Police try to piece together Seattle cafe shootings timeline

Seattle Police are still having a tough time piecing
together the timeline after shooter Ian Stawicki killed
four
people inside a University District cafe last week.

Detectives still don’t know how Stawicki made it
from NE 58th Street and Roosevelt Way NE to 8th and Seneca
in downtown
Seattle where he shot and killed a fifth person, Gloria
Leonidas, and stole
her car.

Stawicki could have caught a bus, but there is no
surveillance video showing him on one. He might have used
his mother’s truck or gotten a ride. A listener told 97.3 KIRO
FM’s Dori Monson Show she believes Stawicki tried to
wave
her down while she was driving near NE 45th St. the day of
the
shootings.

Some in West Seattle who had a brush with the killer are
coming forward to tell their story, like Marcia Bruno, the
manager at the West Seattle Nursery. Stawicki bought a
blueberry
plant and some seeds at the nursery while on
the run after the carjacking
murder. He dropped them at a friend’s house with a note.

“I’ve lost sleep the last two nights thinking about what
could have happened,” Bruno told 97.3 KIRO FM’s Dori Monson
Show.

It had been a busy day at the nursery, the sun was shining
and there were plenty of customers. Still, the feeling was
eerie, according to Bruno. One of her employees had come
in for work and told everyone about the shootings and what
she heard on the radio.

They didn’t hear a description of what Stawicki looked
like, and didn’t go to the computer to check at the time,
but when he came in the nursery and bought a blueberry
plant, an employee described her interaction with him as
creepy.

“And she’s usually very chatty at the register,” Bruno
said. Instead of the usual chit-chat, she rung him up and
Stawicki went on his way.

The woman who received the plant on her doorstep called
later to see if the nursery could identify who sent the
plant. She wanted to know who dropped it off, with what
she described as a “creepy” note.

Homicide detectives also called the nursery to ask about
the plant.

Bruno put the pieces together, and returned the call. The
blueberry recipient had also figured out where the plant
had come from and had already called police.

She didn’t tell Bruno what exactly was in the note because
she wanted to talk to police first.

Police recovered Leonidas’ Mercedes SUV in the 4100 block
of Delridge Way a short time after the shooting downtown.
A few hours later, police reported the shooting suspect,
Ian Stawicki, had shot himself at 37th and Raymond.

“I’m just grateful that my gals that waited on him were
nice to him and didn’t really give him a reason to snap,”
Bruno said.