Shooting at a Seattle food festival leaves 2 dead, wounds 5

SEATTLE (AP) — A shooting killed two people and injured five others, including a child, Sunday evening during a popular food festival near the Space Needle in Seattle, a city Fire Department spokesman said.

The shooting broke out around 6 p.m. at Seattle Center during the Bite of Seattle festival. Police are investigating the shooting and urged people to avoid the area northwest of downtown. Authorities did not immediately say whether anyone was in custody.

Grace Nunez, a spokeswoman for the Seattle Fire Department, said two people died at the scene.

Five patients were transported to Harborview Medical Center, including a 56-year-old woman in serious condition, Nunez said.

She added that a two-year-old boy, a 23-year-old man, and a 39-year-old woman were in stable condition, while a 40-year-old woman sustained minor injuries.

Vendor booths lined Seattle Center’s sprawling outdoor event complex as thousands of people sampled various cuisines and played games. A large number of police and emergency crews responded and began evacuating the area.

Faith Adia Hunter said she and her friends had just gotten food from a crepe vendor when the gunfire erupted. I realized the shooter was near them.

“We were next to him when it started, so we started running,” Hunter said. “So we rushed into the building with the crowd.”

Hunter said she and others found shelter at the nearby Seattle Children’s Museum.

Estan Wakunapo said he and his girlfriend were at the festival waiting in line to take photos when he was pushed from behind and turned to see a crowd of people fleeing.

“People were hiding, people were pushing, people were falling to the ground, strollers were falling,” Wakunabo said, adding that he heard gunfire.

“As soon as I heard pop, pop, pop, that’s when I knew it was the shooter,” he said.

Wakunabo said that after taking his girlfriend to a safe place, he returned to the scene to take photos and saw several victims on the ground.

The annual festival began in 1982 and attracts 350,000 participants over “three days of food, drink and community celebration,” according to its website.

Associated Press journalists Annika Wolters in Bangkok and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.