Linda Thomas
twitter: @TheNewsChick
Linda is the morning news anchor and features reporter for KIRO Radio. This is her local news blog, with an emphasis on social media, technology, Northwest companies, education, parenting, and anything else that grabs her attention.If you have a news tip or story idea, I'd love to hear from you...
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Bonneville Seattle is raising funds for the construction of a second Fisher House at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma and we need your help.Cafe Racer survivor describes massacre
May 31, 2012 @ 5:21 pm (Updated: 5:26 pm - 5/31/12 )
Amidst a hail of gunfire, a long-time patron of Cafe Racer fought to save his friends from a gunman.
The Seattle Police Department identified him as Lawrence and says if he wants to come forward that's up to him. He gave police this account of what happened.
He says Ian Stawicki walked through the door just before 11 am.
"Just before it happened, I was looking at Stawicki. He’d just been told he was 86’d from the café in a very polite manner," he says.
Lawrence says he looked down at his phone for a moment. Then he heard a "pop, pop, and people scrambling. I couldn’t make sense of it. I didn’t expect the gun to be that quiet. I thought 'this is really happening.'"
As Stawicki opened fire in the cafe, Lawrence, grabbed a bar stool and used it to try to fight off Stawicki and defend his friends.
"I just threw the frigging stool at him, legs first," he says.
He says his brother died in the World Trade Center. I promised myself if something like this ever happened, "I would never hide under a table."
Lawrence says Stawicki "looked at me like he didn't care at all. He just moved towards the rear of the bar instead of dealing with me at all, and I just brushed past him. He was on a mission to kill my friends."
He does not consider himself a "hero," and says now he's just trying to recover from what he saw.
"Yesterday I was all adrenaline. Today, My friends are dead. I’m just grieving right now," he says.
Memorial in front of Cafe Racer on Roosevelt in Seattle, photo by Tim Haeck
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messiah101 wrote...Of course he shouldn't consider himself a HeroJune 1, 2012 4:02 pm{ "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }- Reply
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