Post navigation

Prev: (10/04/19) | Next: (10/06/19)

‘Shots fired at the Baltic Room’ — Two hit in Capitol Hill shootout

Two people were shot including one who was taken into custody and Seattle Police had to hold back a hostile crowd in closing time gunfire at Pike/Pine club The Baltic Room early Saturday.

SPD confirmed the shootings and said one person was in custody following the 2 AM melee outside the lower Pine club.

According to East Precinct radio reports, two victims suffered gunshot injuries to their legs and one of the victims at the hospital was to be arrested. It was not clear if there were other victims not found at the scene or if police were looking for additional shooters.

The incident began just after 2 AM with a SPD officer reporting “shots fired at the Baltic Room” as the club emptied for the night.

UPDATE 8:25 AM: SPD says a fight inside the club led to the shooting:

Witnesses began calling 911 to report a fight outside a club in the 1200 block of Pine Street at 2 am. Officers began arriving and heard multiple gunshots and saw a group of people attempting to flee the area. An officer approaching the scene spotted a 30-year-old man hobbling away holding a handgun. The officer ordered the man to the ground and took him into custody. The officer recognized the man as a convicted felon who is unable to legally possess a handgun. The man told officers that he had been shot multiple times and needed help. Officers called Medics to the scene to transport the man to Harborview Medical Center (HMC) for the treatment of four gunshot wounds. A second man, a 35-year-old, later approached the scene and told officers he too had been shot. Medics transported the second victim to HMC for further treatment. A security guard for a club stated that there had been a fight inside his club just before the shooting and that they were able to usher the people out just as the shooting began. Police recovered the handgun seen earlier by the officer and placed it into evidence. Detectives are now working to determine if they have identified all involved parties. This remains an active case and anyone with information is asked to call the tip line at 206-233-5000.

Police radio dispatches reported officers were holding at least one person at gunpoint just east of the Baltic on Pine and calling for emergency backup due to a large, unruly crowd. Officers formed a “riot line” and the use of pepper spray was authorized, according to East Precinct radio updates.

Both people hit by gunfire were found outside the club and were taken to Harborview. Police said the injuries were not life threatening. A gang unit detective was at the hospital to aid the investigation,

Police closed Pine to traffic between Boren and Melrose during the Seattle Fire response and while evidence was being collected.

The Pine shootout followed a shooting late Friday night after a Halloween event at the Federal Way Wild Waves.

 

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.

 

 

 

Subscribe and support CHS Contributors -- $1/$5/$10 per month

19 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
iluvcaphill
iluvcaphill
4 years ago

Why hasn’t this public nuisance business been closed yet? How many shootings have there been at or around this place? The owners must have some friends I white places.

xaotica
4 years ago
Reply to  iluvcaphill

Half the club is owned by a white woman, so is it really a stretch to imagine her having white friends? Is it a stretch to imagine people of color having white friends in the first place? Do you have zero friends from other cultures & view that as normal?! I’d consider that sort of thing a bigger problem than a handful of incidents at a music venue that’s managed to survive gentrification for 20 years.

Also questionable:

– Implying that clubs run by white people and/or full of white people are automatically safer
– A username which implies you love the neighborhood… except “cap hill” is how recent transplants for tech jobs refer to it.

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
4 years ago
Reply to  xaotica

Um, you think that might have been a typo, perhaps? “Some friends in the right places”?

iluvcaphill
iluvcaphill
4 years ago
Reply to  iluvcaphill

No. My point was that this business has been spared enforcement action against it because it’s owners past and present were white and have friends in high places. Many black owned business in the CD and in Belltown have been shit down for far less than what’s been happening at this public nuisance for years. This club needs to be shut down. The only typo was the I. It should have been in. I guess it was a clumsy play on words. If this club had been in another part of town no doubt it would’ve been shut by now.

DirtMcGirt
DirtMcGirt
4 years ago
Reply to  iluvcaphill

Shit it down! Shit it down!

iluvcaphill
iluvcaphill
4 years ago
Reply to  iluvcaphill

Well, shit. I wish there was a way to edit and/or delete posts on this site. Le sigh.

Roy Clark
Roy Clark
4 years ago

Country and western night again?

abcd
abcd
4 years ago

There is a shooting or brawl there every other weekend….

BenJammin
BenJammin
4 years ago

Maybe it is time for a nuisance abatement action against the Baltic. 10-15 years ago they had a great music scene with some of Seattle’s greatest musicians, now it’s all gangsta wannabes wasting cash while trying to show off.

The owners know exactly what they are doing and are putting their customers and the neighborhood at risk by allowing dicey gangsta DJ’s to pull in the most dangerous people so they can sell butt-loads of Hennessy and top-shelf liqour at premium pricing and rake in the dough. Just look at their Facebook page for their Friday Night promotion video – that says/shows it all.

We’ve seen what this sort of reckless booking has done to other clubs like Larry’s Pioneer Square; they went from music to exactly this type booking and they did finally get shut down by the city.

The Baltic Room is being run so poorly their balticroom.com website is abandoned (or down for some reason) and their Facebook page is devoid of regular events. Sadly it is no longer a music club and the owners feel cornered, as if they have no other way to stay afloat. I loudly recommend the city take action before something even worse happens…

Noor
Noor
4 years ago

what good is rent control if everyone keeps getting shot? can someone please tell ms sawant?

Nick
Nick
4 years ago
Reply to  Noor

This is Seattle, where murder is now considered more acceptable than gentrification by many.

Insightful
Insightful
4 years ago

Play country classical music and the problems of violence and dangerous people are solved first night.

BenJammin
BenJammin
4 years ago
Reply to  Insightful

Not very insightful Insightful. You’re also not very bright; more violence occurs at country music events than any other…

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
4 years ago
Reply to  BenJammin

I’d like to see the statistics supporting that statement.

Tom
Tom
4 years ago
Reply to  BenJammin

I couldn’t find something completely related but I was surprised to find that country music talks about drugs more than any other music genre.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/why-country-music-sings-about-drugs-more-than-any-other-genre-121769/

The Vegas and Thousand Oaks shootings probably more than cover a many years worth of deaths at rap clubs/concerts.

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
4 years ago
Reply to  BenJammin

To say that isn’t “completely related” is an understatement. It’s barely related at all.

Tom
Tom
4 years ago
Reply to  BenJammin

How can you say drugs culture and gun violence aren’t related? For both country music and rap, they won’t be writing songs about drugs if their people aren’t using them.

Alex S.
Alex S.
4 years ago

“calling for emergency backup due to a large, unruly crowd. ”

So, what were they rioting about? The “right for felons to shoot at each other in a public place to settle some pathetic beef”?

CD_Dave
CD_Dave
4 years ago

Sadly that place seems to have always attracted a bad element. I was stabbed there inside the establishment in ~2001 by some random dude looking to stick someone for a thrill. I was minding my own business, trying to find a 2 square feet to enjoy my beverage and the show and this guy slams into me for no apparent cause. I pushed him off as his girlfriend come up crying for me not to kick his ass for it. 10 minutes later I start feeling very sore in my hip and went into the restroom to find I was covered in blood on my right side.

Two things worked in my favor that night. The first is the idiot was using a small pocket knife. The second is that it was 2001 and I was required to carry a pager… lol.

The pager took the brunt of it and the blade deflected downward towards my hip. Could have been much worse.

Hospital cleaned it up, stitched it up, and recommended I get frequently tested for HIV for the next couple of years.

They used to have some pretty cool shows there but there’s no way in hell I’d step anywhere near that place past 9pm. I’m otherwise a fan of Woody’s and Machiavelli.

Good luck to the new owners. Might be good to up the security with an off duty officer but that might reduce some of the popularity amongst difficult crowd.