No death penalty in Seattle shooting
SEATTLE – King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng said Wednesday he will not seek the death penalty against Naveed Haq, the man accused of shooting six women – one fatally – at a Seattle Jewish center in July, because of the gunman’s long history of mental illness.
Haq, 31, is charged with aggravated first-degree murder in the death of Pamela Waechter, 58, director of the Jewish Federation’s annual fundraising campaign, and with five counts of attempted first-degree murder in the July 28 attack at its downtown offices.
Maleng said he reviewed Haq’s mental health records from the past decade and concluded they constituted a mitigating factor that should preclude the death penalty, though he called the shooting “one of the most serious crimes that has ever occurred in this city.”
If convicted, Haq would face life in prison without parole, which is the only other possible punishment for aggravated first-degree murder in Washington. He also faces charges of kidnapping and malicious harassment.
Deputy Prosecutor Don Raz said Haq had been treated for bipolar disorder. A family friend told reporters this summer that Haq, who grew up in the Tri-Cities area of south-central Washington, had been getting psychiatric help for 10 years and hadn’t been able to hold a job.
Waechter’s grown children, Nicole and Mark, said in a written statement they would not dwell on Maleng’s decision or on the defendant at all.
“We choose instead to spend our energies trying to mend our lives in a way that honors our mother and all she meant to us,” they said. “His cruel and callous disregard for the lives of so many, in our view, forfeited his right to preserve his own. But we also understand that Mr. Maleng was the one who had to make this difficult decision, and we believe he treated us fairly.”
Haq’s attorney, C. Wesley Richards, declined to say whether his client still wishes to plead guilty – as he tried to at a hearing this summer. The judge postponed the hearing on the plea, and Haq eventually pleaded not guilty.
Short, bald and pudgy, he appeared in court Wednesday in a wrinkled blue Oxford shirt and khaki pants as a judge set a procedural hearing for next month.
“He’s a lot smaller than I remember him being,” said victim Cheryl Stumbo, who was shot in the abdomen and recently resumed working at the federation. “A gun makes a person bigger.”
Stumbo told reporters after Wednesday’s hearing that what she had been through helped her understand her feelings about the death penalty: “Death is a release. I don’t think people who kill other people deserve a release.”
Haq’s parents issued the following statement:
“We are thankful to Norm Maleng, the King County prosecutor, for his understanding and consideration of Naveed’s long struggle with mental illness. While we are relieved that our son, Naveed Haq, has been spared from the ultimate penalty, the death sentence, we mourn over the death of Pamela Waechter and we share our grief and sorrow with the wounded victims of a very tragic shooting.”
Prosecutors said Haq waited in the vestibule of the downtown Seattle building until 14-year-old Kelsie Burkum arrived to visit Stumbo, her aunt. He put a gun to the girl’s back and followed her up the stairs to the second floor, then started shooting when one woman tried to call 911. He said he was a Muslim angry about the war in Iraq and U.S. support of Israel.
The shooting ended when Dayna Klein, then 17 weeks pregnant, persuaded him to speak with an emergency operator after he put a bullet through Klein’s arm. He agreed to surrender, put his two guns down and walked out, hands on his head, court documents said.
Klein gave birth to a healthy baby boy last month.