UW shooting suspect proved elusive

The man who fatally shot Rebecca Griego in the University of Washington's Gould Hall on Monday before turning the gun on himself was an elusive Brit named Jonathan Rowan, police said Tuesday afternoon.

Or was he?

Campus police say they have sought help from Interpol, the international police organization, and that it could be days or weeks before they confirm the suspect's name. Assistant UW Police Chief Ray Wittmier said he wouldn't be surprised if the man's identity was stolen — he had at least three aliases and two passports.

University police aren't aware of any outstanding warrants for Rowan in other countries, said UW Police Chief Vicky Stormo. He had an outstanding warrant in King County for failing to appear in court after being charged with driving while intoxicated last summer, she said.

Rowan is believed to have entered the United States legally in 1996 with a green card, police said. He did odd jobs and appears to have been self-employed.

The gun used in the shooting is a .357-caliber believed to have been stolen from a local resident who bought it in 1995 from a dealer in Tucson, Ariz., police said.

Rowan, who often wore tinted glasses and stuttered when nervous, had been stalking Griego, his ex-girlfriend, prompting her to obtain a domestic-violence protection order against him on March 6.

Griego reported to university police on March 16 that she had received at least two death threats by phone from Rowan. Stormo apologized to Griego's family for stating incorrectly Monday that Griego had declined to press charges against Rowan; in fact, Griego told police that she was willing to testify against Rowan.

The case was assigned to a detective, who was trying to track down Rowan in the days before the killing, Stormo said. The detective had enlisted help from the Seattle Police Department, too, Stormo said.

Rowan appears to have lived in at least four different Ballard addresses in recent years.

Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com