A lone gunman armed with a shotgun and knife opened fire in a building at a small Seattle university, fatally wounding one person before a student subdued him with pepper spray as he tried to reload, US police said.
A student building monitor at Seattle Pacific University disarmed the gunman after he entered the foyer at Otto Miller Hall, and several other students jumped on top of him and pinned him down until police officers arrived, police said.
A 19-year-old man died at Harborview Medical Center. Three other people were hospitalized. A critically injured 20-year-old woman was taken to surgery, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg said. A 24-year-old man and a 22-year-old man were in satisfactory condition. Gregg says one of those two men was not shot.
At a news conference on Thursday night, Assistant Police Chief Paul McDonagh said the suspect in custody was a white male “approximately 26 years of age” who was not a student at the school. McDonagh said his name would not be released until he has booked into jail for investigation of murder.
The university locked down its campus for several hours, and it alerted students and staff to stay inside. Some students were taking finals in the same building that the shooter entered.
“We’re a community that relies on Jesus Christ for strength, and we’ll need that at this point in time,” University president Daniel Martin said.
On Thursday evening, people packed the First Free Methodist Church on campus for a service of prayers and song.
About 4,270 undergraduate and graduate students attend the private Christian university. Its 16-hectare campus is in a leafy residential neighborhood about 10 minutes from downtown Seattle.
The school canceled classes and other activities yesterday.
Jillian Smith was taking a math test on the second floor of Otto Miller Hall when a lockdown was ordered.
She heard police yelling and banging on doors in the hallway.
The professor locked the classroom door, and the 20 or so students sat on the ground, lining up at the front of the classroom.
“We were pretty much freaking out,” said Smith, 20, a second-year student. “People were texting family and friends, making sure everyone was OK.”
About 45 minutes later, police came and escorted them out of the building, she said.
On the way, they passed the lobby where she saw bullet casings and what appeared to be blood in the lobby carpet and splatter on the wall.
“Seeing blood made it real,” Smith said. “I didn’t think something like this would happen at our school.”
Springer, a senior, called the university “a really close community.”
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