SEATTLE – About 400 friends and relatives attended a memorial service Thursday for 21-year-old Christopher Williamson, one of six people killed in last weekend’s shooting spree by a young gunman who then killed himself.
Williamson, called “Deacon” by his friends, was a disc jockey on the rave scene who loved music. He was remembered as a happy, funny young man who made friends easily and touched the people around him.
“That’s what he was looking for is true friendship,” said his father, Gary Williamson. “I’m so happy that he found it.”
In other developments in Seattle’s worst mass murder since 13 people were killed at a gambling club in the 1983 Wah Mee massacre, police announced the formation of a special panel, headed by a nationally recognized expert, to help investigate last Saturday’s crime.
At Williamson’s service, church members dressed in jackets and ties sat next to young people from the rave community, some in colored shirts with brightly dyed hair.
“Today is a day to grieve, yet celebrate the life of Christopher Williamson,” said the Rev. Hallack Greider of Lake City Presbyterian Church. “To pray for peace and to come together as a community. And to ask our loving God to surround us with comfort and to begin the process of healing.”
Williamson was killed when Aaron Kyle Huff went on a murderous rampage at a house in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood where young people had gathered to party after a zombie-themed rave, or dance party, called “Better Off Undead.”
Six candles were lit at the service, one for each of the partygoers shot dead. In addition to Williamson, Melissa Lynn Moore, 14; Suzanne Thorne, 15; Justin Schwartz, 22; Jeremy Martin, 26; and Jason Travers, 32, also were killed.
Huff, 28, then shot himself when confronted by police.
Also Thursday, Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske appointed James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University in Boston and author of “The Will to Kill: Making Sense of Senseless Murder” and “Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder,” to head the panel.
“What I hope to accomplish is to put some closure on this event, to put some understanding around it,” Fox said in a telephone interview. “Although something like this seems quite senseless to the public, we can, after some thorough investigation make very good sense – not sense in terms of justification, but sense in why he would have done this.”
Trying to determine a motive hasn’t been easy.
Computer equipment taken from Huff’s apartment was riddled with viruses, said Seattle police spokesman Rich Pruitt. He said a preliminary examination of two hard drives by forensic officers failed to turn up any information, but they will continue to scour the machines.
Kane Huff, the gunman’s twin brother, continues to cooperate with police, Pruitt said. Kane Huff told investigators his brother’s behavior in the months leading up to the shooting was not unusual.
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