EVERETT, Wash. — One person was killed and another was injured in a shooting in Everett on Sept. 22. The shooting suspect then led police on a freeway chase and crashed along I-5 on Sunday afternoon, which blocked traffic and created backups for several miles.
Just after 1 p.m., Everett police officers responded to a shooting at the Park View Apartments in the 1100 block of West Casino Road. At the scene, they found one man had been killed and a woman was injured.
The suspect of the shooting fled, witnesses told police. Police located the suspect and pursued the vehicle onto I-5 north. The suspect crashed on the freeway and also hit uninvolved vehicles.
Shortly after the crash, police heard gunshots coming from the suspect's vehicle and found the suspect dead inside.
All lanes of northbound and southbound I-5 were closed for a period of time. Both directions of traffic were fully reopened just before 9:30 p.m.
Maria Peña, who lives at the apartment complex, said she and her daughter stay indoors as much as they can, for fear of getting caught in the crossfire of gun violence.
"Wherever you go, you're always going to have bad people everywhere," she said. "I didn't even know, that's why when I walked in, I mean, when I was driving in, I was like, 'What's going on?'"
She added, "I was even gonna call my daughter right now to tell her, you know, be safe."
The incident caused a bottleneck of cars on I-5.
“It was pretty frightening in the very beginning," said a driver who witnessed the chase. He preferred not to be named publicly.
"We saw a bunch of lights and what seemed to be perhaps a vehicle being chased, and then also just lights everywhere around us," said the man. "Everyone slowly sort of came to a crawl, and then a stop.”
He said an officer approached him about an hour later and instructed him "to drive in the HOV lane backward."
He added, "Essentially, we were, you know, taking a U-turn on the freeway there.”
KING 5 is still working to get confirmation from first responders on the extent of the impacts on innocent bystanders along I-5.
"Clearly, some, you know, bystanders’ vehicles were greatly affected. It seems like there was an injury, but hopefully they're all right," the man said.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.