Moscow in disbelief, grief after triple slaying

Moscow, Idaho, residents are mourning the shooting deaths of three residents while police try to understand what prompted Saturday’s killing spree.

John Lee is expected to be charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. Lee, 29, was arrested after a high-speed chase that ended when he lost control of his car on U.S. Highway 195 just south of Steptoe, Washington.

Police believe he shot and killed his mother, his landlord and a manager at Arby’s, a restaurant his parents frequented. Lee also is a suspect in the shooting of a Seattle man who survived with critical wounds.

Moscow police recovered five guns from Lee’s car and a laptop computer but did not reveal a possible motive for the shootings, which took place at three locations Saturday.

“There’s still nothing to identify a specific motive as to why Mr. Lee took these actions,” police Chief David Duke said.

The community reacted with disbelief and grief.

“We are deeply saddened by the violence,” said University of Idaho President Chuck Staben, noting that two of the victims had strong connections to the university.

One was Lee’s adoptive mother, Terri Grzebielski, 61, who was shot at her home. Grzebielski was a physician’s assistant who worked at Moscow Family Medicine’s UI Student Health clinic.

“Words cannot express the severe grief we are experiencing at the loss of our friend and colleague,” Moscow Family Medicine CEO Jeff Geier said in a Facebook post.

Staben said Grzebielski “was highly valued and respected.”

The Moscow Interfaith Association hosted a community prayer vigil Sunday night at the First United Methodist Church in Moscow.

Investigators searched Lee’s car and apartment late Saturday night, Duke said. They found two semi-automatic pistols, a revolver, a shotgun and a rifle in the vehicle, along with the computer, he said. Ballistics tests were expected to help determine which weapons might have been used in the shootings.

Grzebielski was shot first. Police said Lee then headed to Northwestern Mutual life insurance, where he fatally shot his landlord, David Trail, 76, the brother of a former state representative, and also shot Michael Chin, 39, of Seattle.

Trail, a senior financial representative, had been with Northwestern Mutual since 1964, when he graduated from the University of Idaho with a bachelor’s degree in business and agronomy. He had been active with the Sigma Chi fraternity on campus.

“His dedication to the community and to the university will be sorely missed,” Staben said.

Duke said Chin had no link to Lee but was discussing business with Trail when the gunman arrived. Duke said Chin was shot in the arm and leg and flown to a Spokane hospital in critical condition.

There were “some issues” regarding Lee’s apartment, Duke said, but no eviction proceedings that police were aware of.

Upon leaving the insurance office, the shooter drove to an Arby’s restaurant and asked for the manager. When she appeared, he pulled out a gun and opened fire. The manager, Belinda Niebuhr, 47, died at the Moscow hospital.

Duke said Lee’s parents ate at the restaurant and knew the manager well, but it’s not clear whether Lee did as well. He did not work at the restaurant as far as police knew, and workers who witnessed the attack didn’t recognize him, Duke said.

The restaurant remained closed Sunday. A reader board out front was changed to say “Belinda forever remembered.”

Lewiston-based Happy Day Restaurants, which owns the Moscow Arby’s, posted on its Facebook page, “There are no correct words to express the grief that we’re struggling with. Our thoughts, prayers, and deepest sympathies are with” Niebuhr and the other victims.

Kelsey Stemrich said she was working at a cafe near Arby’s when she and a customer heard three gunshots and saw people running from the restaurant. She said they took down the license plate number of a car pulling away from the Arby’s and reported it to police.

Across the state line, police in Pullman spotted the suspect’s black Honda, and a chase involving multiple agencies ensued. Pullman police Chief Gary Jenkins said the pursuit lasted nearly 25 miles, and Lee’s vehicle at times topped 100 mph in thick fog before crashing off U.S. 195 north of Colfax and rolling to a stop.

Few details were available on Lee’s background. Duke said he had been adopted at birth and recently returned to Moscow after living a few years in the Midwest.

Lee was taken to a Colfax hospital for treatment of minor injuries, then booked into the Whitman County Jail on a charge of felony eluding. Duke said Idaho authorities had issued an arrest warrant for Lee for investigation of three counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder, and he said they could take Lee into custody from Washington state by Monday unless he fights extradition.