Pair hides in bathtub, bullet whizzes by

Just before the deadly shooting began in the Capitol Hill house, Garry Will's girlfriend called him to an upstairs bathroom to chat as she applied some makeup. Nearly everyone else in the home had been sleeping for about five hours.

"We heard gunshots and screaming, and I opened the bathroom door and looked down the stairs and saw flashes from the gunshots. It was pretty intense," said Will, 20, of Bellevue.

They locked themselves in the bathroom and narrowly escaped the barrage.

Will talked about the shooting after he had been interviewed by detectives. He was among a group of 30 questioned by police.

Standing outside police headquarters on Fifth Avenue, he said he and his 17-year-old girlfriend had attended a rave, called "Better Off Undead," at the Capitol Hill Arts Center on 12th Avenue on Friday night.

In addition to DJs and dancing, Will said he met people who invited him to an after-party at the Capitol Hill rental house.

"It was pretty chill," he said about the party.

As the shooting started, he and his girlfriend crouched in the bathtub.

"After all the gunshots, [the shooter] came upstairs and tried to open the [bathroom] door. He shot a round through the door, and the bullet whizzed by my face," Will said. The gunman then went back downstairs, he said.

"We thought we were going to die, plain and simple," he said.

— Sara Jean Green,

Seattle Times staff reporter

Shelter for shooting victim

Cesar Clemente Jr. lives across the street from the scene of the shooting and was preparing for his morning bike ride when the shots rang out. He went downstairs, where his son had just ushered a young man into their home.

"I saw his body laying there inside the house," Clemente, 51, said. "He said, 'I got shot. I got shot.' "

Clemente called 911.

The victim was slumped across the threshold of the red, two-story house on East Republican Street where the Clementes have lived for 26 years. He wore a black T-shirt, a pacifier around his neck and what Clemente described as "sci-fi gloves," referring to the light-tipped gloves some ravers wear.

The victim held his right side. A shotgun pellet fell from his wound, Clemente said.

He asked Clemente to take the gloves off. "I got shot," the victim repeated. "It hurts."

Minutes later, paramedics took him away. His black T-shirt and blood were left on Clemente's doorstep.

— Benjamin J. Romano,

Seattle Times staff reporter