US: Six young people at an all-night macabre-themed party were shot to death on Saturday by a man who unloaded dozens of rounds of ammunition before shooting himself in front of a police officer arriving at the scene.
The "execution-style" rampage occurred just after 7am at a home on a normally placid street in Seattle's well-to-do Capitol Hill neighbourhood, said the city's police chief, Gil Kerlikowske. He said the victims, four men and two women, all appeared to be in their teens or early 20s.
The gunman, who had met some of the partygoers several hours earlier at a separate rave-style dance, charged through the front of the house with a 12-gauge pistol-grip shotgun and a semi-automatic handgun, Mr Kerlikowske said. He started firing at the youths, several of whom were wearing fake blood, skeleton masks and other macabre items to "look as if they were dead" in keeping with the theme of the dance and party, the police chief said. In addition to the fatalities, two other people were injured.
Gary Will (20), who was at the party, was in an upstairs bathroom with his 17-year-old girlfriend when they heard shooting.
"We heard lots of gunshots, then we heard silence, then we heard him coming up the stairs," Mr Will said. "He knew we were in there."
The door was locked. When the gunman jiggled the doorknob and could not open it, he started firing through the door. Mr Will and his girlfriend huddled in the bathtub for protection.
Meanwhile, some among the roughly 20 partygoers who were not shot escaped out the front door and started desperately banging on the doors of neighbouring homes. One man who had been shot in the chest struggled out the door, but collapsed on the steps and died.
The gunman ran downstairs and out the front door as a police officer arrived. The officer ordered him to drop his weapons; instead, he placed one of the guns in his mouth and fired, dying instantly. Mr Kerlikowske said investigators had not determined the motives of the gunman, whom he described as a local man in his late 20s, who appeared to have a minor criminal record but no history of violence. He had earlier attended a party and dance, which had a "Better Off Undead" theme in which partygoers were to look as if they had come back from the grave.
Shortly before the shootings, the man spray-painted the word "Now" on the steps and driveways of several houses in the neighbourhood with bright orange paint. "We have no idea what that means or what significance that plays," the policeman said. There was alcohol and marijuana at the scene, he said, but it was unclear whether the gunman was intoxicated.