SEATTLE _ Five people were shot outside a convenience store in downtown Seattle Wednesday night, and the shooter is at large, police said.
Gunshots were reported shortly before 7 p.m. outside a 7-Eleven store on Third Avenue between Pike and Pine streets, at a major bus stop.
Witnesses said a group of people were arguing when the gunman began to walk away, and then turned around and fired into the crowd. At least one victim was a bystander, Seattle Police Assistant Chief Robert Merner said.
Two of the victims, both male, are in critical condition, according to Harborview Medical Center. Two other males and a female are in serious condition. Police provided no other details on the shooter or the victims.
Sharon Keith, manager of the 7-Eleven, said she heard what "sounded like firecrackers" and told everyone to get down. She then locked the doors and looked outside.
"I saw multiple people down, bleeding," she said.
People in the area heard several rounds of gunshots before police responded, said Irfan Rahman, a worker at a nearby smoke shop.
There was an additional police presence in downtown Seattle because of an anti-Donald Trump rally, which started at Westlake Mall earlier in the evening.
The rally turned into a march and was proceeding down various streets at the time of the shootings, according to witnesses. Merner said the shooting is unrelated.
"It's not related to the protest at all," he said. "It appears to be some type of personal argument."
Merner said detectives from the department's gang and homicide units will be investigating.
The incident is the state's eighth mass shooting this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonpartisan organization, which tracks and verifies incidents around the country, defines "mass shooting" as any single incident in which four or more people are fatally shot or wounded, not including the shooter.
The most recent mass shooting was in September, when five people were killed at the Cascade Mall in Burlington.
