Auburn Police Cmdr. Mike Hirman said dozens of people were leaving the Sports Page Tavern in Auburn, which is about 30 miles south of Seattle, at closing time around 2 a.m. when a fight broke out in the parking lot.
He said several people pulled handguns and fired shots, and three men in their 20s were found dead. A fourth man suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was in critical condition when he was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. His condition was not available Sunday afternoon.
"We know there this dispute escalated to gunfire but in terms of why, we don't know that yet," Hirman said. "We've had several dozen people at the scene ... trying to piece together all those stories does take time."
Hirman said some of the victims and suspects knew each other. The identities of the victims would not be released until Monday afternoon at the earliest, a spokeswoman with the King County Medical Examiner's office said.
Police detained a person of interest and arrested that person on an unrelated weapons charge. Police have recovered two handguns. They believe several different firearms were used based on shell casings recovered from the scene.
Police in the neighboring suburbs of Federal Way and Kent stopped two vehicles that matched descriptions of cars leaving the scene of the shooting.
Those vehicles were seized, and their occupants were being questioned, said Hirman. The car stopped in Federal Way was riddled with bullets.
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