Man shot near MLK/Cherry

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A man was shot in a hail of gunfire Thursday afternoon in another violent gun incident in the area around MLK and E Cherry.

According to SPD, the man’s injuries are not life threatening. UPDATE: SPD now confirms Seattle Fire’s report that the injuries are serious and potentially life-threatening. According to Seattle Fire radio dispatches, the victim was shot in the chest.

911 callers reported multiple shots in the area near 27th Ave and E Columbia around 4p. Officers arrived to find the wounded man. A witness tells CDN that 10 shots were heard.

Gang units have been called to the scene as the investigation continues.

Here is the preliminary SPD report on the incident:

One man was seriously wounded in a shooting Thursday in the Central District.

Around 4 pm, police received reports of 6-10 shots fired near 27th Avenue and E. Columbia Street, where they found a man who had been struck by gunfire.

The victim was taken to Harborview with life-threatening injuries.

It appears the gunman knew his victim, and police are now searching for the suspect. Gang detectives are assisting in the investigation.

We will update with new information as soon as it’s available.

51 thoughts on “Man shot near MLK/Cherry”

  1. I was wondering what the chopper was doing over my house…now I know. I guess I’ll never understand why guns are legal, they do nothing but harm.

  2. I was outside painting and listening to the local kids playing when I heard 2 shots, pause, 2 more shots, pause, then like 6 in a row. They do have a distinctive sound. Now all I hear is the chopper.

  3. Wish we had more details from spd on what/who to look for in regards to the shooter(s). I live in the neighborhood and would love nothing more than to snitch on any of these idiots.

  4. My first thought was to keep an eye out for someone…but who? I’m just a couple of blocks away.

  5. Very upsetting news. It seemed like things had cooled down in the area following the Justin Ferrari shooting. Thanks for reporting CDN.

  6. I always look to your site when there are helicopters above.
    Thanks for letting me know what’s happening in my neighborhood.

  8. Seriously, right. This is so rediculous when we know where the source is but are unable to actually do anything about it.

  9. Could you just consider getting it together for once? Take a long look in the mirror and ask yourself if this is all you get and deserve in life?
    Dangerous, likely dull and dimwitted enemies are your ‘friends’ and you’ll never make any real money peddling drugs. Very few actually do (think: the BadGuy with guns 1%’ers). Read ‘Freakonomics’ and see that chances are high, that in the best cases you’ll barely make the same cash as you would in a simple minimum wage job. More importantly chances are also high that you’ll be shot, maimed, disfigured or put in jail. It just doesn’t pencil out dudes..

    You owe it to yourself to change gears and actually try to live a respectable life, just like the rest of us who try to keep a roof over our heads. No time like the present to turn over a new leaf.

  11. Are you really giving the “bad guys with guns” an internet lecture in the comment section of the CDN? Way to be effective bro.

  12. While I would agree that 27th and Spring is a problem, it’s far from the only one. We saw in the Ferrari case that there is/was a longtime problem house on 31st. There’s also a house on the corner of 29th and Alder (just up from PB Park) that seems to have an open air drug market going just about 24-hours-a-day and has been the scene of drive-by shootings in the past.

    Unfortunately, we live in a neighborhood with LOTS of potential sources.

    I’d rather live in a police-state with cameras on every corner than continue to put up with this BS.

  15. for getting the most up to date info to us….and still reminding us that the community meeting is tonight. This is why i love CDN!

  17. I know quite a bit about the house on 29th and Alder, I live one block away. It is “owned” by a grandmother and houses Lord knows how many people. There are constantly thugs hanging around, during all times during the day and I make it a point to look and smile at all of them each time I walk by. How tied are our hands here? Can’t we call the cops if we suspect suspicious activity? Will they not drive by, if nothing else, to clear the area? Confused…

  18. I saw two ambulances racing west on Cherry toward the hospital. Are we sure there was only one victim?

  20. My husband said he heard a serious argument around 3:30pm coming from the direction of 21st and Columbia. He was deep in a work project so he didn’t look into it, but he feared it would result in gun violence. He heard the helicopters shortly after, turned on the news, and unfortunately his fears were confirmed. Not sure if these were the same people involved, but others heard them arguing at the scene. It is terrible how common guns are used to solve problems.

  21. I live up the hill on 20th and years ago we had a trouble house on my block. It was a rental and the owner lived near by but was very dim-witted about what was going on. People were selling drugs out of it at all hours, thugs would hang out on the stoop, boom boom cars drove by at all hours. Once a “resident” jacked a car and drove it, with the police in pursuit, to the house, where he drove it onto the lawn and ran inside.
    I met with my neighborhood/community officer, he told me to call 911 anytime anything remotely suspicious was going. Anything … and I did, my neighbors did too and finally we called enough and they were watching enough that they busted the house with a SWAT team and told the landlord that if anything ever happened again they would work to take the property from him. That was the end of the story but it took a solid year of vigilantly calling each time something suspicious happened. Seriously ..

  22. This worked for me too. About a dozen years ago, the owner of the house across my alley rented her garage to a guy who was obviously selling drugs out of it. It got ridiculous, like a drive-in with curb service. I spoke to an SPD detective but asked them to be very careful because I was one of only 2 houses who could it going on. The SPD was great– raided the garage while I was out of town. Only caught him with paraphenalia, but warned the owner if he was caught selling, they’d take her whole house in the process too. Within a week she listed her house and sold it. Problem solved.

  23. it’s just a proposal for now, but I would hope that there could be a vigil at the corner tonight.

    I think it’s important that we bring our hopes for Peace and for Healing to the very block where this Hatred/Anger was allowed such violent expression.

    I’d suggest 9:30 tonight at the corner of 27th and Cherry.

    Has anyone else suggested anything?

    are people interested in coming by for a few minutes tonight?

  24. I involved all of the immediate neighbors which really helped … there were at least 6 households calling .. all the time .. we were relentless. It worked .. the police want to catch them and stop them obviously they can’t be everywhere …

  25. I was working in the outside today just a few doors away when I heard several shots from a large caliber gun. as I walked closer I heard a male’s voice cry out in pain then an angry voice yelling and six shots in rapid succession. I approached and saw a 30 year old or so black male on the ground lying on this back with blood on his leg and side also his right arm had blood on it. He was talking but as I was on the phone with 911 and could not hear what was saying someone was yelling “Frankie, Frankie” the neighbor and the fellow I was working with both said that he had cried that “he shot me real good, call the cops.” I found out from the police that his name is Frank Brown Jr., nick name Frankie Jr. He was hit with about five of the shots two Patrol cars came from Cherry street almost immediately, then a third and fourth came shortly from Columbia St. They were heavily armed; one with with a rifle that had avery large clip. They worked together and approached the victim with caution. One of them bent way down and talked to Frankie on the ground. Soon there was a lot of noise from the emergency vehicles flooding in the neighborhood. Finally a fire truck came in from Cherry Street and an aid car stopped at 27th Ave. and Columbia St. After working on him there on the ground several of them picked him up and ran to the aid car. I cannot say I have ever seen rescuers run with a victim if they save him he will owe them for his life. We helped the rescuers wash the blood off their clothes with our hose and made our statements to the detectives. This is a long long day but I have to put this down.

  26. “I’d rather live in a police-state with cameras on every corner than continue to put up with this BS.”
    Be careful what you ask for.

  27. wow! thank you for the story and hope everyone is ok!! this is a tragedy and this silly gun violence has to stop!

  28. thanks for your information. Seeing something horrific can be distressing to the first responders, so make sure you take care of yourself also.

    prayers to the family and peace to all

    gia

  32. This comments’ discussion is amazing Tom. People openly sharing empathy and their fears and their frustrations. Gratitude for information. Sharing experiences and lived ideas about what to do about houses where violence regularly happens. Ideas for teaming up with neighbors and/or for bringing in the police if needed before a situation escalates to gun violence. Links to additional resources. Plus wishes for peace, people praying for each other, and people deeply concerned for each other’s welfare. Forgiveness.

    This is the bigger story Tom, IMO. And who better to report on it than CDNews? Except maybe all the people who commented on this story who, if it were up to me, would get together and write a book on what it takes to knit a community together.

  34. I would love to be a part of a neighbor network about this problem. Please post any ideas or links here for meetups!

  35. It appears that about ten twenty minutes ago there was a shooting on our end of the CD.
    I’m sorry that I missed the rallying for last nights vigil. I was at an engagement.
    I have some proposed Ideas and things I would like to work on with our community.
    If anybody is interested in having some sort of discussion or dialog feel free to email me

  36. Hello everyone

    I’m Alex Kostelnik, Owner of 20/20 Cycle. I live at 27th & Columbia.

    Omari, AKA Frankie Jr., AKS Frank Brown Jr., is a friend of mine, a regular at the bike shop, and a sweet guy. I’ve been glad to see everyone talking pretty calmly on the comments section of this unfortunate news story!

    I can say that as of this morning Omari was still alive, several bullet wounds in his legs, several bullet wounds in his back.

    Maybe we can all work together to stop this stuff before another incident- it’s gone way too far I believe.

    I do not have fixed pre-conceived ideas, just a pretty open mind and heart.

  38. Thanks for the update Alex. Wish him well from the neighborhood- hope he pulls through. At best, he has a long road of recovery in front of him but hope one day he is able to ride his bike around the neighborhood again.

  39. From a big NE city. And I heard those shots. Am now worried whether I chose the right neighborhood. How often do these gun incidents happen here? I am hoping it is a statistical anomaly. But it’s unsettling with a family in tow.

  41. We’ve lived here 10+ years and I’m sorry to say gang activity tends to be a cyclical problem. I used to be so happy we cleaned up the area from junkies and pros, but I think I prefer their company over the gang bangers. I love my neigbborhood, but it is not an ideal time to live here. I have now altered our route to the weekly farmers market because I am afraid to take my children on some streets. This is a new behavior for me and one that makes me extremely sad.

  45. History repeated all over again and scared new comers! How to work together as a community when drug dealers are living among us. They are home owners too in this neighborhood from Pike, Union, MLK, E. Cherry, 23th… Dealers’ attracted nasty druggies, hookers, and other gangsters driving by or shots fired to the sky at night just for fun? During daylight you can see them “working” everywhere, near Garfield school, playgrounds, parks, child care centers, they go to town hall meetings too, who they really are to the community? Are they the bad guys or other gangsters?

  47. @Trippy: We moved to 23rd and E Union two years ago, and at the time my hubby had concerns about crime. At the time I was able to show him that there was actually more crime where we came from on Capitol Hill–more frequent, more indiscriminate assaults/robberies involving strangers. I wanted him to see that we’d be subscribing to a variety of fallacies if we were to equate the CD with violence.

    And for about a year and a half I was able to raise my eyebrows at him: “See? I told you so. Perfectly safe neighborhood.”

    But in the past so many months since “the shootings began,” he’s been looking at me with his own “I told you so” expression. We’ve been dreaming about nightmare scenarios, and we’ve definitely spent some time strategizing what we’d do if we were being assaulted/robbed/etc.

    At the same time, I know that the fear is not rational, and I rely on that to keep me sane and hopeful for the future.

    I know that our minds crave to find meaning/reason in our experiences, and we are all culprits of finding irrational premises to fuel all sorts errors in reasoning. For example, the Racer Cafe shootings and my personal connection with those folks definitely influenced my fear, but that has no direct bearing on this neighborhood.

    I also know that there’s violence in every neighborhood, and I don’t allow every occurrence of crime in this neighborhood to terrify me into believing I’m living in the middle of a war zone, crime wave, etc.

    I think that this year’s implosion of shootings in the CD are part of some system/dynamic that we uninvolved folks don’t understand. And that’s what makes it so scary. But I recognize that, and move on.

    I also know that I still text or otherwise lose focus while I drive, which is much more likely to kill me and someone else than a stray bullet or targeted crime.

  48. @dvz – I know exactly what you mean. We’ll have to be very aware of our surroundings, more than I was hoping. And considering we’re from a city back east, was hoping to worry about it LESS here.

  49. I recently became aware of this site. I do believe that as this site continues to grow, we all will start to see a decrease in the horrible violence that continues to plague the central district. This violence must stop. We all must stand together. I too wish they would of immediately posted a description who knows how much that could of prevented an escape. Omari aka Frankie is going to be alright. By the grace of God. Thank you Alex for your kind words he is very fond of you also and I thank you for setting the record straight! I’m also thankful for those who were sincerely concerned about his well being vs “what house this is coming from”. For the record the “house that this came from” is not a drug house nor a house that participates in negetive and illegal behavior or that houses gang members or drug addicts. I was sadend by your accusation. No person deserves this especially an innocent person who was a victim of a horrible act of violence that nearly cost him his life.

  50. Thank you for the update Zaema33. Do we know what the shooter’s problem was and why Omari was targetted? Does anybody know who the attempeted murderer was?

    I do hope he is alright.

    It seems strange that we have “another shooting” and leave it at that. Someday we have to get down to the basics. Who did it? Why? Etc. The possibilities are endless. Was Frankie standing up against the bad guys? What bad guys – druggies, bangers, disgruntled boyfriend? Was he just standing in the wrong place? Too many questions left unanswered, as usual, for days – weeks – eternity in many cases. As if it’s not all that unusual or important.

    I am glad Omari will come through and I want to know what is being done to solve the crime. Let’s not let it go into the round file.

  51. Pingback: Two people shot at Twilight Exit, police kill shooter | Central District News