Update: Southbound I-5 lanes now open again after shooting, crash; bullet hits West Seattleite’s car

(8:23 PM UPDATE: Police say West Seattleite driving on I-5 caught in crossfire)

(“Live” image of I-5 at Boeing Access Road – refresh page for newest view)
5:04 PM: An incident on southbound I-5 in the Boeing Field area has backed up traffic all the way to the West Seattle Bridge – with northbound slowdowns reported too – and since a stretch of northbound 99 is currently closed just north of here, that means bridge backups. According to KING 5, this is a crash that was preceded by “an exchange of gunfire between the occupants of two cars.” More to come.

5:36 PM: Update from WSDOT:

Two lanes on SB I-5 open at Boeing Access Road.Flipped SUV onto wheels. Thx for your patience. Tell a friend about our twitter feed!

— WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic) July 30, 2012

Seattle Police also have updates, via Twitter, saying that one person was shot, and is expected to survive. They say that one of the vehicles involved in the dispute hit one that was not, and that caused the rollover crash.

5:55 PM: WSDOT says all lanes are open again.

6:36 PM: SFD has an update on the people injured – two in the flipped car, one shooting victim in a different vehicle.

8:23 PM: The SPD Blotter version of all this has just been published, and it includes this new information: Police say a “stray bullet” hit a West Seattleite’s car. From their report:

Another innocent motorist who was driving southbound on I-5 got his windows shot out by a stray bullet fired by the suspects. That driver (who was the only one on board his vehicle) drove home to the West Seattle area and called 911. An officer responded and took a report on that incident and documented the property damage. The driver was not injured.

8:39 PM: Police also have added this clarification – the original incident was not an “exchange of gunfire” – only one car, which has not yet been found, had someone in it who was shooting; the car in which someone got shot, and which hit the vehicle that overturned, did NOT have anyone firing a gun, and was not even found to contain anyone with a gun. The SPD report now includes this:

There is no indication at this time that the shooting victim ever shot back at the suspects or suspect vehicle and no firearm was located on the shooting victim.

Look Before you Leep July 29, 2012 (7:33 pm)

Everyone in both cars should be put in jail for life, period. No excuses. I’m @#$! sick of people (terrorists) who just act like insane children just shooting guns in crowds or in open public not giving a damn where their bullets go. This should be treated as attempted mass murder. They fired on a freeway full of cars, ended up flipping a car, no regard to HOW many people may have been injured or killed in their little mindless ultra violent exchange. These public shootings have to be treated FAR more serious or we’ll just keep having them. Empty our jails of ALL non-violent criminals (just fine them) I don’t want to see pot smokers put in jail. But for these folks who just shoot wildly in PUBLIC, they should be put away for life, the only reason they’re not mass murderers is pure feaking luck of where their wild gunshots go, that’s SO insanely dangerous and shows so little regard for the safety of everyone in their world, they’re just too dumb and dangerous to be allowed to be in the public population.

WSB July 29, 2012 (8:32 pm)

Just added an update to this – not that it wasn’t already bad enough, but turns out someone from WS was driving the freeway at the time and had his car window/s shattered by what police call a “stray bullet.” – TR
- WSB July 29, 2012 (8:39 pm)
  
  …police have also clarified that it was not an “exchange of gunfire” – the suspect/s, who are still on the loose, fired at the victim repeatedly, including on I-5, but there is no evidence, they say, that the victim who was shot ever shot back, nor that the victim even had a weapon. Very complicated story – the SPD Blotter link is above, in the newest addition – TR

Concerned July 29, 2012 (8:27 pm)

Well stated!!!

Krystal July 29, 2012 (8:28 pm)

Agreed. By behaving this way, they have told the rest of us they don’t plan on contributing to society positively, or even value their own lives. And they should be treated accordingly.

MB July 29, 2012 (9:26 pm)

WOWWWW!!!!

an July 29, 2012 (9:35 pm)

Wild, Wild, West.

HockeyWitch July 29, 2012 (9:43 pm)

Look Before you Leep…. well said. Couldn’t agree with more. Gun fire is NO WAY to solve a problem.

BMC July 29, 2012 (9:44 pm)

Just when I start to get less paranoid, something like THIS happens : (

WTF July 29, 2012 (9:50 pm)

I ask again…and probably not the last time.
“When will these PsOS evaporate?”
They are no good to ANYONE and as pathetic excuses for human beings, it’s sad that THEIR lack of coping skills have relegated the rest of us to fear even driving down a public street.
Like @Look Before, I’m sick of this, too.

The Jack July 29, 2012 (11:06 pm)

Seeing as gun control will never happen, how about an ammo tax. $5 per bullet and up depending on the caliber.

WSB July 29, 2012 (11:39 pm)

Re: the video clip – Please note, if you choose to follow the link, that one of the victims from the overturned car is shown, after firefighters pull her out, starting just after 2 minutes in. I don’t know the circumstances of how this was shot – appears perhaps someone whose car was stopped at the scene, though I am surprised s/he was allowed so close to the rescue operation if that was the case. – TR

Ronnie A July 30, 2012 (2:17 am)

Everyone in both cars should be put away for life? Seriously? How do you know the second car wasn’t just someone who accidentally cut a guy off who started shooting at them? What if the driver of the car that had the shooter in it had no idea that one of his passengers had a gun? Whenever I read stories like this, what I find only slightly less disturbing than the story itself is the number of knee-jerk reactionary comments. It is the new mob mentality, fueled by sensationalist idiots like Nancy Grace. There is no more innocent until proven guilty anymore. People read a news article or a blog post and make summary judgments before anything even close to all the facts are in.

Jtk July 30, 2012 (7:53 am)

Personally, I think that link should be removed…. How would you like to be laying there like that and be posted on some website… RESPECT… and TACT please….. I realize it’s on youtube, but you don’t have to link it here…. I know that if WSB were there … they would have NEVER shown this video…. so why post the link?… :(

whuut July 30, 2012 (8:11 am)

@TheJack, your logic has become all too pervasive in our society. The vast majority of gun owners are law abiding citizens. Why punish them with even more taxes and fees? I don’t have the stats available at the moment but I would imagine most criminals who commit crimes with guns aren’t registered gun owners. In most cases those guns are stolen so they aren’t actual gun owners. Just persons in possession of guns. The bad guys will just steal more from you to support their bullet habit. The 5$ tax per bullet would probably cost the guvmint 10$ per to implement anyway.

JoAnne July 30, 2012 (8:17 am)

We need far stronger penalties for juvenile gun crimes in WA State. Juvenile offenders have to have up to 5 gun violations before they are sentenced to any time at all.
.
They know that if they carry weapons, the worst thing that can happen is they might lose the weapon.
.
Dan Satterberg has been complaining about this for years, but the corrupt, crime-coddling liberal Democrats in the state legislature refuse to do anything about it.

4real July 30, 2012 (8:53 am)

That video is a huge invasion of privacy. They needed more police to secure the scene and keep tight shots like that from happening. If that was my family member seen unconscious (dead looking) at the end of the video I would be enraged. That said huge gratitude for the incredible work of first responders.

WSB July 30, 2012 (9:27 am)

YT has an option for starting clips late if you are linking/embedding, but not ending them late. I’m un-approving it, on further consideration. Too bad because it does also show how heroically the firefighters work(ed) to extricate the patients. If the OP (who I don’t believe has posted here before, so I don’t know if they are local or were just looking for coverage of the situation) considers posting an edited version that ends before the patient is shown, we’d be fine with linking that … TR

S July 30, 2012 (9:05 am)

LookBeforeYouLeap.
Very well said!! Agreed! And to the ammo tax. Sure. Why not. It’s not the legal gun owners that tend to be a problem but the illegal ones. There are no guns in my home and at the risk of sounding cliche ‘guns don’t kill, it’s the people who use them that do”. We really need to put violent criminals away and figure out WHY the ppl of Seattle have all jumped onto the violence wagon. It’s down right scary!

miws July 30, 2012 (11:37 am)

In most cases those guns are stolen….

whuut, but shouldn’t the gun owners be held responsible, even if a thief was able to defeat any secure storage means the owner may have used?

Just because one’s weapon is registered, one has a CCW, one keeps everything locked up tighter than Fort Knox, shouldn’t absolve one of the responsibility and accountability, in accordance with their Second Amendment right.

Mike

cascadianone July 30, 2012 (3:43 pm)

@miws- So Mike, if your car was stolen and the thief ran down a child in the street with it, should you be put in prison as the owner of the car? C’mon…

I feel like this culture is turning into a nightmare kindergarten playground rife with feckless teachers, tattle-tales and violent bullies. The bullies break the rules, everyone is punished. The bully attacks you and you fight back, you are punished. If you speak up about how injust this all is, you are silenced, because violence is ALWAYS WRONG (even though nobody seems able to put a stop to it…) It’s an ineffecient fascism we are brewing in this country… And you know, at some point, the teachers and the tattlers are really just working for the bully…

Eric July 30, 2012 (5:49 pm)

@cascadianone. I tend to lean to the left and am no big gun pro advocate, but I have to agree with you on what you said.

Also, it seems these people are still on the loose. I was thinking as to why the police have not looked at the traffic cams to see if they could see something. I then remembered Washington’s law against police looking at red light cams footage, (EVEN IF IT MAY SOLVE A MURDER) because as the ACLU says, it is an invasion of privacy, even though it is in a public place on a public road. I am wondering if the law is the same for traffic cams.