Father heading out for holiday weekend with family killed by errant bullet
May 25, 2012, 5:12 AM | Updated: 4:03 pm
A man heading out on a holiday weekend with his family was killed by an errant bullet. (Image courtesy KING 5)
A man heading out for a holiday weekend with his parents
and his two children was killed by an errant bullet from a
stranger’s dispute as he drove down a Seattle street
Thursday, police said.
Justin Ferrari, 43, was driving his van through an area
just as a man on
foot began firing a gun at people he was arguing with,
Seattle police Detective Jeff Kappel said.
One of those bullets hit and killed Ferrari. He had just
picked his
parents up from the airport. No one else in his van
was hurt.
“The victim was not involved in the altercation,” the
police spokesman said. “He was an innocent motorist that
happened to be in the area.”
A witness, who did not want to be named, told 97.3 KIRO FM
she heard gunshots and then saw two men run away.
“What will stay with me for the rest of my life is the
face of the mother of the man who was killed. She was
banging on the car window in front of me. The look on her
face, I will never forget that.”
According to GeekWire.com, Ferrari had worked at
Zillow.com for the past three months as a
software
engineer.
“We at Zillow were deeply saddened to learn about this
tragedy. Justin began working at Zillow three months ago,
and worked at Expedia and Microsoft for many years before
that. His passing will be felt deeply by his co-workers
and friends. Our hearts go out to his family.”
Police said they were looking for a man in his 20s who
fled on foot.
“Somebody knows something,” Assistant Police Chief Nick
Metz said at the scene, asking for information on the
gunman.
Shocked neighbors gathered in the area near the
intersection of Martin Luther King
Jr. Way and East Cherry Street late Thursday night.
Messeret Habeti, who owns an Ethiopian restaurant, told The Seattle Times that Ferrari
frequently brought his wife and two children to her
restaurant for dinner.
Habeti said she didn’t see the shooting but did see the
man as he was dying in his van. She said his father was
cradling the wounded Ferrari’s head in his hands.
Ferrari’s two children, ages 4 and 7, ran to the safety
of her restaurant after the shooting. She said they stayed
for about 45 minutes and asked for something to eat.
She told the newspaper Ferrari was a wonderful person
and a caring father.
“What a horrible thing to happen; what a shame,” she said.
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