(TOPLINE SUMMARY: Police say the shootings that killed 4 on Roosevelt in North Seattle and 1 at 8th/Seneca are linked; they happened in the 11 am hour. Around noon, a black Mercedes SUV linked to the latter was found in 4100 block of Delridge. Searches ensued. Then the suspect turned up in 37th/Raymond area; as police moved in, they say, he shot himself.)

12:05 PM: According to the scanner, a vehicle potentially linked to a shooting downtown less than an hour ago has been found on Delridge Way SW, not far from the bridge.

12:09 PM UPDATE: A containment area is being set up in a wide area around the reported vehicle discovery in the 4100 block – traffic is being blocked across a wide area. Scanner traffic says the vehicle was unoccupied but a major search is under way. This apparently was the shooting that happened at 8th and Seneca within the past hour – the second shooting in the city today. More to come.

12:13 PM UPDATE: There is a news chopper from Channel 7 over the SUV in question and KIRO reports that at least one gun has been spotted inside, from their aerial vantage point. We are monitoring KIRO radio and they say the shooting at 8th and Seneca has turned fatal – a woman was shot after some kind of “disturbance.” They say police do not believe at this point that the First Hill shooting was related to another deadly shooting in the city earlier this morning, 2 people killed in the U District.

12:16 PM UPDATE: We have just reached the south end of Youngstown and traffic is being detoured uphill. Huge amount of flashing lights visible along blocked-off Delridge in front of Youngstown. Chopper audible overhead. We’ve parked relatively nearby and WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand has gone down the hill to see/find out what he can.

12:25 PM UPDATE: Police have yellow tape up roughly from the middle of Youngstown Arts Center, telling people to stay out of the area. Southwest Precinct operations Lt. Pierre Davis is on scene. They’re staging media. Also, we are trying to verify possible school lockdowns/sheltering in place – our son at Chief Sealth International High School, at least 2 miles from the vehicle discovery, says they are sheltering in place.

12:40 PM UPDATE: Seattle Times says a home is being searched in Delridge/Genesee area. Seattle Public Schools says “Sealth, Denny, Lafayette and Pathfinder@Cooper are in shelter in place” mode. Also, a parent has forwarded us an e-mail saying Holy Rosary is in lockdown. Thanks for sharing any information you have on school status – we are harvesting and monitoring as best we can.

12:53 PM UPDATE: If you have trouble getting the site, our apologies, traffic flood, we are working with our server to try to open more gateways. We also are updating key info on Twitter and Facebook – twitter.com/westseattleblog and facebook.com/westseattleblog. Police now have SWAT units in the area but there is no word of an arrest yet.

1:02 PM UPDATE: Police continue to search homes in North Delridge. Meantime, we are told that in addition to the four schools SPS listed, Sanislo also is sheltering in place. The suspect in this incident is described by citywide media as white male, 35-years-old, blonde crew cut. If any sort of photo or better description is made available – Seattle Police have not put anything out on their social media or blog-format site – we will of course post it. Right now, it’s all focused on searching.

(All photos from this one forward are by Christopher Boffoli for WSB unless otherwise credited)
1:15 PM UPDATE: Additional school lockdowns – Seattle Lutheran, Hope Lutheran, per Hope’s principal. Tilden, per a commenter. OLG and Westside, no, per the information we have – they are outside the zone of concern. Again, NO ONE IN WEST SEATTLE HAS BEEN HURT OR THREATENED AT THIS POINT – important to say that – police found the vehicle linked to 8th/Seneca shooting but have not found the suspect. Also note that North Delridge buses are being rerouted – the 120 and we believe 125, up Andover at last report. (updated) Westside School says via FB that they ARE taking safety precautions just in case. We also have a report via Twitter that Gatewood may be sheltering in place too, trying to verify that with SPS central.

1:29 PM UPDATE: Community School of WS also reported to be in shelter in place. Meantime, there was a brief flurry of activity at the search scene, a possible suspicious person at Youngstown – who turned out to be a worker, according to our crew there, so all the media has now retreated from that. It’s been about two hours now since the shooting to which the SUV found here is believed to be linked, at 8th/Seneca, leaving a woman dead – here’s the latest from our partners at the Seattle Times. Police now say it appears the victim was arguing with a man before the shooting – early reports of a carjacking don’t seem to have borne out, but keep in mind, witness reports etc. can change. What has complicated all this is that it was the second deadly shooting of the morning in the city – a half-hour earlier, a man shot five people – two of whom have died – at a café in the U District. Police have not said if there’s possibly any link between the two incidents.

(North Delridge, SW Yancy vicinity, 1:30 pm)
1:43 PM UPDATE: From Seattle Public Schools regarding the end of the school day, spokesperson Teresa Wippel says, “We are planning on regular release times and don’t anticipate delays in transportation home. The city has blocked certain streets and our buses will follow the safe, alternate routes as needed.” SW Precinct Lt. Davis has just talked with media crews including ours and we are asking a followup about the closed roads and access to areas including Pigeon Point. Stand by for whatever we find out.

1:52 PM UPDATE: Northbound Delridge has JUST been reopened at the scene in 4100-4400 Delridge. Re: Pigeon Point, we are told by police that Andover is open. ALSO – per scanner – schools in this area will be notified that lockdowns are not currently requested (though keep in mind, schools are always free to take whatever precautions they feel is best for their students’ safety – this is just a matter of whether they want to know if police think they SHOULD be sheltering in place/locked down).

(Photo by Patrick Sand for WSB)
2:01 PM UPDATE: Scene is starting to clear. Tow truck has arrived to impound the vehicle (photo added). Getting more word of schools lifting shelter-in-place. Police do confirm finding a weapon in the SUV.

2:30 PM UPDATE: Southbound Delridge also is now open. Meantime, police have checked out a couple reports of suspicious men matching the suspect description – one was at the golf course; our crews went there but it did not appear to be the guy. Now there’s a location that’s being checked out which for now we will describe as uphill to the west a ways from where the vehicle was found.

2:43 PM UPDATE: No confirmed breaks in the case yet. Mayor, police chief leadership have announced 3:30 pm briefing on today’s shootings. If it’s carried by Seattle Channel, we will embed the live video on WSB too; waiting to hear. The U-District shooting has claimed a third life, it was just announced. That’s four people dead in today’s two shootings – U District 11 am, 8th/Seneca at 11:30 am.

2:50 PM UPDATE: After yet another possible sighting of someone suspicious, police are now searching in the Luna Park/Bridge area, which we would advise avoiding for a while.

3:20 PM UPDATE: That search appears to be winding down. Police are now headed to Westwood to check out a possible guy standing along SW Barton with a holstered gun. We expect to be able to embed the video of the upcoming 3:30 pm mayor/police briefing here, by the way, in case you’re interested in watching it.

3:30 PM: Here it is – just click the “play” button to tap into the live webcast. We’ll add a few text highlights as we hear them:

>(Late night note: This is now the archived video of this afternoon’s briefing)

3:44 PM: Briefing under way. The mayor spoke briefly, saying police need “the tools they need to do their job” and also expressing concern about it being “too easy” to get guns. Councilmember Bruce Harrell, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, suggests “gun dropoffs.”

3:50 PM: Assistant Chief Jim Pugel says there are three scenes and many detectives are out at them: “We are doing everything possible” to solve today’s deadly shootings and “identify the persons who are responsible for these crimes.”

3:52 PM: We are not sure if it’s related but a shooting is reported now at 37th and Raymond. We’re en route. WSB’s Megan Sheppard is at the scene. She says the medics are arriving.

3:57 PM: KING describes the person who’s been shot as “possible suspect in downtown shooting” and says the person is “in custody.” Police describe this as an officer-involved shooting, via Twitter.

4:03 PM: SPD assistant chief at televised briefing says this was believed to be the NORTH END suspect and now they say the gunshot was believed to be SELF-INFLICTED.

4:09 PM: Assistant Chief Pugel came back with more information. Police with photos of North End suspect had spotted what they believed to be him – and as police move in, he says, the man knelt in the street, pulled out gun, shot himself. He still is saying they’re acting on the assumption there were two different suspects – this one and the one from the 8th/Seneca shooting. WSB’s Megan Sheppard is also at the shooting scene and says one key difference in the descriptions is a beard – would seem difficult for someone to change facial hair with two shootings half an hour and some distance apart. Here’s the roadblock near this shooting scene:

4:27 PM: The photos that police had procured of the North End shooting suspect – whom they believe to be the man who shot himself here – are on the SPD website but that’s jammed up right now so you can also check out KING5.com. Per KIRO, suspect is en route to hospital and was alive at last report – we didn’t hear medic transmissions via scanner but they have the advantage of a chopper.

(This photo, next photo by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
4:37 PM: Police have tweeted that detectives are investigating a possible connection between today’s two shootings. More info is promised shortly. A briefing at the scene was expected at any minute. We’ll add whatever our crew hears there, and we’ll have the entire briefing on video once they’re back from the scene.

4:45 PM: Suspect is now reported dead, and citywide media is quoting authorities as saying it’s believed he was linked to both shootings. Seattle Police also has said that in briefing just concluded at scene. And via Twitter, they say “evidence” links the two incidents. The earlier SPD Blotter post with photos is now accessible here.

4:58 PM: Police now call the man the “lone suspect in 4 murders.” No identifying information public so far as we’ve seen, but we are starting to hear more about the victims – here’s the Times story about a man who survived the North End shooting.

5:15 PM: The Times also has published a map showing where this all unfolded. You can see it here. Here’s our unedited video of Deputy Chief Nick Metz’s briefing at the 37th/Raymond shooting scene last hour:

5:44 PM: Police now say, via Twitter, the suspect is still alive at Harborview Medical Center.

5:54 PM: He’s just been identified, according to KIRO. Looking for a spelling so we may have to correct this, but they identified him as Ian Stawicki. The Times also has that name, quoting police sources, and is continuing to add information about his background.

8:21 PM: Catching up after a break. Adding more photos from earlier to this coverage. A few updates: Police now say the SUV that the murder suspect apparently ditched on Delridge was indeed stolen from the woman who was shot and killed. West Seattle Summer Fest event producer Oliver Little says in comments that two of the North End victims were members of the band The Bad Things, which played the festival last year; we found that verified on the band’s Facebook page. Otherwise, we haven’t yet learned anything about why Stawicki chose to head this way.

8:58 PM: And another update: KING 5 quotes a Harborview Medical Center spokesperson as saying that Stawicki has died as well as a fourth victim from the North End café shooting. That means 6 people dead, including the suspected killer.

10:19 PM: Earlier this evening, our friends at Capitol Hill Seattle reported that the First Hill victim was identified in an e-mail sent to families at her daughters’ school – a 52-year-old mom.