LAKE CITY, Wash. — Authorities on Thursday confirmed the man arrested in connection with a shooting rampage in Lake City that left two people dead and two others wounded is Tad Michael Norman, 33.
King County prosecutors told KIRO 7's Graham Johnson on Friday they were rush-filing charges against Norman.
According to newly-released probable cause documents, Norman told police he is a recovering alcoholic and that he drinks to the point of blacking out.
Norman told police that on Wednesday he bought vodka, rum and wine and started drinking at home around 12:30pm.
That's about three and a half hours before police say he began a violent crime spree that killed two people and injured two others.
Norman told detectives he remembered playing video games on his X-Box, but had no memory of what happened after that.
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Norman will be charged with two counts of first degree murder for shooting a man and ramming a car into another vehicle, killing the driver.
He will also be charged with three counts of attempted murder.
"Unfortunately he was just shooting at random people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Lake City resident John Barrett said Thursday.
Barrett witnessed the start of the gunfire, and at first mistook the gunman for a victim.
Seattle police said the gunman opened fire randomly on several vehicles, including the King County Metro bus Eric Stark was driving.
Stark is considered a hero for backing up his bus to safety to protect his passengers.
After being wounded, "I did like a two-second assessment of my injuries and figured well, I can breathe, I can think, I can see, OK, we're getting out of here, I gotta get these people out of here," Stark told ABC's "Good Morning America."
Police say the gunman critically wounded the first driver he encountered, and shot and killed the driver of another vehicle, stealing that car..
In the stolen car, the gunman collided with another car, killing that driver in the crash, before police arrested him.
"I think this must be probably the most violent thing that's happened in this neighborhood," said Lake City resident Judy Fenton, who brought a pot of flowers to the scene.
"I always think of this stretch of road as a place for peacefulness," Fenton said. "I'm very saddened about what happened. It seems very senseless."
Cox Media Group
