Police took three teenagers into custody Monday night for last week’s fatal shooting in The Jungle area below I-5 known for homeless encampments and drug use.
Police arrested the three — age 13, 16 and 17 — “in connection with last week’s fatal shooting at a homeless encampment in the Beacon Hill greenbelt,” SPD announced in a brief update on the case. Officers took the suspects into custody on Monday just after 5 PM on 4th Ave S near an I-90 onramp.
The wooded greenbelt below the confluence of I-90 and I-5 was the scene of a deadly shooting last Tuesday night that killed two and sent three more to the hospital.
Mayor Ed Murray issued a statement on the arrest thanking “federal, state and local law enforcement agencies” for tracking down the suspects:
This violent crime shocked Seattle. Thank you to the team at the Seattle Police Department for your professionalism in pursuit of this investigation, resulting in these three arrests. Our homicide investigators worked tirelessly to pursue leads and track down these suspects. We are also grateful for the efforts of our partners from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
The killings appear to be tied to drug activity in the area but have also stirred the debate over chronic areas of illegal camping in Seattle. The shooting happened just minutes before Murray was scheduled to broadcast a live address on homelessness in the city. In the annual One Night Count survey conducted late last week, canvassers found 4,505 people living unsheltered in the streets of King County. That’s a 19% increase over last year’s survey. In Seattle, the count found 2,942 outside, up from 2,813 in 2015, a 4.5% jump. Officials are calling for increased funding to help. Murray is preparing a proposal to double the housing levy in Seattle to help build more homes and shelters in the city while City Council member Kshama Sawant has called for an immediate $10 million emergency spend. Meanwhile, officials have called for removal of the camps on state property below the interstate but no formal plan for closing the area or providing alternatives has been announced.
One campsite from today's assessment. pic.twitter.com/Wj6ddG7PRT
— Seattle Fire Dept (@SeattleFire) January 28, 2016
13, 16 and 17. And the Mothers wept.
Mother, PI says they are brothers. Sad.
Any word on where they got the guns?
One of the guns was from a 1976 burglary, per the Seattle Times. Thanks, gunowners, for not securing your guns so, when your unalarmed house gets robbed, 40 years of criminal activity with your gun follows. Gunowners should have to carry insurance just like drivers do.
If you read tonight’s article on KOMO4 website, you probably won’t be shedding too many tears for dear old Mom. Evidently, the kids were trying to collect $500 for a drug-debt owed to their Mother. Lovely.
Nice work, SPD!!
The two older brothers have previous felony convictions, and jail sentences of 15-36 weeks. So much for the effectiveness of “juvenile rehab.” Now, if convicted, they will spend years in prison, which is what they deserve.
15-36 weeks isn’t really much time to rehab the lives of kids taken from their addicted mom and shuffled in and out of foster care as wards of the state, then missing from state care and homeless on/off for years. The sysem meant to protect these kids from their neglectful parents failed them so is it any wonder they didn’t turn out well? A 13 year old living in the jungle? Where the heck was CPS while that was going on?