Gunfire Kills Woman -- Arrest Made After Region's 7Th Slaying In 6 Days

A 24-year-old man has been arrested in the shooting death of a Tacoma woman killed early today when she and three companions were caught in the path of a gunman at a convenience store in South Seattle.

The arrest came about noon at a home in Magnolia, and the suspect has been booked for investigation of homicide, said police spokeswoman Carmen Best.

Police earlier said the woman had been killed in a crossfire that erupted between occupants of two cars outside the 7-Eleven store at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and South Graham Street.

But later information indicated that the shots were fired in only one direction, Best said. The motive for the shooting may have been the man's attempt to settle an "old score," according to detectives.

The gunfire scattered many customers in the store's parking lot. "They sought refuge in the store, and our clerks put them down on the floor," said Ron Conlin, with 7-Eleven stores.

No one in the store was injured.

The death of Lynnette Patrice Roberts, 24, brings to seven the number of people slain in the Seattle area in the past six days.

A second woman in the car with Roberts was injured by gunfire, a third was cut by flying glass and a fourth was uninjured.

Neither of the two injured women was seriously hurt, but they were nonetheless taken to Harborview Medical Center for treatment.

The injured women were Jennifer Garrett, 25, of Tacoma, and Ida

Gibson, 31, of Seattle.

Roberts and her companions were "100 percent innocent victims," said homicide Sgt. Dave Ritter. "They had been to some function, stopped to get something to eat and wound up "in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.

Police said another person in yet another car was injured by glass and bullet fragments during the shootout.

That person, whose injuries apparently were not serious, was a passenger in a car that was somewhere in the 7-Eleven store parking lot, police said.

The car containing Roberts, Garrett, Gibson and the other unidentified woman pulled into the lot about 2 a.m.

Two of them went into the store and then returned to their car when two other cars pulled up and parked on opposite sides of their car, police said.

When the gunman fired, the women's car was struck and their car was used as a shield by the gunman or the men he was shooting at, according to Capt. Nick Metz. An assault rifle and possibly a handgun were used, Metz said.

The women managed to pull out of the lot and drive across the street to a service station, where two police officers in separate cars were parked.

When one of the gunmen saw the police cruisers he fired at them, shattering a rear window in one. The officers were not hit.

Officers were uncertain if the shootout was gang-related.

----------------------- List of recent slayings -----------------------

The slaying of a woman this morning brings to seven the number of people killed in the Seattle area during the past six days. The others are:

-- Regina Schuler, 39, and her son Joseph, 9,found dead Wednesday in their Skyway apartment. No arrest.

-- Raquel Rivera, 20, and Jay Johnson, 22, found dead Monday in a duplex in the 8600 block of 12th Avenue South. A Tacoma man, Kenneth John Leuluaialii, 21, has been charged.

-- Robin Hernandez, 27, was shot to death in her Interbay-Magnolia apartment early Tuesday. Her live-in boyfriend, Gabriel Hernandez, 27, has been charged.

-- Mildred Simmons, 56, was found stabbed to death Monday afternoon in her apartment in the 4600 block of South Holly Street. A man has been arrested.

-------------------------------------- Woman killed in South Seattle shootout --------------------------------------

1. Suspect cars pull into lot and park on both sides of victims' car and shooting begins. Gunfire hits victims' car, killing one and injuring two.

2. Shooting victims back car out of parking lot to gas station across Martin Luther King Jr. Way South where two Seattle Police cars are parked.

3. One police car hit by gunfire from suspects.

4. Suspect flees, evading police during 8-to-10-block chase.