March marks 12 years since the mass shooting in which six people were gunned down inside a house at 22nd and Republican.
The so-called Capitol Hill Massacre sometimes gets left out the sad cavalcade of past shootings that accompany any new tragedy. Young people were wiped out by an angry loner but they weren’t at a school. Many people were killed by a stranger but they weren’t in a public place.
With Seattle students and supporters planning walkouts and marches following the Parkland shooting, a friend of some of those who died at 22nd and Republican in 2006 has posted about how it feels for survivors and loved ones of mass shooting victims to see the tragedies continue to unfold and what should be done to help end this violence — “I know *exactly* what the people impacted go through every time there is a mass shooting,” TProphet writes. The full thread is below:
1/ Next month will be the 12 year anniversary of a mass shooting that took the lives of two good friends. https://t.co/BWxTGUngIg
— TProphet (@TProphet) February 19, 2018
3/ I know *exactly* what the people impacted go through every time there is a mass shooting. I have gone through this myself. It was, for me, a kick in the ass to go out and do my best to fill some very large and empty shoes in the Seattle music scene. But that was how I grieved.
— TProphet (@TProphet) February 19, 2018
5/
Jeremy
Christopher
Jason
Justin
Melissa
SuzanneI didn't look up these names. They're burned into my memory. I can't remember what I had for lunch today, but I remember *this*
— TProphet (@TProphet) February 19, 2018
7/ Now that there is an established pattern, one thing has become pretty obviously clear: we need a way to stop people who are throwing up red flags all over the place, and who are obviously mentally unstable, from having access to weapons that can kill 17 people in 90 seconds.
— TProphet (@TProphet) February 19, 2018
9/ I don't think limited, common-sense gun control measures will stop all mass shootings, but it's clear what we're doing now isn't working. Every time I see one of these mass shootings, it reminds me what happened on that day. Nobody should have to go through this. pic.twitter.com/68UAmrnHCB
— TProphet (@TProphet) February 19, 2018
CHS wrote here about the 10th anniversary of the Capitol Hill mass shooting. “I think the answer is that a person who was mentally ill was easily able to access guns and ammunition. Lots of it,” a neighbor told CHS at the time. “We see it every day, this was just our neighborhood.”
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Thanks for running this article and remembering these brave folks, our beautiful dance community. TProphet has been a central contributor to this community since its inception – many thanks, good sir.
Every day I still think of my neighbor and friend, Chris W., or “Deacon,” and remember that George Michael lyric he loved, “Heaven is a kiss and a smile.”