A hail of bullets struck the shopping center building home to AutoZone and other businesses near 23rd and Jackson Thursday just after noon. There were no reported injuries.
Police say gang detectives are investigating the incident in which witnesses described a crowd of people running from gunfire through the center’s parking lot.
@SeattlePD gang unit detectives investigating shooting at 22/Jackson. No injured victims located at this time. Some property damage @ scene.
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) February 23, 2017
Police found damage to the building and bullet fragments strewn across the area near the auto parts store on the north end of the shopping center’s parking lot across from the 23rd and Jackson Starbucks.
The gunfire was heard by police in the area just before 12:15 PM, according to East Precinct radio.
Police were searching for at least one vehicle seen leaving the area following the shooting. Police were also looking for at least one possible victim who appeared to have been hit by the gunfire but no victims were found in the area or at nearby hospitals.
Gentrification can’t get to that corner quick enough.
I know all of my fine Seattle neighbors are looking forward to the warmer months when the CD shootings really pick up pace…
Normally I’d be on the “gentrification is bad” side of the fence…however I can certainly agree with some of your sentiments. This part of the neighborhood is in decay, and the community that seems to care so much about keeping the culture alive doesn’t seem to give much thought to community policing. Nor does public safety seem to be an issue.
I was walking to get coffee this morning at Broadcast and had a man jump out of his car only to shove a gun in my face and tell me I didn’t belong in the neighborhood. This because I dared to make eye contact as he almost ran down the crossing guard and a pedestrian on yesler and 21st, and had the audacity to ask him to drive safely. This disgruntled individual started spewing his racial hatred for white people (I’m mixed race, looking very much like my Lakota Sioux ancestors) and told me that it was his neighborhood and I should mind my business before I get “handled.” My fiancé and I moved to Seattle over a decade ago and purchased a home here in the CD. If we had no vested interest in seeing this neighborhood thrive, we would have sold off the property when it doubled in value.
I work with people in this community daily and see lots of hard working, compassionate community leaders trying to preserve the neighborhood, though at this point I have to wonder why you’d want to sustain a neighborhood dynamic that clearly isn’t working when gun violence runs rampant.
BokehBro, I hope you called the incident into the police. Sounds like you got a great look at not only the perp, but his vehicle.
A person with that type of temperament probably has a warrant awaiting them at their next police interaction.
CD_Dave,
Right so I can be the next gun violence statistic because I turn a person, who probably doesn’t mind going to jail, in to the “authorities?” No thank you. SPD wouldn’t be doing much about either, they only show up in this neighborhood after the shots ring out, or to eat their lunch in the parking lot of the old fire station. There were three witnesses who didn’t feel it was their duty to get involved (not that I blame them) and I doubt they’d make statements for the same reason. The whole stop snitching atmosphere is around for a reason, survival.
I can understand why you didn’t call the police, but couldn’t you have reported anonymously in such a way as to protect your privacy?
This whole “no snitching” thing is a sad state of affairs and is a significant reason why criminals continue to roam free on our streets.
That mall is just plain scary. I feel so sorry for the employees of those businesses. I have seen people walk right by the cashiers
at Walgreen’s with stolen goods. The cashier’s have undoubtedly
been told not to challenge these scumbags for their own protection,
I live nearby and noticed there was a pretty major car accident a mere block away, at Douglass-Truth Library…at the same time.
We went to the Magic Dragon to eating lunch yesterday. Their was a group of five or six males and one woman in the lot working a souped up ghetto cruiser that sported some very big custom wheels with the hood up, a few males seamed to be talking. We were seated inside when just past noon as we were finishing or meal a big gun battle erupted out side. They opened fire on each other simultaneously. Three males from the cruiser group entered in a panic as we called 911. They stated that two males stood on the stairs at 23rd Ave and the west end of Auto Zone and fired a semi auto gun, gunfire was returned from the cruiser group also making a big cloud of gun smoke. If on cue they dispersed in every direction as a large SPD team made a rapid response. Truly a terrifying experience for me as a GHS parent many Garfield Students eat in that area during lunch time in a normal week.
Is there anyone out there that can address bokenbro’s concerns about reporting to police. My understanding is you can report a crime without your identity being made public. My family and I frequently shop at Autozone, Magic Dragon and Walgreens as they are close to our home. I am amazed there is not more public outcry over a daytime shootout at our neighborhood stores. I am going out on a limb here, gangsters do not practice shooting at a practice range. They spray rounds to intimidate rivals. Which puts everyday shoppers, my family and local kids in harms ways. I, like I assume many people feel, are just fed up with this behavior and we need assurances that something is being done to rid us of daytime shootings putting our families in danger.
I think bokenbro’s story is made up or embellished. Doesn’t add up to me.
His response does add up to me. I would have reported the incident but wouldn’t “feel” like it makes much difference. The issues in that neighborhood is an issue of cultural clashes. We are seeing the normalized behavior of one culture versus another. Gangs, thugs, and violence is one way that some cultures act out when frustrated and ignored by society. So they see wealthy people moving into their neighborhoods and feel an immense frustration at those people. And they would identify “the enemy” by how you dress as well. To be honest I’m a white male and I feel lots of frustration at the tech developers that make 120+K a year driving up housing costs to the point where I am getting close to not being able to live in the city. I have animosity towards them. I would think the frustration that some in the CD experience is similar. I don’t think it is of any particular groups fault. Our society isn’t advanced enough right now to really be able to take on challenges like this. So we just strive to maintain, through law and order, a bare minimum amount of peace amongst our cultures. I hope someday (way past our time) this will be resolved and we’ll have true equality amongst race, class, intelligences (since we all have different minds and skill sets), and really any trait that separates us from our fellow human beings. That frustration out of not being, having or feeling impeded upon because you are one of the lessor will not be an issue.
Rock, it most certainly was not fiction, though I wish it had been. It’s becoming more of an issue over the past few years with young men in this neighborhood using threats of gun violence to make themselves feel understood and respected.
I just watched a few hundred people protest up my block last night yelling “yuppies out, black lives in.” Mind you, the entire mob featured hipster kids and soccer moms with kids in tow. I don’t think I saw but a handful of black residents amongst the crowd supporting the protest. Contradictory much?
I pay my property taxes yearly, this is MY neighborhood because I support it. I support it by being financially accountable to the upkeep and repair of my neighborhood, by volunteering to serve those less fortunate around my neighborhood and by supporting local business around my area.
I would be remiss to fail to mention that community policing by the people of this neighborhood had been non existent for decades, hence the current state of decay currently afflicting the Central District.
After talking with others about the incident that happened I did follow through and file a report if only for accountability reasons. Will it stop that individual from pointing a gun at the next person who crosses his path the wrong way? Most likely not.