The area around Third Avenue and Pine Street has long been one of the grittiest in downtown Seattle, a grim reputation underscored Wednesday when gunfire erupted during the evening commute, leaving a woman dead and seven others injured, including a 9-year-old boy, and a suspect or suspects still at large.<\/p>\n
It was the third shooting in the downtown area in a little more than 24 hours, including an incident earlier Wednesday afternoon where police\u00a0shot and wounded a man<\/a>\u00a0who was reported to have had a gun. On Tuesday, a 55-year-old man\u00a0was found dying from a gunshot wound<\/a>\u00a0in a stairwell at Westlake Center, less than a block away from Wednesday\u2019s mayhem.<\/p>\n The shooting Wednesday occurred around 5 p.m. outside the McDonald\u2019s on the southeast corner of the intersection, just as hundreds of commuters crowded into one of the busiest transit corridors in the country. Witnesses reported a volley of gunfire and a surge of panicked people running for cover.<\/p>\n Douglas Converse was standing right outside Westlake Station when he heard the gunfire. Converse, 60, said he saw two people collapse near Pine and Third.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw a couple of bodies go down,\u201d Converse said. \u201cI saw everybody go running, and I wanted to see if I could be any help.\u201d<\/p>\n Police Chief Carmen Best, who responded to the scene, said the shooting happened after a dispute outside the McDonald\u2019s. Police believe there were multiple shooters, but they don\u2019t know how many, and it wasn\u2019t clear Wednesday whether any of the injured had been among the shooters or part of the argument.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything is possible at this point,\u201d Best said during a news conference Wednesday night.<\/p>\n Police had not announced any arrests. Detectives were interviewing witnesses and gathering video from business surveillance cameras for review, Best said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a lot of people outside, guns came out, and people started running,\u201d Best said.<\/p>\n According to Seattle Fire and Susan Gregg, a spokeswoman at Harborview Medical Center, a woman in her 50s was in critical condition and a 9-year-old boy had been upgraded from serious condition to satisfactory. A 32-year-old man also was at the hospital in satisfactory condition, while four men, ages 21, 34, 35 and 49, had been treated and released by Wednesday evening. The victims were suffering from gunshot wounds to the legs, chest, buttocks and abdomen.<\/p>\n The woman who died at the scene was in her 40s, according to fire department spokesman David Cuerpo. A\u00a0body under a sheet was visible on the sidewalk outside the McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n Officers responding to the shooting scene found the victims in about a one-block radius, Best said.<\/p>\n One of the people shot was an Amazon employee, a spokesperson for the company confirmed. They were shot outside the company\u2019s Blue Shift offices, which are in the Macy\u2019s building, and were moved inside the building to receive medical care from first responders.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are deeply troubled by tonight\u2019s events and our thoughts go out to everyone impacted by this tragedy,\u201d the spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Seattle-downtown-shootings-W-1020x638-1.jpg\")
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