Seattle Police are investigating a July 4th shooting incident near 25th and Massachusetts that left a Mercer Island mother and three teens shaken and their car peppered with bullet holes.
The incident was described in a post this week in the popular Madrona Moms group.
Hi MM – I want to make you aware of additional shooting that occurred in the neighborhood.
A friend was driving my son and her two boys after the fireworks show Saturday night. She was headed towards eastbound I90 and stopped briefly on Massachusetts near Colman park, calling a friend that had been following her who had missed a turn. As she was providing the friend directions, someone from a group of people celebrating the 4th across the street starting shooting at her car. This was completely unprovoked.
She immediately drove away, but five bullets hit her car. Three of the bullets penetrated the driver’s side door, shattering the window and created an outline around the driver. There is another bullet hole near the headrest in the rear seat. If any one of the bullets would have been six inches closer it would have hit her or one of our boys.
According the SPD report on the incident, after the shooting, the driver sped through the streets and onto I-90 where the driver’s side window fell out as she crossed the bridge. In the panic, a teenage male in the car said he had been shot in the shoulder. The driver pulled to the side and called 911.
Arriving medic crews quickly discovered the boy had not been shot — but the East Precinct officer who responded to the scene just before midnight on the 4th found a car that looked like it had been through war:
There were at least 4 rounds that hit the vehicle. One round went through the driver’s side door shattering the window on the door. A second round went through the driver’s side roof near the driver’s side passenger door. A third and fourth round went through the driver’s side near the rear of the vehicle. It appears one of the bullets also went through the passenger side front tire as it was flat.
Back on the Seattle side of the bridge, police found evidence from the hail of gunfire:
The officers found the shooting scene located near 25th Ave. . Officers recovered 26 rounds that were found in the street. There were 40 caliber rounds, 9mm rounds and 45 caliber rounds.
A witness described two groups she said opened fire randomly into the night. SPD believes the victims were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and were not targeted in the hail of bullets.
The 4th of July incident follows weeks of gunfire incidents and shootings around the Central District including this July 2nd murder at 24th and Spring.
The Madrona Moms poster whose son was in the car says the incident shows “greater support and help in the whole community is needed to guide individuals from making these decisions in the first place” —
I am so grateful that my son and our friends are safe and physically injured. Although I keep thinking about what could have been done differently to avoid this. Don’t stop the car to talk on a cell phone? Don’t drive down Massachusetts? Don’t drive at night? Don’t stop the car near groups of people? Don’t go out on the Fourth of July?
I am saddened by the complete disregard of life. I grew up in this city, living 12 of those years on 31st and Cherry. Our community was very close and it was a great place to live. I do not want these reckless actions to dictate where my family goes or how we live.
I debated if I should even send this email, but with the number of recent shootings in the area I wanted each of you to know this can impact anyone. These actions show greater support and help in the whole community is needed to guide individuals from making these decisions in the first place.
I hope that some camera somewhere captured the a-holes who did this.
I live about four blocks away from where this happened, and this kind of thing really saddens me. Many people in the area good neighbors and want to improve the neighborhood. Unfortunately there are still some people in the area (or that come into the area) that don’t seem to care about that. On the 5th of July many of the intersections in the neighborhood were littered with fireworks remnants and stacks of boxes; the people setting off the fireworks couldn’t be bothered to pick up their own trash. Shooting at random cars parked along the street is simply outrageous. We’ve asked for more police presence in the neighborhood, and we get nothing.
SPD’s assessment that they were at “the wrong place at the wrong time” infuriates me. They were surrounded by public parks, presumably full of families, on the 4th of July! Saying they were in the ‘wrong place’ subtly shifts some of the blame to the victims while also implying that the police don’t have a responsibility to keep streets safe in that area. I feel for the people living in this neighborhood who are not getting the police presence they have requested and deserve. So glad to hear the victims survived this attack. Hoping the police find the perpetrators.
I was ON THE STREET watching fireworks maybe 50 feet away when this happened. Didn’t even realize it was happening. The noise was masked by the MASSIVE fireworks show a block south. Honestly, I feel like if I were just a little one way or the other, I could be a statistic. Terrifying. Police showed up and calmed down the party right before violence broke out additionally there (a fist fight was brewing @ 25th and Grand) and tried to get additional information, but we were no help. I didn’t even realize there was another person/car involved until reading this article.
There’s a typo in the first line of the third to last paragraph. It should read “uninjured”.
#madronamomslivesmatter
Wow……… someone has some issues.
Do you even live here? When did you start reading this blog? If you live in the cd, you would know that people of all races want our neighborhood to be safer and when someone is killed or shot at, we all grieve. After the CD News folded (probably before you even moved here), jseattle committed to keeping our community informed. For that, I am thankful. Instead of showing sympathy you post a snarky hashtag? This woman and these young boys will suffer PTSD for a long time to come. The neighbors in that area felt a little less safe going to bed that night. If you do live in our neighborhood, I urge you to connect with people. Get to know your neighbors and learn why most of us don’t want this classist/racist bullshit divide that other people are promoting. I am the opposite of a madrona mom, but I don’t want anyone in my neighborhood getting shot at.
Hmm. I’m guessing that if you were in that car, maybe you wouldn’t be dropping such a stupid, snarky comment. You’d be happy to be alive.
I apologize for the snark.
To clarify, I was responding solely to Happy Gentrifier & their “madronamomslivesmatter”. It struck me that this person might feel more at home in Sammamish where there doesn’t need to be any gentrification.
I was in no way commenting on anyone who found themselves involved in the shooting.
For the record, I purchased my first home in the CD in 1989 and have lived in and adjacent since.
I’m sure that most people in the CD are good citizens, and care about their neighborhood…..but these almost-daily shootings are casting a really nasty pall over that area. I for one would be very hesitant to drive anywhere in the CD at night…..and of course there have been some daytime shootings too.
I diverse neighborhood has, err.. diverse issues.
My car was also shot up in this incident, but nobody was inside at the time. Also bullet holes in the headrest and near the baby’s car seat. Windows shot oyt, etc. Pretty upsetting to arrive home from fireworks into the middle of this scene.
Also for what it’s worth, all moms care about their kids. Nobody wants to be an innocent bystander near a shooting. Or god forbid, a victim.
out of control… what the fuck is wrong with these people?
No progress will be made until we admit that not every mom (or dad) cares about their kids, and a lot of them abandon their responsibility to raise competent citizens. These criminals dont need a hug, or rainbow crosswalks or whatever BS we allow the mayor to peddle as a solution to this. He is a joke when it comes to crime in the CD and I see no evidence to the contrary. There will be several more incidents of increasing tradgedy before anything changes.
Your point is well taken, but the Mayor is not saying that “rainbow crosswalks” are some kind of a solution to lousy parenting and criminality. Apples and oranges.
Would you mind linking to the SPD Report that you reference in the posting? I’ve checked the online reports at http://web1.seattle.gov/police/records/PoliceReports/Search.aspx and cannot find a report of this incident.
It was provided to CHS by SPD’s media unit via email — I’ve posted it here in its entirety in two sections:
Part 1
Part 2