Gunfire rang out near the Central District’s Garfield High School Thursday night in the area where a man was sent to the hospital last week after being shot in the stomach in the parking lot of Ezell’s. There were no reported injuries in the late night bout of gunplay.
The shots fired incident was the latest in a spring series of gun violence across the city, the Central District, and Capitol Hill.
In the increasingly crowded race for Seattle mayor, candidate Jessyn Farrell’s campaign is making a focus on gun violence a center of her effort to draw voters.
This week, Farrell released her plan to address gun violence with a focus on community spending in a bid to make the issue a key factor in the race.
Her campaign says the plan was developed in conjunction with Rep. David Hackney, Parkland activist Mei–Ling Ho–Shing, former Alliance for Gun Responsibility policy and advocacy director Tallman Trask, LifeWire – Together Against Domestic Violence’s Rebecca Houghton, and Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss.
“A Seattle without gun violence is possible, if we have the courage and commitment to enacting the policies and funding the programs we know are working right now,” Farrell said in a press release on the plan. “The only thing stopping us from achieving that goal is a lack of leadership and resources from City Hall, and that has to change. The people dying on our streets don’t have time for incremental progress, they need leaders whose actions demonstrate they understand that even one death from preventable gun violence is unacceptable.”
Farrell’s plan includes six initiatives including establishing a Seattle Office of Violence Prevention, increasing spending on community organizations, and enacting regulations like banning assault weapons and restrictions on magazine capacity.
Seattle and King County residents are less likely to die in a gun related death than the rest of the state and the country but the gun violence disproportionately affects the Black community, according to a county study looking at deaths from 2010 to 2016:
Seattle Police gang detectives have responded to many incidents of violence this spring around Central Seattle including last week’s shooting at Ezell’s, this Judkins Park shooting in late March, and the mid-April shooting in the parking lot at 23rd and Jackson in which four people were hit including a young child. Police say this April shooting on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, stemmed from a dispute at a homeless encampment near Melrose.
Police shootings have also impacted the area including officers shooting and killing Seattle University graduate student Derek Hayden as the 44-year-old suffered a mental health crisis.
Earlier in February, a tragic night of gun violence played out in the parking lot of the Urban League Village apartments and Northwest African American Museum where police gunned down the suspect after he shot and killed one person and left another critically wounded.
This year’s shootings follow 2020’s increases in homicides and gun violence across the East Precinct covering the Central District and Capitol Hill.
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“Office of Violence Prevention”… so, like, the police??
What will they think of next…
It’s code for gang task force
Don’t we already have one of those?
No, Seattle disbanded their gang task force and King County also got rid of theirs. Enjoy!
How about some measures targeted at the parent(s) of these immoral thugs? …..because they are the main “root cause” of their criminal behavior.
A lot of young people don’t have parents. Actually. I assume you are a model parent (if you are a parent) and your children are 100 percent a product of your 100 percent perfect parenting practices?
Well, that’s part of the problem, isn’t it? Too many kids are being raised by someone other than their parent(s), who have failed miserably at the most important job they have. By the time they leave their family home, a lot of damage has already been done.
Of course all parents make mistakes. But, fortunately, only a relatively small number raise children who grow up to be criminals and gangbangers.
No mention of gangs which are the root cause of 90% of these issues.
>>> “increasing spending on community organizations”
A list of said community organizations to receive this increased spending would be nice.
“Farrell’s plan includes six initiatives including establishing a Seattle Office of Violence Prevention, increasing spending on community organizations, and enacting regulations like banning assault weapons and restrictions on magazine capacity.”
Right, banning assault weapons and limiting magazine capacity will do nothing to actually cut down on shootings. Evidently Ms.Farrell has never heard of someone driving a couple of miles to make a gun purchase. Besides, I don’t recall reading about any shootings in Seattle that involved an assault style weapon or a large magazine. But there you go. She says the only thing stopping the ending of gun violence is a lack of leadership. From what I’m reading here, electing her wouldn’t solve that problem.