Seattle city officials gathered alongside neighbors in Lake City for a demonstration of resilience.
Mayor Jenny Durkan held a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting and their families.
"We want to know that Seattle grieves with them, we hold them in our hearts and in our prayers," Durkan said. "We are also here to celebrate and remember the two people that survived."
Durkan celebrated Metro bus driver Eric Stark who saved a busload of passengers after being shot in the chest. Stark managed to turn the bus around on Sand Point Way and drive away from the gunman.
Saturday, another survivor of the shooting shared her story. Julie Blair was driving home from work when she encountered the alleged shooter.
“A man takes two steps right in the middle of the lane, pointed a gun at me and popped off two rounds,” she said.
She swerved around him – her truck was struck by two bullets, she said, piercing the hood and shattering her windshield. Police have asked her to delay repairs to preserve the evidence.
Blair, who is Buddhist, said she spent several hours praying for the victims and reflecting on the close call.
“One of the things I believe is compassion for all beings,” she said. “…I felt I had to come to a place where I could feel compassion, not to justify, not to forgive, but compassion for this person who perpetrated this.”
Investigators say the suspected shooter told them that he was blackout drunk during the attack and doesn’t remember it.
That resonated with Blair.
“It gives a rationale, not an excuse, but a rationale as to what happened,” she said. “Alcoholism is an incredibly pernicious disease. I’ve been sober for 30 years, but prior to that – there’s no telling what I would have done. I doubt very much I would have harmed anyone, but I certainly made a fool of myself more than once.”
She wants people to focus on the healing after this – not the violence.
“This is an aberration, this is not who we are, this community,” she said.