(Image: CHS)

(Image: Town Hall Seattle)

One year ago, May 30th, 2012, Ian Stawicki ended up on First Hill after shooting four people to death inside the University District’s Cafe Racer. If it was ever sorted out, police have never released information about how Stawicki ended up in the parking lot outside Town Hall Seattle that morning. Just after 11 AM, he encountered Gloria Leonidas and murdered the 52-year-old as he stole her vehicle and fled to West Seattle where he eventually killed himself as police closed in. The loophole that allowed the mentally ill Stawicki to have a concealed weapons permit remains open today.

Leonidas was the mother of two and an expert in lighting design. In the days that followed her death, memorial messages and flowers marked the location where she was killed in the parking lot. Town Hall’s Only Light memorial also illuminated the scene in remembrance.