SEATTLE (Nov. 3) – A man in camouflage clothing and sunglasses calmly walked in and shot four employees at a boat repair company Wednesday, killing two of them. The attack came a day after a deadly workplace shooting in Hawaii.

Law officers hunting for the gunman spread a massive dragnet around the area north of downtown Seattle, using helicopters and dogs to search. Residents were told to stay in their houses and children at 20 schools were locked inside.

"He walked in and started shooting. That’s all we know," said Pam McCammon, a police spokeswoman. A 19-year-old man who survived with a gunshot wound in his arm said the gunman didn’t work at the Northlake Shipyard shop and he had never seen him before.

The other survivor, a 58-year-old man, remained unconscious in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the chest, hospital officials said.
The suspect, described as possibly in his 30s, was wearing an overcoat over camouflage clothing and a brown hat when he walked in a back door and started firing, police said. He had scruffy facial hair and wore a baseball cap and sunglasses.

Jeannie Parr, who works across the hall from Northlake Shipyard, said she was about six feet from where the shootings took place.

"He came in calmly," she told Northwest Cable News. "I didn’t hear any sounds of a confrontation or argument… All I heard was gunshots."

Scottie Pierce of Seattle Boat, across the street from the shipyard building on Lake Union, said he was sending his employees home early.

"It’s almost a surreal type situation, faced with what the nation went through in Hawaii yesterday," he told the cable station. "I’m quite concerned that there’s someone running around with a gun."

Seven people were shot to death Tuesday at a Xerox Corp. building in Honolulu. The suspected gunman, a Xerox employee, fled after the slayings and surrendered hours later. The shootings follow a string of fatal attacks at workplaces and schools.

President Clinton offered federal help of officials trying to solve both of the latest shootings, and said the country has been plagued for too long with gun violence.

"Our nation continues on this day to be reminded of the horrors of gun violence. We need to do more to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and children," Clinton told reporters in the White House Rose Garden. "Congress needs to send me common-sense (gun) legislation."