SEATTLE — Seattle police have released dash-cam videos showing a carjacker speeding the wrong way up a one-way street, firing at a pursuing patrol car and finally spinning out his stolen, wrecked Camaro in a cloud of smoke as officers shot and killed him.
No bystanders or police suffered significant injuries in the events Sunday afternoon, which began when workers at a Pike Place Market coffee shop called 911 to report there was a man with a gun inside.
Officials identified the suspect Tuesday as Raymond Azevedo, 35, who had done four stints in state prison since 1998 for crimes including unlawful possession of a firearm, malicious mischief, attempting to elude a pursing police vehicle and assault. He was most recently released in October 2014 and had been subject to community supervision until last month.
In a chronology released Monday night, police said Azevedo ran in and out of several businesses, brandishing guns at staff, before fleeing out the back of a tattoo shop and stealing a Volkswagen at gunpoint. He drove to the University of Washington Athletic Center, where he stole a minivan at gunpoint, and then stopped at a rental car lot and forced two employees to turn over a Chevy Camaro.
The suspect sped the wrong way up a one-way street in the University District, and a pursuing officer rear-ended him when he stopped for cross traffic on a major street. The jarring crash disabled the cruiser, and the officer got out and ran after the Camaro as it cut through a parking lot.
As police continued chasing him through North Seattle at 70 mph, he started firing back at them: “Shots fired. He’s shooting at us,” an officer calmly reports. Another directs them to back off.
The chase came to an end as Azevedo tried to drive around a barricade of police vehicles and an officer plowed into him head-on, with another cruiser ramming the Camaro quickly afterward. Officers took cover behind their vehicles and opened fire as the Camaro started moving again, spinning out in a cloud of smoke before stopping for good.
Azevedo was found to have two guns with him. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was tracing the weapons, police said.
A dozen officers involved were put on routine administrative leave pending a review of the shooting — so many that the department said commanders had to develop a staffing plan to ensure 911 response and neighborhood patrols were not compromised.
