Suspected robber, shooter’s take down caught on video by photojournalist
Sep 21, 2012, 10:44 AM | Updated: 5:55 pm
This still image taken from KING 5's Pete Cassam's video account shows the robbery and shooting suspect being taken down by bystanders. The citizens removed his masked and pinned him until police arrived on the scene and took over. (Image courtesy KING 5/Pete Cassam)
(Image courtesy KING 5/Pete Cassam)
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Just a few blocks away from the Federal Courthouse in Seattle, shots rang out. It was 10:40 a.m. on Friday and news crews were at the courthouse awaiting a criminal sentencing.
Pete Cassam, a KING 5 photojournalist recognized the sounds immediately – it wasn’t a car backfiring, it was definitely gunshots. He and another photographer on the scene could see the scuffle.
“My nerves were vibrating.” Cassam talked to Ron & Don about the scene of the shooting, the brave people who helped take down the suspect, an alleged jewelry thief down in the street, and what is was like to capture it all on video.
>>Watch Cassam’s video of the take down on KING 5
Some witnesses said later they thought someone might have been filming a movie. Cassam was already on the scene – and as it appeared the alleged robber and shooter had been taken down, he ventured even close to get a better shot.
“In this kind of situation you have to keep up your radar.” He kept looking over his shoulder. Cassam didn’t want to be run over by a cop who arrived just a minute later to the scene.
“These guys, citizens from the street were helping,” Cassam said of the struggle, including one man in his thirties who had been shot in the arm.
Police said the shooting at 620 Stewart St. started as a robbery at the Express Jewelry Store in Westlake Center.
The suspect pulled a gun on a clerk inside the store and fired several shots as he fled.
A few minutes later, a man was shot on the street at 6th and Stewart.
Cassam called the men who tackled the shooter “courageous.” The men pulled his rubber mask down and had him on the ground. Cassam can’t be sure, but it looked like the shooter’s gun was jammed.
According to Cassam, he didn’t see the suspect’s bag, but he did see 15 to 20 ring displays on the ground during the struggle.
Police arrived and created a perimeter. The victim who had been shot in the arm sat down on a bench and was tended to by staff of the nearby Hotel Max until paramedics could arrive. “He was certainly wincing in pain.”
Cassam didn’t hear the shooter say much as he was taken into custody. The man moaned and groaned and as police got him on his feet he was still resisting, but officers managed to get him in the police car quickly.
The victim was taken to Harborview Medical Center in stable condition.
