Cafe Racer hosts benefit for families of shooting victims
SEATTLE -- More than six months after one of the most horrific crimes in recent Seattle history, community members gathered at Café Racer to help raise money for the those affected by the shooting.
Thursday's event -- held at the same place where four of the five victims died -- was all about giving back. Brown Paper Tickets introduced special artist tickets for upcoming events in Seattle and around the country, and proceeds from each ticket will benefit victims' families.
Jimmy Berg of Brown Paper Tickets was friends with two of the victims and organized Thursday's event.
"I feel like we're doing justice to their memory and I think celebrating and trying to move on from the mourning, but it's still very painful,' he said.
In May, the café became the scene of a deadly shooting after Ian Stawicki opened fire on five people, killing four. Among those killed were musicians Joe Albanese, Drew Keriakedes, Don Largen and aspiring actress Kim Layfield.
"When somebody dies it's such a reality check, it puts things into perspective," said Lauren Imbrock, who was friends with the victims.
After leaving Café Racer, Stawicki then opened fire on Gloria Leonides while stealing her car. He eventually shot and killed himself.
"It created an awareness of while you're in a public space there's a possibility there could be violence and you could be harmed," Imbrock said.
Despite the tragedy, locals still feel safe at the cafe. They returned on the six month anniversary to pay tribute to the victims and celebrate their lives.
"They loved playing music and they were always -- whenever we played music together -- they were always the people I wanted to hang out with, because they were so excited and positive about it," Berg said.
The limited edition artist tickets cost 25 cents extra, and if they all sell it will raise $25,000 for the relatives of the victims.
Thursday's event -- held at the same place where four of the five victims died -- was all about giving back. Brown Paper Tickets introduced special artist tickets for upcoming events in Seattle and around the country, and proceeds from each ticket will benefit victims' families.
Jimmy Berg of Brown Paper Tickets was friends with two of the victims and organized Thursday's event.
"I feel like we're doing justice to their memory and I think celebrating and trying to move on from the mourning, but it's still very painful,' he said.
In May, the café became the scene of a deadly shooting after Ian Stawicki opened fire on five people, killing four. Among those killed were musicians Joe Albanese, Drew Keriakedes, Don Largen and aspiring actress Kim Layfield.
"When somebody dies it's such a reality check, it puts things into perspective," said Lauren Imbrock, who was friends with the victims.
After leaving Café Racer, Stawicki then opened fire on Gloria Leonides while stealing her car. He eventually shot and killed himself.
"It created an awareness of while you're in a public space there's a possibility there could be violence and you could be harmed," Imbrock said.
Despite the tragedy, locals still feel safe at the cafe. They returned on the six month anniversary to pay tribute to the victims and celebrate their lives.
"They loved playing music and they were always -- whenever we played music together -- they were always the people I wanted to hang out with, because they were so excited and positive about it," Berg said.
The limited edition artist tickets cost 25 cents extra, and if they all sell it will raise $25,000 for the relatives of the victims.
That's absurd. They already must permit open carry under the law, but having a bunch of of possible vigilante customers will not make the clientele feel safer overall and given the culture of the area would likely hurt their business. MOST people in that area would not eat or hang there if they walked in and regularly saw people carrying weapons. Also, I know the layout of the place and it's not clear that an armed customer could have stopped it without becoming one of the victims. Stop using events like this to ram political agendas. WA law already permits both open and licensed concealed carry in similar places. Let the customers and local residents decide if that's how they want to handle things.
Hopefully this business encourages Open Carry for its customers. Many places where shootings happen often do the opposite, and try to ban guns from the premises. That is very stupid because then the only people bringing in guns will be criminals. Â
 @NorthwestEconomist It's funny how much I agree with you on a lot if issues but I feel like this is a totally inappropriate comment.  We don't even know what the owners view on the situation is. He/she may have been pro open carry already but when someone walks in shooting there isn't a lot of time to react.  Heck, look at the cops that were shot down in lakewood, they all obviously had guns at the ready but when one guy gets the jump on you, that's it. I think the bigger comment should be getting funding back into our mental health system and working to change the laws so someone with a mental disorder + violent tendencies can't get a gun.
 @quidproquo  @NorthwestEconomist Treatment and screening only go so far. Criminals and disturbed people are emboldened in our society because they expect that most people they see on the street don't have a gun and can't defend against one. This makes them feel all powerful when having one. Instead, imagine a world where every responsible adult walked around with a gun strapped to their hip openly, it would deter many criminals and even disturbed people from acting out. Yes, there will always be those people who are willing to die, but even they will think twice if they see that everyone in society is capable of stopping them at any given moment. Imagine if the gunman who attacked those cops had looked around before doing so and saw tons of armed civilians who were around. He might have been able to get those cops by surprise but then he would have known that other people nearby would take him down right away.In the end, this is all about liberty and empowering people to protect themselves, as well as create a society where violence is deterred.Â
 @NorthwestEconomist Really? I just don't think about attacking people because im a decent person. It never even occurs to me to try to hurt someone else.  If you are thinking about hurting people you should probably see a doctor.
 @quidproquo Like I said, it's a power thing relating to having a gun in you hand, RELATIVE TO OUR CULTURE. What I mean was, back in the old-west, shootings were not as common as they are portrayed, even though mental illness was much less diagnosed than it is now. This was because that everyone expected that everyone else had a gun and would defend themselves. This created an idea of "defensive space" around people and made everyone have a general sense of caution about attacking others on a subconscious level, even for the "disturbed."
 @NorthwestEconomist The mentally ill actually don't really take into account the consequences of their actions and that includes thinking about other people carrying. My dad once held a gun to my mother's head and told her he was going to kill her right in front of all of us kids + my mom was a cop. Shame there were no laws against spousal abuse in TN.