Community Post

Shots Fired at 28th & Jackson: Retribution?

Now it seems like we’re in the middle of a gangland revenge free-for-all.

First there was the Halloween Shooting that wounded one and took the life of a 15 year old kid who was apparently deeply involved in a local gang.

Then last night there was a shooting on the south end of Beacon Hill.  While no one there was injured, the target was a house, and outside that house police found a vehicle that matched one in an unspecified shooting here in the East Precinct.  A search of that vehicle turned up a gun and drugs.

Now at 4:51pm today there were shots exchanged between a pedestrian and a vehicle at 28th & Jackson.  That intersection is commonly known as the home turf of the Deuce8s.   In that incident, police are looking for a black male, 20s, that left the scene on foot and a Maroon Ford Explorer that drove away southbound.

Based on all of this, it’s becoming pretty easy to conclude that we’re seeing a tit for tat cycle of retaliation between one or more gangs here in the CD and in the south end of the city.

There’s some parts that don’t add up.  For example, the kid killed on Friday appears to have been in a Bloods gang based on his MySpace page.  But Deuce8 is actually Gangster Disciples according to NWGangs.com.  So it could be just generally east vs. southend or something else.

But regardless, it’s hard to believe that the current level of violence is all coincidental.  We’re trying to get some police department comments on this, and will update if we do.

Update:  Another one, at 5:40pm near Pratt Park at 19th & Main.  Witnesses say that someone in a group of 15-20 juveniles shot and hit a victim.  That victim has not been located yet, and the group of kids were gone by the time police arrived.

0 thoughts on “Shots Fired at 28th & Jackson: Retribution?

  1. I heard three shots. Then sirens. I thought the location was N of Promenade 23, & saw an ambulance Eastbound on Yesler about 10 minutes after the shots, also police and fire, maybe related.

    I walk Jackson past the corner store at 28th frequently. Last summer there were shots fired there, and one time walking by the corner store, one of the guys hanging out faked a punch and slapped me in the chest. Flo Ware Park across the street was a maze of graffiti and gangs in the early 90s, then it was cleaned up, rebuilt and used by families for a few years. But now the gangs seem to have taken it back. The Mayor says we are doing fine. I think we are backsliding significantly, although not as bad as the early 90s – yet.

  2. Does it matter?!? They are violent criminals shooting and killing in our neighborhood. Where is the massive police presence, the media the outrage??!!??. If it was any other neighborhood ………

  3. Please explain to us uneducated types how street gangs that fight amongst themselves are any different if they contain black members as opposed to, for instance, Italian Mafia gangs, or white motorcycle gangs? Pretty much any group trying to control illicit activities on the street can end up in violence, no matter the race of the group.

  4. I want to express a big THANK YOU to Scott and the Central District News for providing relevant and timely updates of the recent tragic and unfortunate incidents. As the chair of the East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition, I am appreciative of the updates. Although some of you out there are skeptical of “another community meeting”, I feel that it is a response we can offer to provide information and support to the community affected by this situation.
    Consequently, we hope to sponsor a gathering sometime next week to share, reflect and listen to one another. I won’t guarantee answers. This is a community-wide issue and we have a responsibility to step up to whatever we can do to improve the quality of life for all. And- regarding the young people impacted most, be reminded that It Takes Village to Raise a Child.
    I’ll be in touch when we have a firm date and place.

  5. So, the racist being jewoh, or stumpgrinder. Actually your comment lends itself to you being the racist. How do you know that I am not black, white, italian, etc. While I don’t condone the mafia . etc why do you even give them credibility as a positive function of our society?

  6. Acceptance in any form that this or any other area is “turf” of a gang, even through journalistic license, is acceptance. Yes, Scott I understand why you used this term but in reality it is not any one’s turf. It is a public street that we all should be able to walk down at anytime without fear. If there are criminals who hang out there with the delusion that it is somehow theirs they should be removed and locked up. If they resist they pay the consequences of police action.
    It is not a turf but our neighborhood and immediate removal of predators is required. Anything less is maintaining defacto racism in a neighborhood with a large population of people of color.

    To accept less is maintaining the status quo that somehow a neighborhood containing a majority of people of color is a high crime neighborhood, a low income neighborhood and should be maintained as such ( read containment zone) so that it is not spread to other parts of the city.

    So where is our outrage!!

  7. It would seem your reply is the one of obvious racism, though I suspect that was intentional, or at the very least inbred. I made no mention of positive function, yet you see fit to mention one. The point is that there are organized crime groups of many races and creeds that are deplorable and a disservice to all people not in that group. All the bigots of the world point out the ones run by someone not of their own ilk to create a bad example of that grouping. It doesn’t really matter what you are, and that was the point, so thanks for acknowledging it.

  8. It seems to me that all these comments are in agreement. Nobody is happy that kids are getting shot, that anybody is getting shot. Killing is not the answer to disagreements. we all agree on that. Why do some people behave like this? I think the answer is complex and to find answers we have to look at the system that spawned it. Our leaders kill The “Other” when there is a disagreement or for retribution. This method didn’t get invented in a neighborhood. On a smaller scale how do we handle our own conflicts and disagreements with people we know, love or are related to. This is not a skill that people are taught. How can all of us learn to hear and listen to underlying needs and communication that people are trying to get across to each other?

  9. If only we all used pens, (keyboards) rather than guns. My intent was not to attack blacks, but the gang mentality whatever race they belong to.
    In this area and day of age ones sarcastic humor can sometimes be taken in a way one could be shot.
    I find it hopeful that we all can , whether we are formally educated or not get beyond the illiterate rhetoric and get to the point so that we can start a remedy. We should all be outraged and non-accepting of the current behaviors that seem to be accepted as the norm.

  10. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewpro
    Look at that kid’s MySpace page. If you can’t access his photos, create a login and look at them. He was 15 years old and showing photos of himself smoking weed and holding a handgun to anyone that wanted to look.
    First, where were his parents? I don’t care how sad they may be for their loss, they are ultimately responsible for their offspring and clearly weren’t doing their job. How did anyone not see this coming?
    Which leads me to the question of his friends on MySpace. They name names and show similar photos. Why aren’t these people being monitored? It seems to me that a photo of a teen with a gun in his hand or a pile of weed on his table is probable cause to arrest and search him, no?
    http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&frien
    http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewIma
    http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewIma

  11. There is no way to prove from the picture it is a real gun. He could just say it is plastic or a fake.

  12. This is what I am really not grasping, especially after seeing this kid’s Myspace page. After living here, only a few blocks from 28th and Jackson, I am not getting why more can’t be done to get these criminal thugs off the street. Everyone knows who they are and where they hang out.

    Everyone knows that that the mini-mart parking lots are often filled with drug users and thugs, Flo Ware is huge issue and you’ve got these roving gang kids known to police and it is likely that you can point to a problem house on your block or the one next to it, where shit is going down. It is frustrating and honestly, my heart has really gone from a gooey know-nothing liberal to an almost know-nothing “lock em up” siege mentality type. Admittedly, neither are particularly helpful or productive.

    I, for one, need to make the next Neighborhood Crime Meeting to understand what the laws really are and what can realistically be done to stop this. It is very frustrating hearing sirens like crazy this afternoon and guessing that is was likely retribution fighting going on.

    I’m pissed for feeling like a racist. I’m pissed at the kid and his friends giving him some misplaced shout-out and the culture that makes his behavior any less than crap. I’m pissed that my first thought on seeing his page is I can find the guy who mugged me. I’m angry at his parents. I’m angry that I bought a house in this neighborhood and angry that it’s the only neighborhood we’re actually lucky enough to get to buy something.

    And when I take a breath, then I just feel frustrated, because I get the issue of how in the heck are you supposed to live here in Seattle, even in the CD, on Minimum wage and how freakin’ mind-numbing that work must so that selling drugs is an easy way to make a heck of a lot more money…so why not be in a gang cause we all need some friends.

    Sigh. This neighborhood is really bumming me out. I’m glad I get to see so many of my excellent neighbors excited at the polls tomorrow! There’s some keeping the faith…

  13. If that be the case, then I think you couldn’t have summed it up better. A misunderstanding turns into dead people on the corner. Stick to your pens. Too bad the CD is a great place for gangs to flourish.

  14. Right….
    and in the meantime killing and crime goes on, for decades.

    It is time for a permanent legal change in the CD and to leave the social work for later.

  15. with all due respect, i think we’re beyond another meeting organized by the city where we sit and reflect and listen. we’ve done those.

    please, if you drive this meeting, have a set agenda and desired outcomes. an ask of the community. an ask to the police. an ask to the city.

    a meeting to talk is teh seattle way and it’s broken. deeply broken

  16. Elvis: Thanks for yet another thought provoking post. My understanding is that one of the purposes of the proposed meeting is to give the community a forum for expression. That purpose ovelaps significantly with the purpose of this site. If you support the CDNEWS in that purpose why not support those who prefer to meet, talk, and network in person? Perhaps you can clarify your position in light of this comparison.

    Another purpose is to provide information and try to correct misunderstandings, another exceedingly useful goal. (Whether or not the goal will be accomplished is a separate question.)

    Finally: what do you think should be asked of the community by the EPCPC? (That’s a genuine question, btw.)

    Thanks.

  17. We are all responsible for our own choices. I feel hardly sympathetic when someone says that the place they bought a home was their ONLY choice and OMG it’s dangerous. I, and you, could have bought a house in many parts of the Seattle area or choose to continue renting. I CHOSE to buy in CD as I had lived her for many years. But, I chose a specific area of the CD that, while not crime free, has a community that works together.

    Please Please ANYONE considering where to move, check out the neighborhood thoroughly, visit the specific streets around the house at all hours. You are joining a community and you need to decide if its the community anf environment you want to live in. And, don’t come crying to the rest of us when YOU make a choice that you regret.

    I’m sorry to be picking on you, Too Close, because at least you sound willing to roll up your sleeves and get involved and make your community a good and safe place. You would not believe the people that are really freaked out and doing nothing, want the cops standing on every corner to protect them. Want the CD to become a real war zone. Should really be cutting bait, as they say.

  18. KRGL:

    I’m not telling you not to go or stop going, but as somebody who has attended these meetings in the past, they usually include the following:
    1) people getting very worked up and stating their views in a very passionate, sometimes overheated way (me included)
    2) the organizers serving as shrinks or Phil Donahues, allowing the discussion to head all over the place without any real goals or desired outcomes
    3) the meeting ending without any concrete results or next steps, either from the city or the folks in the room.

    Personally, I don’t need another outlet to rant and rave about how bad it has gotten or to share my feelings. I find these valuable when I learn something about the problem and the steps being taken to solve them/how i can help, but just another forum to “talk” will accomplish nothing.

    I don’t have a silver bullet on how to solve these issues, but maybe small steps could include signing a petition to Mayor Nickels to increase his focus on guns and gangs, attending the Friday meeting at City Hall on the Mayor’s new proposal, consider starting a volunteer mentoring program/or tapping into one that already exists.

  19. When my wife and I moved to the CD in 1994, there was a crack house two doors down and plenty of criminals roaming the streets, much like today. Within three months, in the summer of ’94, police raided that crack house, arrested those responsible, and completely shut it down. That’s how the CD became safer; locking up the criminals.

    Earlier this decade, the gang unit was dismantled at about the same time those locked up for local gang activity in the ’80’s and ’90’s began returning from prison. What we are experiencing is the logical outcome.

    What may help is for our community, in conjunction with the city, to establish a no-tolerance policy toward this criminal behavior. At the same time, support for youth programs, from our community as well as much more from the city, should increase as an alternative to gang life. One without the other will not work.

  20. For the record, the Beacon Hill shooting was near 23rd and Brandon, which is pretty much the middle of Beacon Hill, a bit north and east of Cleveland H.S., not south Beacon. Graham (my street) is the dividing line between mid and south Beacon Hill, which is about 10 blocks south.

  21. Crocodile Tears, I think it is perfectly okay for someone to regret the house they bought. We all have the ideal that things are better than they really are. I have no problems helping to make the neighborhood better. However, when seeing a gang member or drug dealer on the street is like shooting a duck in a barrell and the police say there is nothing they can do, it is really FRUSTRATING. I regret living in this neighborhood. I hate saying that because Ai looked forward to the diversity. But, I HATE that reverse racism is allowed adn tolerated or that I may possibly be shot in the process of dealing with the issue. People sitting in their homes and shots being fired is intolerable and requires POLICE ACTION NOW! Supporting youth programs is for our future, but we also need protection and safety now. Not a few years from now.

  22. south jackson st…flo ware park…r gds
    they under the chairman larry hoover…no ur history b4 u speak
    next time….they dont fuck wit the blood r the crips
    they fuck wit folks