Woman died in Seattle shootings and lived to testify about it

As terror enveloped a Seattle city block nearly two years ago, two strangers headed toward each other and an encounter that would likely save one of their lives.

Donald Johnson, a Seattle police officer who patrolled downtown on his bicycle, had just picked up coffee from the Starbucks at Second Avenue and Lenora Street when several panicked people burst in screaming about a shooting down the block.

Johnson and three other officers rushed toward "the sound of chaos," he testified Thursday during the fourth day of Naveed Haq's murder trial. By a door near the back of the building housing the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Johnson saw Christina Rexroad slumped and bleeding.

The 29-year-old mother, who worked in accounting at the federation, had just burst through the building's back exit, running for her life as it literally slipped away. Johnson administered first aid to the mortally injured woman, likely saving her life.

The testimony of Johnson and Rexroad offered yet another glimpse of the chaos and carnage at the federation on July 28, 2006. At one point during her testimony, Rexroad broke down on the stand, prompting the judge to order a brief recess so she could regain her composure.

Haq, 32, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to one count of aggravated murder, five counts of attempted aggravated murder and numerous other crimes, including the state's hate-crime law. Defense attorneys aren't disputing that Haq was the gunman who killed one federation employee and wounded five others but are trying to persuade jurors he was insane at the time.

Rexroad testified that she was finishing up her work just after 4 p.m. when she heard "popping" noises. Rexroad went down the hallway and saw Haq, who had forced his way into the locked building about two minutes earlier.

"He turned and looked at me. He had a gun in his hand. He shot me," she said, her voice quivering. "I remember feeling stinging, and then feeling nothing."

She slipped into a nearby conference room and tried to close the door behind her, she testified. "He was trying to get in. He shot me again — it went across the back of my knee and knocked me down."

Somehow, she stumbled into another hallway, down the back steps and through an exit. All along, she was yelling for someone to help her. But other co-workers had either already fled the building or had also been shot.

Though it seemed like ages to Rexroad and other victims who testified this week, Haq was only inside the federation offices for 13 minutes, according to recorded video frames taken from the organization's security cameras and played for the jury Thursday afternoon. Within the first three minutes, Haq had shot six women, killing one.

On the street after her escape, Rexroad continued to lose blood. She would eventually lose her entire volume of blood at the scene and go into cardiac arrest, she told jurors.

Where Rexroad's memory fades, Johnson's picks up.

Johnson spotted her as he rushed from the nearby Starbucks, he testified.

As other officers continued ahead, he cut open Rexroad's pants and saw the place where a bullet entered her abdomen and exited her groin, severing her femoral artery.

"She had lost a massive amount of blood," he recalled. "She was cold, she was hot ... She turned white on me. I thought she had passed."

Though Fire Department medics had arrived and were about 50 feet away, they would not enter the zone where Rexroad lay for another 10 to 15 minutes because of safety concerns, despite the fact that Johnson "was screaming my head off" for help, he testified.

So he applied as much pressure as he could to her wound and held it for a few minutes.

Johnson, 48, said he then had to make a difficult choice. "I was afraid of moving her," lest the wound open even more, he said. "But she was slipping away. So we gambled."

He and some other police officers picked up Rexroad and carried her to the medics. He left her there and went off to help secure the area, not knowing whether she would live or die.

Rexroad did both.

She died once at the scene after losing all her blood, but was revived, she testified. Rexroad said doctors told her she died again on the operating table but was again revived.

Rexroad had nightmares after the shooting but went back to work for the federation.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger@seattletimes.com