On January 27, 2013, James Anderson walked into the Central District’s Twilight Exit and shot two people: his 24-year-old girlfriend and bouncer Greg McCormick. Both of them survived. Anderson was later fatally shot by a police officer.
Stranger contributor Marti Jonjak was at the club the night of the shooting. She and a friend sat next to the woman at the bar and later found themselves crouching next to her when Anderson came into the bar with a gun.
Since then, Jonjak has chronicled the shooting through conversations with witnesses in a column for McSweeney’s, with illustrations from Seattle artist Kelly Bjork.
Here’s a snippet from her first column:
“I walked out the of bathroom. I didn’t know where the shooter was or if there were multiple shooters. The doorway to the alley was right there. I was standing in front of it, and I walked past it. I can’t believe how poor my instincts are.”
The bar appeared empty, Dave said, except for one man, “pacing by the shuffleboard across the room. His clothes were clean, he was well-dressed, he took care of himself. He was worked up, he was distraught. He was acting like he’d been wronged, that was obvious to me. He kept saying, ‘My life is over. They took my dog.’ I didn’t know if he was talking to himself or if he was on the phone, it was dark. I’m pretty sure he saw me, but he didn’t acknowledge me. It didn’t seem like he was out to kill as many people as possible.”
The whole series, which includes Jonjak’s recollection of events, is worth a read. Make yourself a cuppa tea and start here.
