'Makes you realize you could go out to breakfast and not come back'
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SEATTLE -- Tara was reading at Cafe Racer when a man walked in and opened fire last month.
"My table was right in front of the front door. He was right behind me when he walked in, and he was right behind me when he started shooting," she said.
Gunman Ian Stawicki was just 12 inches away when she heard what "sounded like a balloon pop" while sitting inside Cafe Racer.
"I looked up, and there was another shot. Then I focused in on, 'Oh my gosh, this guys has got a gun,'" she said. "And then there was another shot. The only thought in my head was, 'I should not be here."'
It happened in an instant. Without warning, she came face to face with a killer.
"He was between shots. And he was swinging around, and paused at me," she said. "That's when the stool got thrown. And he turned away for a moment and I jumped backward over my chair and under a bigger table."
Larry Adams, a regular at the cafe, had hurled a stool at Stawicki.
"He really did save my life," she said.
Tara ran for a door, but found it locked. She then followed another woman under a table.
"We just held on to each other and hoped he would not come looking," she said.
Tara watched in horror as his victims tried to flee. Stawicki shot them, one by one, she said, and when some tried to run, he chased them down.
"He double-tapped the ones that he wasn't sure were dead. And as chilling as that sounds, it's absolutely true. He was there for a very specific purpose. He wanted to make absolutely sure they did not get up," she said.
When the gunfire stopped, Tara watched as Stawicki took a hat from one of the victims, put it on and "sauntered' out the door.
"The hat clinched it for me," she said. "And at the moment, I was like, 'I hope he doesn't find us, because there is no reasoning with this person.'"
As terrifying as it was, Tara says she doesn't wish she picked a different cafe that morning.
"Something like this makes you realize you could go out for breakfast and not come back," she said.
And she is now has a new family.
"Just knowing them for an hour - even that horrible minute at the end - has made my life exponentially better," she said.
"My table was right in front of the front door. He was right behind me when he walked in, and he was right behind me when he started shooting," she said.
Gunman Ian Stawicki was just 12 inches away when she heard what "sounded like a balloon pop" while sitting inside Cafe Racer.
"I looked up, and there was another shot. Then I focused in on, 'Oh my gosh, this guys has got a gun,'" she said. "And then there was another shot. The only thought in my head was, 'I should not be here."'
It happened in an instant. Without warning, she came face to face with a killer.
"He was between shots. And he was swinging around, and paused at me," she said. "That's when the stool got thrown. And he turned away for a moment and I jumped backward over my chair and under a bigger table."
Larry Adams, a regular at the cafe, had hurled a stool at Stawicki.
"He really did save my life," she said.
Tara ran for a door, but found it locked. She then followed another woman under a table.
"We just held on to each other and hoped he would not come looking," she said.
Tara watched in horror as his victims tried to flee. Stawicki shot them, one by one, she said, and when some tried to run, he chased them down.
"He double-tapped the ones that he wasn't sure were dead. And as chilling as that sounds, it's absolutely true. He was there for a very specific purpose. He wanted to make absolutely sure they did not get up," she said.
When the gunfire stopped, Tara watched as Stawicki took a hat from one of the victims, put it on and "sauntered' out the door.
"The hat clinched it for me," she said. "And at the moment, I was like, 'I hope he doesn't find us, because there is no reasoning with this person.'"
As terrifying as it was, Tara says she doesn't wish she picked a different cafe that morning.
"Something like this makes you realize you could go out for breakfast and not come back," she said.
And she is now has a new family.
"Just knowing them for an hour - even that horrible minute at the end - has made my life exponentially better," she said.
