In what the city mayor denounced as the latest example of America's "epidemic of gun violence," the shooter opened fire on campus with a shotgun and was only halted after he stopped to re-load.
The assault came just two weeks after a disturbed young man opened fire at a California university and killed six people.
Those wounded at Seattle Pacific University were being treated in hospital. The dead victim was a 20-year-old man who was shot in the upper body and died on his way to hospital.
Seattle Assistant Police Chief Paul McDonagh said the gunman was a 26-year-old white man. Seattle Pacific is a small a private Christian university with 4,000 students.
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The attacker was armed with a shotgun and a knife. And, in what police said was a sign that he have planned to kill more people, he also carried several additional rounds of ammunition.
"But for the great response by the people at Seattle Pacific University, this incident might have been much more tragic," McDonagh said.
They plan to release the suspect's name once he has been booked into jail and charged.
The gunman opened fire in a lobby of a science building on the campus.
He was "subdued after being pepper-sprayed by a student security guard," a police statement said. Initial reports suggested there were two gunman, but police said that proved false.
Mayor Ed Murray expressed outrage that his city had fallen victim once more to the gun violence plaguing the United States.
"Once again, the epidemic of gun violence has come to Seattle, the epidemic of gun violence that's haunting this nation.