The young man who killed six people at a house party over the weekend had brought three guns, more than 300 rounds of ammunition, a baseball bat and a black machete, and told guests as he blazed away, “There’s plenty for everyone,” authorities said Monday.
Several witnesses described the gunman making statements to that effect during the massacre Saturday morning, Deputy Police Chief Clark Kimerer said Monday. Huff killed six people and wounded two before taking his own life when confronted by an officer who arrived within 45 seconds of the first shots being fired.
Kimerer told a news conference that Huff, 28, was “clearly intent on doing homicidal mayhem,” but after searching his apartment and interviewing his twin brother, police still had no idea why.
“We may be asking these questions over the next year or two,” Kimerer said at a news conference. “Hopefully we will find some answers.”
Huff met many of the victims at an electronic-music dance rave called Better Off Undead on Friday night, and they invited him to an after-party at a home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood Saturday morning, Kimerer said. He left the party at about 7 a.m. and returned in a few minutes with a 12-gauge pistol-grip shotgun and a handgun.
Loaded with ammunition
At the news conference, detectives displayed a Bushmaster assault rifle, baseball bat and machete seized from the shooter’s black pickup truck. They said they seized other weapons from the apartment, but did not describe them. Huff had more than 300 rounds of ammunition, Kimerer said.
Investigators also took a computer from the apartment, but had yet to analyze its contents, he said.
Interviews with witnesses revealed little else: They described Huff as edgy, but not unfriendly, and said there were no arguments or altercations that might have set him off.
“There was no note, no evidence that gave us insight into what possessed him to take so many innocent lives,” Kimerer said.
Huff lived with his twin brother, who police determined knew nothing of his brother’s intentions, and delivered pizzas during the five years he lived in Seattle. They were “twin teddy bears,” their apartment manager said.
“It’s a total shock,” Regina Gray, manager of Town & Country Apartments, said Sunday. “He and his twin brother are the kindest, sweetest, gentlest people.”
A nursing supervisor at Harborview Medical Center, who declined to give her name, said Monday that the two survivors had been upgraded to satisfactory condition after having been listed as critical and serious over the weekend.
Victims’ names released
The King County medical examiner released names of five of the victims on Monday: Melissa Lynn Moore, 14; Suzanne Thorne, 15; Christopher Williamson, 21; Justin Schwartz, 22; and Jason Travers, 32.
Relatives and friends of Jeremy Martin, 26, confirmed previously that he was among the dead.
Some of the partygoers were intoxicated, but there were no signs of significant drug use at the house, Kimerer said. Toxicology reports on the shooter won't be available for several days, he said.
Still, the attack was “clearly a premeditated and well-planned assault on innocent people,” Kimerer said.
“This would have been so far out of character,” Jim Pickett, the assistant manager of the Town & Country Apartments, said Sunday.
Differing interpretation
The Huff brothers were “very polite. Very respectful. ‘Yes sir. Yes ma’am. Can I help ya?’ How am I doing today? ... You don’t find two boys as respectful as these two always were.”
But James Winn, 20, of Seattle, said Huff was “quick to anger.”
“Someone would say one thing and he’d snap and walk away,” Winn said at the makeshift memorial at the crime scene, recalling when he spent time with Huff and his brother near the boys’ family home in Whitefish, Mont.
The brothers moved into the third-floor apartment 4 years ago after leaving their home in Whitefish, apartment managers said.
Pickett said he never saw either of the brothers with weapons, but he said he did see police carry three rifles out of the apartment after a search Saturday.
When he saw Huff’s brother as police were conducting the search, “He gave a look to me like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’” Pickett said.
Lt. Dave Leib of the Flathead County sheriff's office in Montana said he informed Huff’s mother Sunday that her son was dead.
Charged with felony criminal mischief
Leib said Huff had been charged with felony criminal mischief in 2000 after shooting a statue of a moose with a shotgun at an art exhibit in Whitefish.
In Seattle, Huff delivered pizzas and did odd jobs, Gray said. She said he also would go home to Montana from time to time to do some work for his mother.
Pickett described the brothers as private and good tenants. One of the brothers played drums, but was very careful not to disturb neighbors.
“He was really getting pretty good. He would practice at a respectful hour between 4 and 6 and would stop at 6,” Pickett said.
Several ravers gathered at a makeshift memorial near the crime scene Sunday, including Travis Webb, an area promoter of raves — parties that attract young people to dance to thumping, bass-laden electronic music.
Webb said he and other ravers fear officials will use the shooting as an excuse to shut down the parties.
“It’s almost a double punishment,” Webb said. “You lose six people that are so close, and then you might lose the community that brought you all together in the first place.”