Two posters to the popular “Madrona Mom’s” email list say that a neighborhood rally in Powell Barnett park against violence was disrupted Saturday by a scare sparked by reports of gunshots.
We have not yet been able to confirm with SPD what happened at the park Saturday afternoon but SPD did post information about another shots fired incident a half-mile away from where the rally was taking place — and, according to SPD, hours after the incident reported by two people posting to the mom’s list. SPD says no evidence of gunshots was found in that later Saturday incident reported near 28th and Jackson.
Here is one account of the Saturday afternoon incident from a Madrona Mom’s poster:
We were at Powell Barnett park this afternoon when gun shots were fired and it was a scary scene to say the least. I have never felt threatened there before and we go there often, but now I am reconsidering if we should go there at all. I want to support our community and I don’t want a few negative people to ruin a wonderful community park, but I also need to be realistic about the safety of my family. I’m curious if anyone else was there today or if anyone else has any thoughts regarding this.
Another poster corroborated the story and added additional details:
The police were on the scene fairly quickly, which is comforting, though wewere already two blocks away when we heard the shots fired.
What saddens me is that this happened during a rally intended to promotepeace, love, and responsibility in the local African American community. Therally was well attended, and the gun scare occurred while one of thespeakers was encoouraging the people of his community to be good parents, bepresen for their children and tea h them that they can be successful,despite “society’s judgements.” He then said into the microphone “you havegot to be kidding me!” as the crowd RAN from the perpetrator.
I hope this is my first and last experience like this.
Earlier in the day, another mom’s list poster e-mailed the list about the rally:
Today, Saturday at 2:30 is a program to bring people together to combat neighborhood violence. There will be a memorial service, city officials, music and hip hop. They are collecting blankets and canned goods to donate to CAMP as well as a woman’s shelter. It is sponsored by a non profit called Rising to the Top. Please come if you are able and show our continued support.
Central District News is looking into the incident and will continue to try to find out more about what occurred.
I can understand getting a little freaked out, but if you “want to be realistic about the safety of your family” you should keep living your life and not let some goons claim the park as their property.
There have been nine homicides in Seattle this year. Most of them have been situations where the people know each other. Random stuff can happen, but I wouldn’t let it bug me too much. I will still take my kids there.
Hence a country’s ecoomny could be growing but that doesn’t mean that it is developing, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and others etc all have large and growing economies but they lag behind in all the other aspects, not to mention their high crime rate. Yes there are many other majority black countries that are doing well with high per capita incomes such as Guadeloupe at US21.000, Aruba-US23.000, Bermuda-US91.000, Curae7ao-US21.000 but most of them are overseas territories so they dont count
Why is it people assume that black youth are doin the shooting. Lots of young people are bad. Not just the black ones.
Where is the assumption that only black youth are doing the shooting?
Get over yourself. The rally was put on by members of the black community…ugh, duh?!?
Amen. It doesn’t matter where you live in Seattle, you are still living in one of the safest cities in the US (see http://www.morganquitno.com/cit04pop.htm#METRO for one measurement – it’s in the ‘cities with pop over 500,000’ category).
That’s not to say we shouldn’t be trying to improve things here – what crime there is is pretty unevenly distributed, and our neighborhood certainly is at the higher end – but avoiding public spaces won’t help.
Why do people assume that black youth are doing the shooting? In the CD? Really? Maybe not 100% of the time, but come on… Pull your head out. Yes, “lots of young people are bad.” True. Are you saying that most of the shooting isn’t being done by young black males?
I had no idea what was going on there but I noticed there was a ton of people that day, alot of families. I heard the shooting and then the sirens around 6pm. I tried to find out what happened, but there was no news of any kind anywhere. I found that almost as disturbing as the incident itself! How does a anti-violence rally get shot up without anyone making the news (I’m told it’s cause there were no fatalities), or anyone getting caught?!?!
Agreed! There doesn’t seem to be much coverage about things like what happened on Saturday or much interest in catching who did the shooting. Sad.
I make that assumption because 90% of the time, it’s true.