(Images: Tim Durkan with permission to CHS)
A woman was reported hit in the chest in a shooting early Saturday morning in the 1400 block of Broadway.
Seattle Fire was at the scene to treat a woman in her 20s shot in the chest, according to radio dispatches. She was rushed to Harborview after treatment at the scene. SPD said the woman was in critical condition.
Police rushed to the area just before 2 AM after reports of shots fired in the parking lot above the QFC at Broadway and Pike. Police found shell casings in the lot and were detaining vehicles spotted leaving the area but made no immediate arrests. At least one business window was shattered by the blasts.
Information is preliminary at this point and has not been confirmed by SPD or Seattle Fire.
Officers investigating after woman shot at Broadway/Madison. Vic taken to hospital in critical condition. More information when available.
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) August 6, 2016
UPDATE 11:40 AM: SPD is looking for witnesses to the shooting and reports that the victim’s injuries were not life threatening:
Gang unit detectives are investigating after a woman was shot in the 1400 block of Broadway last night.
Witnesses called 911 just before 2 am Saturday saying that a woman had been shot in the chest. Officers arrived and found the woman suffering from a single gunshot wound.
Seattle Fire department medics took the woman to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
Crime scene investigators located multiple shell casings, a damaged window, and bullet hole in a nearby car.
Detectives are working with witnesses to develop a suspect description. If you have any inforation in this case please call the non-emergency line at 206-625-5011.
Patrons attempting to leave nearby venues were reportedly asked to remain inside as word of the shooting spread to area security teams during the immediate police response to the shooting. Television crews had been busy on the Hill earlier in the night covering reaction to SPD’s announcement of “unconfirmed reports of drugged drinks” at Capitol Hill bars.
The area around the Harvard Market parking lot has been a trouble spot for law enforcement as late night crowds gather around vehicles as the neighborhood’s bars and clubs empty around 2 AM’s last call. In November of 2015, five people were injured in a drive-by below the lot at Broadway and Pike in front of QFC. Meanwhile, a crowded 2 AM parking lot on Pine near Melrose was the scene of a deadly shooting in August 2015.
Two weeks ago, SPD rushed to the Harvard Market lot following gunfire just before 3 AM on a Saturday morning. The week before that, officers searched for a gunman in the Broadway parking lot behind Mud Bay and across the street from Neighbours. Nobody was injured in those incidents.
Saturday’s Broadway/Pike shooting follows gun violence Thursday morning on Capitol Hill. In that incident, the gunman was arrested after shooting a man on E John near 10th. In all, the most recent shooting marks the fourth incident of gun violence on the Hill in the last four weeks.
SPD periodically has pledged to step up patrols including recently during Pride following the Orlando nightclub shooting and the East Precinct has regularly shifted to “emphasis patrols” around Pike/Pine and Broadway during the summer months, especially on Friday and Saturday nights when the area swells with club and bar crowds.
After the scary random shooting outside my house yesterday, I thought we’d get a break. And then we get locked down at bars near QFC … again. What the ever living hell is going on around here. I really don’t feel safe anymore. This is where we live, it’s not okay. I don’t even know how to feel or what to do.
I agree, Megan. The amount of serious crime in our neighborhood is getting ridiculous. I don’t know what the answer is, either.
It obviously won’t help the problem everywhere, but with how many shootings and incidents have happened in that QFC lot on weekend nights, it needs to be completely shut down and guarded.
Time to hold QFC accountable until this happens.
Megan I hear ya. I lived in the area for 15 years and a lot has changed. Our part of the Hill tho (north end) still seems to be a bit less crazy than Pike/Pine.
That parking lot is right below my dining room window. I happened to be up at the time and was maybe 50 feet away from the gunfire itself. I could hear the woman struggling to breathe after she got shot.
Lots of police did arrive very quickly after the gunfire took place – I called 911 immediately and the sirens arrived while I was still telling the dispatcher what happened – so at least Seattle PD is aware of this being a problem spot and has people nearby just in case. It’s ridiculous that this is a thing they have to do though.
It was chilling to see a swarm of cops storming past my window with assault rifles. When I went to bed I still saw glare of the flashing police lights in my bedroom.
I hate that now I have to worry about stray bullets every weekend. What the fuck has happened to this neighborhood?
Eric, QFC is just one tenant of Harvard Market, albeit the most visible. Parking lot security is the responsibility of the owners. And closing the lot off would just divert people to the gas station or elsewhere. You’re micro-managing a larger problem.
JC, no strong argument to either of your points, there’s certainly a larger problem and QFC isn’t alone at fault here. But there have been so many incidents at that parking lot, and the lot itself is a relatively secluded area right in the middle of pike/pine that securing it better certainly wouldn’t hurt. I disagree with the shell station example though – they’re well lit and seem to usually have security. Sure, the incidents would likely just move – but potentially to other secluded areas not near masses of innocent bystanders.
And yes, QFC is just a tenant as you say, but one that’s easy to give feedback to, and should be putting pressure on Harvard Market themselves. Harvard Market doesn’t exactly have a strong presence on their own (not even contact info on their website).
Eric, in your first post, you said it needs to be completely shut down, not better secured. I won’t argue with the latter. And the gas station also has a history of crowd altercations. I suspect a lot of the activity at Harvard involves drugs. CAP is another draw for this, with its own crime problems.
Note that it’s not actually QFC’s parking lot – it’s above the QFC, but QFC uses the large garage underneath it. The lot in question nominally services Bartell’s, Marination Station, Tangerine Tree, and a veterinarian.
While I don’t know for certain, my guess is that QFC is a tenant of who(m)ever owns that property. We bulldoze single family houses every day; perhaps it’s time to take the wrecking ball to a poorly designed commercial development that has proven itself a death-trap.
The Pike/Broadway area parking lots are awful on weekend nights after 10 or so. My apartment overlooks one that’s fine five nights a week and turns into a zoo Fri/Sat. It would be great for the SPD to try to get people moving along after closing time instead of camping out for another hour, since that’s when the trouble usually starts.
Park some police units in the lots in the area. Generally even an unoccupied unit tends to provide deterrent enough – rotate patrols through there so no one unit is unoccupied consistently. At 2AM they can then get all the trash off the Hill – I’d wager most of the crimes are committed by non-Hill residents (U District, etc – if I had to guess).
I’ve said it before, but instead of having all of us foot the bills for the drunken trash that congregates in our neighborhood on weekends, have the businesses that profit from drawing these uncivilized cretins here pay for the negative externalities that affect the rest of us.
Do any of you think that if there weren’t dozens of businesses built on over serving morons that we would have these problems? I realize that some of the problems may be related to drugs, rather than alcohol directly, but the concentration of drunken fools provides cover for all sorts of nonsense.
Gotta love the vibrant Capitol Hill nightlife!
This is getting ridiculous. Every weekend it’s another shooting on the hill and this is two this week. Broadway/Pike QFC is a cesspool at night. It’s time for the either the police to setup shop in that parking lot, or for the businesses connected to it to hire more armed security.
What about the businesses that aren’t open at night or the weekends? But pay the same or more ina ridiculous rent?
Calling Capitol Hill dangerous is like saying driving is dangerous just because car accidents are reported on the news every night. This neighborhood is very safe. Most places in US are too.
South America? Now that’s unsafe.
It’s not a contest!
Capitol Hill is “very safe”? You aren’t paying attention.
Still no updates on this one?
That never happened when we owned the block ! ITS Amateur hour NOW!