Police released this security camera image showing Ian Stawicki, the man suspected of shooting five people Wednesday at Café Racer in northeast Seattle. Four of the victims died from the violence. Another person was shot and killed in downtown Seattle about 30 minutes later. Seattle Police said they believed it was also tied to Stawicki. The suspect later shot himself in West Seattle. He died at Harborview Medical Center.
It was early last week when a group of regulars at Cafe Racer noticed a "creepy" drunk man acting belligerently in the bar.
The bartender planned to kick him out – something that had happened before. On another night, the same man had picked fights with musicians.
Seattle police say the same man, Ian L. Stawicki, went back to Cafe Racer about 11 a.m. Wednesday and opened fire with two semi-automatic handguns. One victim grabbed a barstool to protect himself, but Stawicki managed to shoot five people before leaving.
"We've seen the photos – it's totally this guy," Cafe Racer regular Aaron Otheim said. "We all got a bad vibe from him."
Six people died Wednesday in Seattle, including Stawicki, who shot himself in the head as police approached him in West Seattle.
Two victims, Drew Keriakedes and Joe Albranese died at Cafe Racer, in the 5800 block of Roosevelt Way Northeast. Two others shot there died later at Harborview Medical Center. A fifth victim, Leonard Meuse, survived surgery and was in critical but stable condition late Thursday, a Harborview spokeswoman said.
Among the dead was Kimberly Lynn Layfield, whose identity was confirmed Thursday morning by a newspaper in her hometown of Alabany, Ga.
"Kim was a special person," wrote Albany Journal Publisher Tom Knighton, who attended high school with Layfield. "People say that a lot after a tragedy like this, but it's really true with Kim."
Gloria Leonidas, a married mother of two from Bellevue, was killed moments before Stawicki - fleeing from police in North Seattle - stole her black Mercedes Benz SUV from the parking lot at Eighth Avenue and Seneca Street, next to Town Hall.
Keriakedes played bass in the band Circus Contraption and God's Favorite Beefcake, which played the Northwest Folklife Festival Saturday.
"He was instrumental in making Cafe Racer what it was," said Otheim, his friend and a fellow musician. "He was a regular, went there every day."
Keriakedes was a kind of jack-of-all-trades, Otheim said. He shared knowledge of his favorite books, talked music theory, "told the best dirty jokes," and did all kinds of circus burlesque tricks, including lying on a bed of nails. Once when a fellow Cafe Racer regular had a toothache, Keriakedes filled in as a dentist and pulled it.
"He seems like one of those guys with a lot of fascinating stories to tell," said Otheim, who lives across the alley from the shooting scene.
As word of the shooting spread, regulars thought back to the creepy, belligerent guy they'd seen at the bar. Otheim had a feeling he might be responsible and told detectives.
Finding out Keriakedes and Albranese were among the dead made for a surreal day, friends said.
"He was sort of Racers' impresario and built up the scene," Otheim said of Keriakedes. "He's going to be missed by a lot of people."
Suspect's history with police
Stawicki had prior contacts with police, but a relatively short record.
Police say he had charges for domestic violence interference, fourth-degree assault, malicious mischief and a 1989 Seattle case for unlawfully carrying a weapon. But records show only a 1995 case for driving with a suspended license case that resulted in an adverse finding.
A Seattle case from 2008 that included charges for domestic violence interference, assault and property damage were dismissed because of proof problems.
Unaware that Stawicki had moved south after the Cafe Racer shooting, police with high-powered rifles combed through the neighborhood around Roosevelt Way Northeast. Police fielded numerous calls from neighbors who saw someone they thought could be the shooter. Anxiety was high as police told residents to stay inside.
Nearby Roosevelt High School was among several schools on lockdown.
Investigators couldn't say with certainty Thursday whether Stawicki, 40, took his mother's truck or hopped onto a Metro bus to get to the 1100 block of Eighth Avenue, where he killed Leonidas. The two were seen arguing immediately before she was shot, Detective Mark Jamieson said.
After her SUV and a handgun were found abandoned near the intersection of Delridge Way Southwest and Southwest Dakota Street, uniformed and undercover officers flooded the area. Residents there also were told to stay inside, and several West Seattle schools were placed on various forms of lockdown.
About 3:15 p.m., police distributed surveillance images of Stawicki moments before the Cafe Racer shooting. Investigators say his brother, also an Ellensburg native, identified Stawicki for police.
Shortly after 4 p.m., a plainclothes officer spotted Stawicki near 36th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Morgan Street and called for backup.
As uniformed officers approached Stawicki, he knelt down to the ground and shot himself in the head.
The investigation is still ongoing, and detectives have not released any motive in the slayings – the worst since Kyle Huff killed six and wounded two others in a March 2006 Capitol Hill shooting spree.
21 homicides in Seattle this year
The slayings pushed the number of homicides in Seattle this year to 21 – one higher than annual number of reported cases from all of last year.
However, police statistics list 21 homicide cases last year because the investigation into the death of Michelle Thornton, a woman who died Dec. 30, 2010, began the following month.
The shooting spree came less than a week after a father was fatally wounded in front of his children by an errant bullet in the Central District. Last Saturday, another innocent bystander was shot in the right leg near the Space Needle. The following day, Seattle had five drive-by shootings and a fatal home-invasion shooting.
The number of Seattle homicides peaked in 1994 when there were 69, according to department data.
Standing with other city leaders Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Mike McGinn said it's the police department's "highest priority to identify the strategies to try to bring an end to this wave of gun violence."
But with no suspects identified in the Central District shooting and the lack of cooperation hindering dozens of unsolved Seattle shooting cases – both from this year and previous years – some Seattle residents question whether a solution can come quickly.
Seattlepi.com reporters Levi Pulkkinen and Amy Rolph, and photographer Joshua Trujillo contributed to this story. Casey McNerthney can be reached at 206-448-8220 or at caseymcnerthney@seattlepi.com. Follow Casey on Twitter at twitter.com/mcnerthney.