SEATTLE — At least one person has died, and others were left with life-threatening injuries in a spate of gun violence in Seattle over Memorial Day weekend.
Around 4 a.m. Sunday, Seattle police responded to reports of a person unresponsive on the Don Armeni Boat Ramp in the Alki neighborhood. Police found a 49-year-old man, dead, and evidence of a shooting with bullet casings on the ground, Officer Shawn Weismiller said.
He said police are investigating the death as a homicide.
It was at least the fifth shooting reported over the weekend in the Seattle area.
Two people were taken to Harborview Medical Center on Friday night after two shootings, one near the Garfield Teen Life center and another in Magnuson Park, according to Seattle police.
Saturday night, King County sheriff’s deputies were investigating reports of a shooting at Roxbury Lanes Casino near White Center. KOMO news reported three people were shot. As of Sunday morning, two men and a woman were in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Harborview, according to hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg.
Seattle police also responded to a shooting at Lincoln Park Saturday night. A teen was taken to Harborview with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, police said.
In an emailed statement, Mayor Bruce Harrell extended his “heartfelt condolences” to those who lost a loved one, and to the “community at large, which is once again experiencing the trauma of another outbreak of gun violence.”
“We commend the State Legislature for their crucial actions taken this session to address the widespread availability of guns in our communities,” he continued. “However, there is more work to be done. Gun violence is preventable, and I do not accept these incidents as the norm. We cannot afford to wait.”
As of May 20, police countywide had investigated at least 47 homicides this year. The vast majority of the victims, at least 37, were fatally shot, according to a Seattle Times database compiled with preliminary information from police, prosecutors and the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.
That’s a slight uptick from this time last year.
Through March, most shooting victims were men and people of color, according to the King County prosecuting attorney’s Shots Fired Project.
As of Sunday evening, about 305 people had been injured by gun violence in the U.S. in the past 72 hours, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an online database collecting reports from over 7,500 law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources daily.
In that same timespan, about 99 people had been killed by gun violence across the U.S.
Detectives with the Seattle police’s Gun Violence Reduction Unit will lead investigations into the shootings at Magnuson Park, the Alki boat launch, Lincoln Park and near Garfield. Anyone with information about these shootings should call the police tip line at 206-233-5000.
