Ret. Air Force Colonel killed in Seattle shooting

Killed in Seattle shooting rampage: a retired Air Force colonel and a longtime Lake City resident who loved animals

Seattle Times
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter
March 28, 2019

Dr. Robert “Bob” Hassan, a retired physician and Air Force colonel who traveled the world, was supposed to fly to Florida this weekend to spend a few days with his two younger brothers. They planned to play horseshoes on Tuesday.

“I wish he’d done it last week. Then he wouldn’t have been there to meet this lunatic,” Jim Hassan, a retired police officer from upstate New York, said of his brother when reached by phone Thursday while vacationing in Florida.

Robert Hassan, 76, died from a gunshot wound to the head Wednesday during a shooting rampage in Seattle’s Lake City neighborhood. He was driving home after a game of pinochle with friends.

The man arrested, who is also accused of shooting a woman in a car and a Metro bus driver in what police say was a random attack, allegedly stole Hassan’s red Prius and led officers on a short pursuit before colliding with another vehicle. The driver of that car, 75-year-old Richard T. Lee, died from his injuries.

The suspected gunman, Tad-Michael Norman, 33, was arrested at the scene on investigation of homicide, assault and robbery, and is expected to make his first court appearance Friday.

“This has been a very stressful day for me, imagining my brother lying on the ground, shot in the face. I can’t get that out of my head,” Jim Hassan said. “What a waste of my brother’s life. He basically spent his whole life in service to other people.”
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