Detectives are investigating after a woman was shot to death early Saturday morning in an area where homeless people camp along I-5 below Yesler Terrace.
The SPD report on the incident near 8th and Yesler is below. The woman in her 40s was shot multiple times inside a camp on the northern edges of The Jungle, the greenbelt that runs below the freeway.
In February, CHS accompanied an SPD officer on a night of work around the East Precinct including a call to the 8th and Yesler camping area where, that night, officers searched tent to tent for a reported assault victim (Image: CHS)
Police were called to the area of 8th and Yesler around 1:45 AM just as Seattle Fire was rushing the victim to the hospital. Police searched the camp area nearby and found the tent where the shooting occurred under I-5 south of the 8th and Yesler medic response.
The suspect in the crime was described only as a black male wearing a black mask. He was reported last seen fleeing south toward Jackson.
A K9 unit tracked in the area but the suspect was not located.
Detectives Investigating After A Homicide In Yesler Terrace
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Detectives are investigating after a woman was shot inside a tent and later died early Saturday morning.Officers were called to 8th Ave. and Yesler Way at 1:45 AM. Saturday for reports of a woman shot multiple times.
Witnesses said the woman, in her 40’s, was sitting in a nearby tent when an unknown person reached in and began firing a handgun. The victim was struck multiple times before the gunman fled.
Seattle Fire Department Medics rushed the woman to the hospital where she later passed away.
CSI and Homicide detectives have taken over the investigation and will work with the Medical Examiner on this case. If you have any information in this case please call (206)233-5000.
The information in this post is subject to change as the case investigation proceeds.
The reason homeless people often give as to why they sleep outside is that the shelters are “dangerous.” (which I am skeptical of….maybe they are not the nicest digs, but they are safe, dry, and warm). But this murder would obviously contradict the idea that sleeping outside is somehow safer.
What is urgently needed is outreach by the city to get the campers into temporary shelters at the least, and ultimately into transitional and permanent housing. Instead, we tolerate all the camping and build more tent cities.
Oh Bob. You are “skeptical”? This is easily solved! How about you go spend a few nights in a shelter and tell me how safe you feel? I am all for the existence of shelters, but anyone who has worked in social services or who has stayed in a shelter will tell you that they are filthy, bedbug ridden, full of drugs, and that robberies and fights are common. You herd a bunch of chronically homeless people into a cramped filthy space, and not much good is going to happen. A lot of people prefer encampments because they feel more communal, they allow for more independence, and are somewhat self governing. Your “solution” to the problem hasn’t been working. Time to listen to actual homeless people about what their needs are and what will help them.
As for transitional housing, I totally agree with that part. Alas, I fear this is a long way out. More legal encampments would be a good short term goal.
I am a program resident at Seattle’s union gospel mission and have been for 6 months not a single word of what you have said is true regarding missions given I live upstairs away from where our guests stay but your comments are simply biased and UN true. I work in the welcome center here, my name is Greg I’d feel free to show you around our facilities and show you how wrong you are. Feel free to come see me any time, I work 6pm-12am
Bob, This wasn’t a city sponsored Tent City. Why would you try to draw a correlation? The point of a city sponsored tent city is to prevent un-safe camping and un-safe spaces like the jungle. Opinions are great, and it’s great that you have this forum. But when you misinform through these broad stroke assumptions, you fuel ignorance and intolerance.
OK, you’re right. Tent cities are certainly safer than the random encampments. I am not against them. The point I was trying….inadequately…to make is that there should be more effort to provide decent transitional and permanent housing (so-called “housing-first” approach), and that such places should also offer social services to reduce recidivism. Such an approach will be challenging and expensive, but I think it would be a good investment, both for the homeless and for the City as a whole.
Bob,
Let’s get the facts right first. Tent living beats a shelter for the pure fact one is outside and has a better chance of escape. Shelters lock you down at night and no one hears you cry rape. Your stuck in that shelter with your rapist all night until the shelter decides it’s time to open the doors and kick you out for the day.I’d take my chances outdoors.
More important is the facts behind this killing.
The only real item in this article is she was shot in the Jungle. It had nothing to do with living homeless or not. Marge could have lived in a mansion and she would have the same exact results and worse. In a house they would have tortured her more than they did for info. She was overdosed with hot shots of heroin first then 9 shots to her head for a theft she did not commit. A heroin junkie stole from this gang and said it was her. She got high, so she was the perfect mark to pin it on. The two gang bangers killed her before checking the rumors. She was innocent of stealing from the gang.
The junkie who got her murdered is still free. Robbing houses and people and scot free.
Dumba$$ will steal again and get another person killed by hot headed gang members.
Stop the lying junkie who steals and you solved the case. RICO charges since it’s gang related. I did not read any of the details in this article. Wonder why if you Google it only one small article can be found? No details? RICO.
They have the two that did it and now they need to haul in the scum who set these murderers in
motion. OD on forced shots to get info from her, she did not know because she was not the one who stole their dope. Since there were not answers they shot her 9 times in the head.
Some Asian guy scooped up her dead body and brought it out and was walking around with it to find police. The cops did not find her in a tent.
So, fact is this has nothing to do with homeless people. The gang green lit her by mistake.
Tragic incident. I volunteer with a chronically homeless guy and I’ve learned “the homeless” are a diverse collection. Why are shelters considered dangerous? Probably because a significant percentage of “the homeless” are not in control of their lives and some are actually predatory. To sum up, they are neither the earth’s scum nor are they the harmless pets some liberals try to turn them into. Studies of the homeless population in Los Angeles have stated a homeless woman in LA has a 75% probability of being raped by other homeless within six weeks of being on the street there. Whether encampments are legal or illegal, unless they are run like tent city they are not an answer. As Seattle works hard to welcome all homeless comers from everywhere expect more of a view of what LA or Chicago has had.
A large number left over 10 years ago and headed up to Everett because they were raped daily in Seattle. Seattle is the worst place for a homeless woman as stated by a homeless lady. The next day more pour in to Seattle though. It is harder on the street for a woman than a man, with violence against them over 70% higher. The older the lady the more she is a target. Tent cities are not the answer either. It does not matter if it’s a homeless motel, tent city, or random sleeping bags on cubby holes,
women are raped, beat, robbed, that is life on the streets. Great pipe dream but not a realistic option.
Why can’t we do the Utah thing again and just give people apartments? I mean, I know we would have to build more units and work on not concentrating formerly homeless people in one (or a group of) buildings as that wouldn’t solve the problem, but still… There must be a way to end the epidemic. Clearly forgetting about homeless people and letting them camp in the most dangerous parts of the city hasn’t helped.
Just “give” them apartments? And who is going to pay for that?
It costs much less than frequent visits to jail or the hospital emergency ward. Google it. Utah has actually done it and they’re very happy with the results.
There are over one million homeless people in the country. How many apartments would we need to build?
You give each one an apartment and the total will still be less than the few trillion dollars this country has wasted on Iraq war.
It’s ambitious, but better for everybody in the long run.
Seriously. If someone was going to give me an apartment, I might put in my two week notice.
I’d be curious to see which people are eligible for these free apartments in Utah. There must be some restrictions otherwise every homeless person in the country would move there.
The only condition is being homeless. There’s been no flood of homeless people into Utah to take advantage of this; in fact, the homeless population has fallen by an estimated 75%. I suspect the last quarter are those who don’t want to sign any papers and prefer the anonimity and “freedom” of living in the streets.
You realize the apartments are not what middle-class people would regard as apartments, right? More like apod nets with all the “luxury” stripped out. .
It’s true the Iraq war money would have been better spent in the United States. Only the federal government working with states and cities can house the homeless and change the conditions that cause homelessness, such as lack of job opportunities and addiction and mental illness issues. unfortunately that is not happening. Seattle could pay to house thousands more and it would barely put a dent in the problem. It just attracts more homeless to Seattle.
You obviously don’t have a clue as to what “The Jungle” reall
SHUT UP about tent cities.
THIS ARTICLE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HOMELESS OR TENT CITIES.
THE TRUTH IS ABOUT GANG BANGERS MURDERING THE WRONG PERSON, THEY SHOT HER FULL OF HEROIN TO GET INFO, OVERDOSED HER, AND THEN SHOT HER 9 TIMES IN THE HEAD. THE PUNK WHO STOLE IS STILL ON THE LOOSE.
THE CHS PICTURES NEXT TO THE ARTICLE
SHOWS A DOG IN A BAR. THE WHITE DOG WITH THE BLACK RING AROUND HIS LEFT EYE IS THE SHOOTERS DOG. POOR TASTE IN PICS.
THE RIGHT FACT: HE IS A HALF BREED BLACK AND JAPANESE MAN WHO HAD HER KILLED.
MANY SAW, NO ONE WILL TALK TO 5 0 FOR FEAR OF THE GANG RETALIATION.
AT LEAST THEY GOT TWO OF THEM.
The Jungle is a subculture
George,
None of these couch dwellers know or even visited the Jungle much less stayed a night there.
Foulness pure and simple happened to Marg.