Bullets from gun battle in Auburn slam into woman's pickup, another's mobile home



AUBURN, Wash. -- A bullet pierced the back of Tammie Schager's Dodge Stratus as she sat waiting for the light to turn green on A Street SE in Auburn at about 5 p.m. Wednesday.

“Wrong place at the wrong time kind of moment,” Schager said Friday.

Auburn Police say it happened when several people standing in a parking lot and one man 50 yards away on a sidewalk started shooting at each other.

“I got caught in the crossfire,” Schager said.

She isn't the only one -- stray bullets also zipped across the parking lot, over the street and right into a mobile home.

“The homeowner was inside the mobile home,” Auburn Police spokesman Steve Stocker said.

Neighbors say the bullet tore through the bathroom, missing the homeowner by just inches.

“This is very scary for us and rest of the community,” Stocker said.

That's why police are desperate to find the shooters who, detectives say, may now be bragging about what happened.

“They maybe talked about it to some friends, who knows? That's what happens quite a bit,” Stocker said.

Detectives need a better description of the gunmen before they can even begin to determine a motive.

“It could have been something as simple as what are you looking at me for, to maybe something more serious. We are not sure if it could be gang-related, we just don’t know,” Stocker said.

It`s that uncertainty that has Schager worried about what could happen next time.

“You go through all the emotions, it’s sad, it’s scary,” Schager said.

Detectives found multiple shell casings in the parking lot. They believe up to six people were involved in the gunfight.