Terror in Seattle
Terror in Seattle.
Published with no comment.
Six Women Shot, One Dead at Seattle Jewish Center
By TIM BOOTH, AP
SEATTLE (July 29) - A gunman who opened fire in a Jewish organization's office, killing one woman and wounding five others, declared he was a Muslim angry at Israel.
Police arrested a 30-year-old man who surrendered to a SWAT team moments after the shooting began Friday afternoon at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.
Naveed Afzal Haq was booked into the King County Jail for investigation of homicide and attempted homicide, police said.
Haq previously lived in Pasco, one of southeast Washington's Tri-Cities, police said. The Seattle Times reported Haq had lived most recently in Everett, north of Seattle, but police could not confirm that.
The gunman forced his way through the security door at the federation after an employee had punched in her security code, Marla Meislin-Dietrich, a database coordinator for the center, told The Associated Press.
"He said `I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel,' before opening fire on everyone," Meislin-Dietrich said. "He was randomly shooting at everyone."
Asked if the arrested man was a Muslim, Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske told a news conference "you could infer that that was his background."
One woman died at the scene and five others were hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center, Kerlikowske said. Three of the five were critically injured.
The gunman spoke with a 911 dispatcher, a phone call that led police to tag the shooting as a hate crime. Mayor Greg Nickels and Kerlikowske said officers were moving to protect both synagogues and mosques around the city, but said there was no evidence of a broad conspiracy.
"This was a purposeful, hateful act, as far as we know by an individual acting on his own," Nickels said.
Kerlikowske said police were protecting mosques "because there's always the concern of retaliatory crime."
Laura Laughlin, special agent in charge of the Seattle FBI office, said the arrested man was a U.S. citizen.
Haq had a misdemeanor lewd conduct charge pending in Benton County, near Pasco. He had been accused of exposing himself in a public place, his Kennewick attorney, Larry Stephenson, told The Times.
Haq's parents were shaken by his arrest in the shootings, the lawyer said.
"I talked to his father, and his mother is crying, and they don't know what is going on," Stephenson said Friday night. "They are very, very shook up."
Stephenson said he thought Haq was single and unemployed.
Three of the injured women were in critical condition after being shot in the abdomen, hospital spokeswoman Pamela Steele said. Two others were in satisfactory condition: a 37-year-old woman, five months pregnant, who had been shot in the forearm; and another woman who was shot in the knee, Steele said.
One of the wounded victims was identified by her mother, Kathryn Bush, as 23-year-old Layla Bush, The Times reported, adding the other wounded were identified as Carol Goldman, Dayna Klein, Christina Rexroad and Cheryl Stumbo.
Stumbo was the federation's marketing director, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said, while Layla Bush was the office manager and receptionist.
When the shots rang out around 4 p.m. Friday, employees fled the Jewish center in terror as nearby police officers charged to the scene and blocked off several downtown blocks.
Police evacuated several nearby buildings as a SWAT team searched the federation building.
Patti Simon was at work at the federation's newspaper on the first floor when she heard screaming, shots and what sounded like furniture crashing on the floor above.
"We heard this horrible screaming on the floor above us and shots," said Simon, 52, who sells advertising at the paper. Simon called up to her co-workers on the second floor, but got no answer, so she called the police and fled the building.
"People got shot, some of our co-workers," Simon said, her voice shaking. "I just got back from Israel and made it out of there a half hour before the rockets started."
Authorities have been advising synagogues and Jewish groups to be watchful in the weeks since hostilities erupted between Israel and Lebanon. Assistant Police Chief Nick Metz said the warning was not in response to any specific threats.
The federation's Web site describes its mission as "to ensure Jewish survival and enhance the quality of Jewish life by meeting needs locally, in Israel and worldwide." It was among sponsors of a Solidarity With Israel rally last weekend.
AP-NY-07-29-06 0435EDT
Published with no comment.
Six Women Shot, One Dead at Seattle Jewish Center
By TIM BOOTH, AP
SEATTLE (July 29) - A gunman who opened fire in a Jewish organization's office, killing one woman and wounding five others, declared he was a Muslim angry at Israel.
Police arrested a 30-year-old man who surrendered to a SWAT team moments after the shooting began Friday afternoon at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.
Naveed Afzal Haq was booked into the King County Jail for investigation of homicide and attempted homicide, police said.
Haq previously lived in Pasco, one of southeast Washington's Tri-Cities, police said. The Seattle Times reported Haq had lived most recently in Everett, north of Seattle, but police could not confirm that.
The gunman forced his way through the security door at the federation after an employee had punched in her security code, Marla Meislin-Dietrich, a database coordinator for the center, told The Associated Press.
"He said `I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel,' before opening fire on everyone," Meislin-Dietrich said. "He was randomly shooting at everyone."
Asked if the arrested man was a Muslim, Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske told a news conference "you could infer that that was his background."
One woman died at the scene and five others were hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center, Kerlikowske said. Three of the five were critically injured.
The gunman spoke with a 911 dispatcher, a phone call that led police to tag the shooting as a hate crime. Mayor Greg Nickels and Kerlikowske said officers were moving to protect both synagogues and mosques around the city, but said there was no evidence of a broad conspiracy.
"This was a purposeful, hateful act, as far as we know by an individual acting on his own," Nickels said.
Kerlikowske said police were protecting mosques "because there's always the concern of retaliatory crime."
Laura Laughlin, special agent in charge of the Seattle FBI office, said the arrested man was a U.S. citizen.
Haq had a misdemeanor lewd conduct charge pending in Benton County, near Pasco. He had been accused of exposing himself in a public place, his Kennewick attorney, Larry Stephenson, told The Times.
Haq's parents were shaken by his arrest in the shootings, the lawyer said.
"I talked to his father, and his mother is crying, and they don't know what is going on," Stephenson said Friday night. "They are very, very shook up."
Stephenson said he thought Haq was single and unemployed.
Three of the injured women were in critical condition after being shot in the abdomen, hospital spokeswoman Pamela Steele said. Two others were in satisfactory condition: a 37-year-old woman, five months pregnant, who had been shot in the forearm; and another woman who was shot in the knee, Steele said.
One of the wounded victims was identified by her mother, Kathryn Bush, as 23-year-old Layla Bush, The Times reported, adding the other wounded were identified as Carol Goldman, Dayna Klein, Christina Rexroad and Cheryl Stumbo.
Stumbo was the federation's marketing director, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said, while Layla Bush was the office manager and receptionist.
When the shots rang out around 4 p.m. Friday, employees fled the Jewish center in terror as nearby police officers charged to the scene and blocked off several downtown blocks.
Police evacuated several nearby buildings as a SWAT team searched the federation building.
Patti Simon was at work at the federation's newspaper on the first floor when she heard screaming, shots and what sounded like furniture crashing on the floor above.
"We heard this horrible screaming on the floor above us and shots," said Simon, 52, who sells advertising at the paper. Simon called up to her co-workers on the second floor, but got no answer, so she called the police and fled the building.
"People got shot, some of our co-workers," Simon said, her voice shaking. "I just got back from Israel and made it out of there a half hour before the rockets started."
Authorities have been advising synagogues and Jewish groups to be watchful in the weeks since hostilities erupted between Israel and Lebanon. Assistant Police Chief Nick Metz said the warning was not in response to any specific threats.
The federation's Web site describes its mission as "to ensure Jewish survival and enhance the quality of Jewish life by meeting needs locally, in Israel and worldwide." It was among sponsors of a Solidarity With Israel rally last weekend.
AP-NY-07-29-06 0435EDT
2 Comments:
What a sick pervert. Angry at Israel; I suppose angry that Israelis are not lining up for execution so people like this can claim the holy land as theirs. So he shoots innocent women, so brave, so typical of these barbaric dogs. So predictable.
Fucking animals, these muslims.
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