SWAT team arrests suspect in Seattle Northgate Transit Station shooting
Witness recalls shooting at Northgate Transit Station
Seattle police are looking for two people they say ambushed a man getting off the light rail at the Northgate Transit Station in Seattle and shot him in the back of the head Monday morning.
SEATTLE - A SWAT team arrested a man in connection with the shooting at the Seattle Northgate Transit Center earlier this week. The victim, who was critically injured, later died in the hospital.
According to the Seattle Police Department (SPD), the 48-year-old victim, who was shot in the head, later died at Harborview Medical Center on July 29 – upgrading the case to a homicide investigation.
Authorities say SPD detectives and a SWAT team served a warrant at the 28-year-old suspect's residence and took him into custody on Wednesday.
The backstory:
On Monday at around 7:40 a.m., officers arrived at the Northgate Transit Center near the intersection of First Avenue Northeast and Northeast 103rd Street. Investigators said the victim was shot at ground level near the Light Rail train.
Officers began searching the area for the suspect, who had run away from the scene before driving off in a car. Surveillance video captured the suspect driving a 2004 gold Chevy Malibu after the shooting, according to court documents.
An SPD officer pulled over a vehicle matching the description of the suspect's car on Tuesday, and police say the driver matched the physical description of the suspect. The suspect was not arrested during the traffic stop, but police used the officer's bodycam footage to track the vehicle to the suspect's address.
Court documents state both the suspect and victim were students at Pima Medical Institute, which is located near the Northgate Transit Station. Seattle police labeled the shooting as a pre-meditated murder of a classmate.
What they're saying:
One witness who was on her morning commute said she heard one shot and saw the victim fall to the ground at the base of the escalator.
"I heard a pop sound, I saw some pigeons fly up off the roof," the witness said. "I saw a guy fall, I saw another guy grab something that may or may not have been a gun and run away."
She didn't want to appear on camera for safety reasons. She said another witness saw the people involved heading down the escalator before the shooting.
"They saw the shooter coming down the escalator and possibly a second person behind the one who got shot and point the gun and shoot him, no conversation or anything," she said.
What's next:
After the SWAT team took the 28-year-old suspect into custody, they booked him into the King County Jail for investigation of first-degree murder. His bail was set at $5 million.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
The Source: Information in this story comes from the Seattle Police Department and original reporting by FOX 13 Seattle.
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