Lewis’s family addressing the court (Image: Jordan Somers / Converge Media with permission to CHS)
With reporting by Jordan Somers / Converge Media
The man convicted of killing community leader and entrepreneur Elijah Lewis and injuring Lewis’s 9-year-old nephew in an April 2023 electric scooter road rage shooting on Capitol Hill was sentenced to 35 years in prison Friday.
Patrick Cooney, now 37, received a 25-year sentence from Judge Sean O’Donnell plus another decade for the use of the firearm in the crimes. A combative Cooney refused to sign the judgement as he was led from the courtroom and returned to jail where he has been held since his arrest two years ago.
His legal team had argued that Cooney’s actions were self defense despite a history of road rage run-ins involving scooters, cars, and guns.
Friday, Lewis’s family could find no sympathy for the defendant after the proceedings but hoped their loved one will remain an inspiration.
“Follow in Elijah’s footsteps. Be what he wanted you to be,” the victim’s sister Q Dunham said after the hearing. “Whatever your passion was, he would want you to follow your passion like it was the only option. There is no plan B.”
Lewis, 23 at the time of the murder, is remembered as a dedicated community builder and entrepreneur in the Central District and Africatown communities. He was proud of his efforts as a self-described “serial entrepreneur” in addition to his work with Sankofa Theater and doing outreach for the Africatown Community Land Trust.
Cooney’s legal team had argued for a sentencing below state standards of 17 and a half years, arguing in court that the defendant suffered from PTSD from a 2019 traffic incident incident and attempting to justify Cooney’s actions because of alleged threatening words from Lewis as the shooting unfolded.
(Image: Jordan Somers / Converge Media with permission to CHS)
Judge O’Donnell rejected the argument.
CHS reported here on the ongoing delays in the sentencing following Cooney’s February conviction as his defense team put together its gambit for a reduced sentence.
Police say Cooney was riding a rental electric scooter on E Pine just after 5 PM on April 1, 2023 when he became embroiled in the altercation and opened fire into the vehicle Lewis was driving, striking him with a fatal shot and hitting the child in the calf. The child was treated for his injuries and released from the hospital. Lewis was shot and died at Harborview later that night.
Evidence presented in the trial included video from Seattle Central and the Walgreens at the corner of Broadway and Pine showing Cooney opening fire on the car but Judge O’Donnell ruled to limit the presentation of police records showing Cooney has been investigated for firearm incidents multiple times while riding Lime scooters around Capitol Hill prior to the shooting.
In one October 2022 incident on 12th Ave, security video obtained by police showed Cooney ride up to the back of a car blocking the bike lane, rap on the trunk, and point to the driver to move. When the driver got out of the car to confront Cooney, the scooter rider pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at her. As the driver put her hands up and backed away, Cooney allegedly told the woman “I ought to kill your ass.”
In another incident in March 2023, Cooney allegedly broke off a Volvo’s side mirror and racked the slide on his handgun to threaten the man after the driver cut him off along 12th.
Lewis at the March for Our Lives rally in 2018 in Cal Anderson Park (Image: CHS)
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