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A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed blaming Vulcan Real Estate and some of its major tenants including Starbucks and Walgreens for the unsolved June 2021 shooting death of a 21-year-old man in developer’s 23rd and Jackson shopping center parking lot.
The lawsuit, filed in February on behalf of the family of Sultan Ujaama, was amended last week to include commercial property manager Kidder Mathews and the Falco Protective Services security firm that helps patrol the busy lot.
The lawsuit filed by the Mickelsen Dalton law firm blames Vulcan and the other named defendants for allowing crime to flourish in the area even as the 23rd and Jackson Apartments development and a new Amazon Fresh grocery rose across the street.
“Despite their knowledge of all this crime, Defendants failed to provide adequate
security at the subject premises and take reasonable measures to protect business invitees from the foreseeable criminal misconduct of third parties,” the lawsuit reads:
In short, these corporate Defendants have come into the Central District to make money off of the local residents, but they do little or nothing to provide a safe and secure shopping environment for those same local residents off of whom they so handsomely profit.
Vulcan has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court and has not responded to CHS’s inquiry on the matter.
The 21-year-old Central District resident and father was gunned down in a June 2021 Thursday night shooting in the busy AutoZone, Walgreens, and Starbucks parking lot. The lot owned by developer Vulcan had also been the scene of gun violence that April that injured four people including a child. In October, 43-year-old Central District man Charles Chappelle Jr. was shot and killed in the lot.
According to the lawsuit, Ujaama came to the shopping center parking lot that night with his girlfriend who was eight months pregnant to buy her groceries and other items. The suit says Ujaama was gunned down by a man “loitering” in the parking lot who attacked the 21-year-old, shot him, and stole his phone. The victim was rushed to the hospital but died of his injuries the next day. There have been no arrests announced in the Ujaama murder or the other cases.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, meanwhile, has said addressing an ongoing wave of gun violence is a priority for his new administration and has supported Seattle Police’s resumption of “hot spot” policing in the city. Gun deaths and injuries, and shots fired in the city reached their highest levels in a decade in 2021. Meanwhile, new community efforts to address gun violence have grown in the Central District after gunfire broke out during a youth football game at Judkins Park.
The shopping center parking lot on the north side of Jackson where Ujaama was killed was acquired by Vulcan as part of its development of the former Promenade 23 properties. Vulcan paid $30,900,000 for the approximately six acres of land on boths sides of Jackson. On the south side of Jackson, Vulcan has undertaken a major redevelopment of the corner formerly home to the Promenade 23 shopping center and the neighborhood Red Apple grocery. Last summer, two months after Ujaama was gunned down, the development’s Amazon Fresh grocery store opened its doors.
“Tragically but unsurprisingly, Defendants’ premises continue to be the scene of violence and tragedy in the local community,” the lawsuit reads. “Since the subject shooting / murder of Sultan Ujaama, the number of victims at Defendants’ premises continues to mount.”
“Unless something changes, Defendants’ parking lot / shopping plaza will continue
to be a perpetual crime scene afflicting the local community.”
The wrongful death lawsuit seeks unspecified financial compensation for the estate of Ujaama including his two children, his mother and father, and “other family members.”
CORRECTION: We have updated the information included here about the Mickelsen Dalton law firm. Ujaama’s estate is represented by a Washington licensed practice.
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This was very sad.
I would be curious to see a side by side comparison of gun violence at 23rd and Jackson and 23rd and Union alongside redevelopment projects. 23rd and Jackson used to feel way more safe a few years ago and now the opposite is true and I feel safer at Union.
Not sure how Vulcan is responsible for Seattle’s gun violence nor can I imagine what a solution (from Vulcan) would look like. The only thing sillier than this lawsuit is the silliness in that parking lot 24/7.
Vulcan is responsible by kicking people out and displacement that directly leads to low income equality and crime. They certainly have blood on their hands.
I can only shake my head at the sheer inanity of this comment. That corner has always been a commercial space so the notion someone was kicked out for Starbucks is not factual in any way. There are also plenty of people who live in that area that manage not to kill people with guns while stealing their phones so to assume Vulcan pushed whoever did this to murder is pathetic. I suppose next you’ll gaslight us by saying if we increase the police presence there it will only lead to more crime because police actually cause crime.
Yeah. I see the logic. Poor/high crime neighborhoods have a few businesses move in . . . And that means more crime. Yup. We should really be talking about pulling all businesses out of all poor neighborhoods and then thankfully crime would drop to zero. I wonder how the African American business owners in that area would feel about your comments.
Your comment doesn’t even make sense (this is to “Jones”)… Sorry, not trying to be rude. I read it multiple times and still don’t understand your argument. But the bottom line in this is that what happened is horrible and tragic. My heart breaks for those babies that will never know their father. I cannot imagine… Sending love and prayers to the entire family.
Of course if Vulcan provided more security (cameras, armed security guards, etc) they’d be pilloried for creating an armed surveillance zone. That parking lot has been a dangerous place for twenty years or more. How about we start blaming the people committing the violence rather than trying to hang that violence around the neck of the property owner?
Because property owners kicked out the ones who lived in the area and raised home prices
You’ve mostly answered your question. It would be a novel indefensible notion not to hold a private property owner responsible for the security of their own property. Also, nowhere is it stated that businesses are being held responsible at the exclusion of the perpetrators.These are two different ventures.
Well, in this case the only being held responsible is the businesses because no arrests have been made. The perpetrators, it seems, walk away scot free.
100% It’s always someone else’s fault. People need to take accountability that their actions may have negative consequences. Didn’t we learn that as children?
I worked at the old East Union post office for a decade and there was a lot of fights, drug sales and use, and loitering and general toxicity there. How can I get money from Vulcan now for how the community chose to police itself then?
Exactly. This is a ludicrous lawsuit. It’s clearly a money grab on the part of the victim’s relatives.
This was a gang killing. The victims last Instagram post will probably cause some problems with the lawsuit.
Mickelsen Dalton law firm is based in South Carolina… Sounds like the epitome of an ambulance chaser taking advantage of Seattle’s struggle with rising gun violence.
SOME lawyers are very desperate for work and will literally sell their souls, exploiting the souls of others in the process. SHAME!
This shopping center really is pitifully dangerous. Most of the people in the parking lot are either selling drugs, buying drugs, or doing drugs. I live in the neighborhood and it is absurdly unsafe.
This sounds like a dogwhistle