Ian Lee Stawicki, Seattle shooter, dead in hospital

GlobalPost

Ian Lee Stawicki, identified by police as the man who shot dead five people in Seattle yesterday, has died in hospital.

Stawicki was reported to have shot himself in the head as officers closed in on him Wednesday afternoon. He died later the same day at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, a spokeswoman told the Associated Press.

More from GlobalPost: Several killed in Seattle cafe shooting

Five others are confirmed to have died in the shooting spree, which began at a cafe in the University District of Seattle around 11 am. 

Two men, identified by the Seattle Times as friends Joe Albanese, 52, and Drew Keriakedes, 45, died at Cafe Racer. Another man and woman, not named, died later in hospital.

The cafe's chef, Leonard Meuse, was wounded but is expected to survive.

Police say the same gunman then fatally shot Gloria Koch Leonidas, a mother of two, in an apparent carjacking near the city's Town Hall.

The suspect was tracked down after photos of him were distributed to police officers, local news network KIRO-7 reported. A plainclothes detective spotted Stawicki in West Seattle and called in uniformed officers, who were approaching the suspect on the street when he knelt down and shot himself.

According to Cafe Racer customers interviewed by the Seattle Times, Stawicki was a regular at the coffee shop but had been kicked out a few times in recent weeks for behaving bizarrely.

His younger brother, Andrew Stawicki, told the paper that the attacks came as "no surprise" to those who knew him. He said Ian Stawicki had a recent history of anger and mental-health problems for which he had refused to seek help.

"He was happy sometimes, but not really," his father, Walt Stawicki, told ABC News. "He was kind of disgruntled."

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.