Mass shooting on a highway in Washington state is being investigated: Police – WEIS

(NEW YORK) — Police are investigating several separate shootings that occurred Monday night on Interstate 5 in Washington state that authorities said resulted in unacceptable “chaos.”

According to the Washington State Patrol, six people were injured in six shootings, including a woman who was seriously injured.

A suspect whose vehicle was wanted in connection with several of the shootings was arrested early Tuesday in the Tacoma area, police said.

In four of the incidents, victims reported being shot at by a white Volvo, said Washington State Patrol spokesman Chris Loftis. Investigators are still trying to determine whether the same suspect vehicle was involved in all of the shootings, said Capt. Ron Mead, commander of Washington State Patrol District 2 in King County.

Police consider this a mass murder, Loftis said.

“The only difference from this and other incidents we see across the country in schools, parks and so on is that the shooting was not isolated to a very specific place or location,” Loftis told reporters during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

There were two “outbreaks” of violence along I-5, resulting in six shootings, Loftis said.

The first accident occurred within 17 minutes, between 8:26 p.m. and 8:43 p.m. local time, northbound on I-5, he said.

The incident occurred at I-5 and State Road 18 when “multiple shots” were fired from a white Volvo, striking the passenger of one car, Loftis said. The driver took the 320th Street exit and called a fire station. The passenger was taken to a local hospital, where she remains in critical condition, he said.

A few minutes later, at 8:42 p.m. local time, a victim reported being shot at on I-5 near Martin Luther King Jr. Way and suffering abrasions from broken glass, Loftis said. The victim did not have a description of the suspect vehicle.

A minute later, a victim on I-5, south of I-90, reported being shot by an unknown vehicle and suffering a graze in the leg, Loftis said. The victim was taken to a local hospital as a precaution, he said.

The second wave of gun violence occurred between 10:57 p.m. and 11:01 p.m. local time southbound on I-5, Loftis said.

On I-5 at State Road 18, a driver and passenger reported being shot by a white Volvo at 10:57 p.m., Loftis said. They suffered non-life-threatening injuries to their legs and have since been released from the hospital, Loftis said.

A minute later, another shooting was reported involving a white Volvo on I-5 near South 375 Street, Loftis said. The car's windows were shattered, but no one was injured, he said.

Then, at 11:01 p.m., a victim on I-5 near 54th Avenue reported being shot by a white Volvo, Loftis said. The victim was shot in the neck and taken to a local hospital, he said.

A suspect was subsequently identified and arrested in the Tacoma area, police said.

Pierce County Sheriff's officers arrived at the possible suspect's home late Monday night, but his vehicle was not there, the Pierce County Sheriff's Department said.

Shortly after midnight Tuesday, a deputy saw the suspect's vehicle enter an apartment complex, the sheriff's department said. Backup arrived and deputies followed the vehicle, which was subsequently disabled by a Fircrest police officer using stop batons, authorities said.

“When the vehicle went over the sticks, it came to a stop and officers initiated a felony arrest,” the Pierce County Sheriff's Department said in a news release. “The suspect was cooperative and was taken into custody by a Fircrest officer and a WSP trooper.”

The suspect was booked into the King County Jail on a charge of first-degree assault, police said.

State police said they would not release the suspect's name at this time or comment on a suspected motive.

“I will not consider the chaos he has created to be credible,” Mead told reporters.

For all victims, it is believed that the attack was, as Mead called it, an “unjustified and unprovoked attack.”

“Any of us could have been that unwitting victim,” he said, condemning the gun violence.

Police say there may be more victims. A person traveling on I-5 toward Portland on Monday night called police Tuesday to report that their car had been shot at, Loftis said.

“They heard the news reports and realized they may have been involved in this situation,” he said.

No one was injured in this incident. The person is currently in the process of traveling to Bellevue to speak with investigators to determine if he is the seventh victim of the shooting, Loftis said.

“We would like to encourage other people who may have been in this area at these times last night to call if they saw anything,” he said.

At this point, police can only link the shootings in which the victims reported seeing the white Volvo, Mead said.

“While the timing certainly suggests that all of these are related, we can only connect what we can connect through physical evidence,” he said. “Anything beyond that is speculation, and that's why we're going to do the investigation to make sure we can connect them to the additional shootings.”

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