John Lee allegedly shot three people in Moscow, Idaho and wounded one. He was captured after a high speed chase in Washington state after the shootings Saturday.
Lee, 29, is being held in Whitman County, Washington on felony eluding charges but will be moved to Latah County, Idaho to face murder charges. Police believe he opened fire at three locations in the western Idaho city of Moscow, killing his landlord, his adoptive mother, and a manager at a restaurant his parents frequented. A Seattle man was also injured.
Investigators searched Lee’s car and apartment late Saturday night, Moscow Police Chief David Duke said. They found two semi-automatic pistols, a revolver, a shotgun, and a rifle in the vehicle, along with a laptop, he said. Ballistics tests were expected to help determine which weapons might have been used in the shootings.
Duke said motivation for the shootings has not been determined.
“There’s still nothing to identify a specific motive as to why Mr. Lee took these actions.”
The first victim was Lee’s mother, Terri Grzebielski, 61, at her home. Lee then went to Northwest Mutual Life Insurance where he shot his landlord, David Trail, 76.
Reportedly , there were issues with Lee’s apartment, but no threat of eviction per police.
Michael Chin, 39, of Seattle was also shot. There was no connection between Chin and Lee, but Chin was having a business meeting with Trail when Lee arrived. Initially, it was reported Chin was critically wounded, but later reports confirmed he was shot in the arm and leg. Police did not disclose information on hospital admission details for Chin.
After Lee left Northwest Mutual, he went to an Arby’s Restaurant and asked for the manager. When Belinda Niebuhr, 47, came out he opened fire. She died at Moscow Hospital.
Employees at the restaurant didn’t recognize Lee, because he was not employed there.
Kelsey Stemrich, who worked at a cafe near Arby’s, said she and a customer heard gunshots and saw people running from the restaurant. She then recorded the license-plate number of a car she saw leaving the Arby’s lot and called police.
There were few details on Lee . He was adopted at birth and returned to Moscow, a city of 25,000 residents, after living in the midwest.
[Image Courtesy of New York Daily News ]