News Shots Fired at Jewish center at 3rd & Virginia
We’ll file an update after the SPD holds its press conference at 8:30. For now (it’s 8pm), here’s the report from our folks phoning in from the scene: 6 people shot. All women. 1 is dead. Another victim—not the dead woman—is pregnant; she was shot in the arm. The shooting occurred at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle at 3rd and Virginia at about 4 pm. Police were on the scene almost immediately. At least 10 ambulances responded. Speculation is that the shooter was Arab Muslim. He was apprehended after a tense hostage situation. Rumors are the shooter was angry about “the war in Israel.” He reportedly aimed low and asked the his victims to call 911.
From the PI report:
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.
SPD spokeswoman Deanna Nollette, however, told us the identity of the shooter is pure media speculation.
SPD Chief Gil Kerlikowske was at an anti-terrorism conference in San Jose, CA. and is on route back to Seattle. The Mayor will speak at the press conference.
Witnesses say the shooter was waving a gun and then went into the building.
It’s cordoned off from 3rd and Virginia to 3rd and Blanchard. Helicopters are flying above. Tons of SPD cars are stationed at all corners. Small crowds have been hovering on street corners, gawking for hours now. One bystander said it was the “coming of the apocalypse” … (True that: Gays, Jews, heatwave…)
The place is flooded with reporters…TV camera crews. One gawker told The Stranger: “I wish someone would interview me. I don’t know anything. But I wish someone would interview me.”
Here’s the statement from Mayor Nickels:
This is a terrible tragedy for all of the victims and their families. Our prayers are with them today. We don’t know the exact reason, but it appears that it was purposeful. This is a community that prides itself on being a safe place to live and work. We will come together for these families and help them through this terrible situation. In the meantime, the Seattle Police Department will be providing added security to all Synagogues and Temples in the city until further notice.
That last line is a little chilling given that we heard a rumor (from a TV reporter) that there was a heightened security alert that went out yesterday in Seattle concerning local Jewish community centers.
*Personal footnote, and I know it seems super weird in the middle of this breaking news story. But that last line about protecting Jewish community centers is extra weird for a personal reason. Yesterday evening I was jogging on E. Interlaken Pl., that cool stretch of wooded paved road that runs along Interlaken Park on the North end of Capitol Hill. On that route, you pass a Jewish school. As I passed the school, a dad was pulling out onto Interlaken from the driveway to the school. He had a car load of kids, and we exchanged looks; him slowly rounding the corner…me slowly jogging up the hill. As we looked at each other, I flashed on Jewish identity and the war in the Middle East and vulnerability. (Maybe being alone on a wooded street added to that). I don’t know. This sounds a bit hokey, but I wondered if people like this dad—who are so Jewish identified—wondered himself what someone running by was thinking—as they saw him pulling out of this place that announced so loudly who he and his kids were. Especially at a time when Israel is at the center of a global conflict. I’m Jewish, and look Jewish, and I am increasingly, in my own head, Jewish identified. (It happens as you get older.) But still, I wondered what he was thinking. And I wondered if he was curious about what I was thinking.
They're killing Jews, it seems.