gambling parlor.

KING 5 News would like to interview any of the people who were at the party. Please call (206) 448-3850 or email newstips@king5.com.