Rainier Beach area where 5 were shot has been magnet for violence, lawsuits say

Members of a group that for years has been fighting poverty and gun violence in Seattle’s Rainier Valley were among five people shot Friday night in a grocery store parking lot that police and community members have said is a magnet for crime.

Two members of a “Safe Passage Team” and three other people were shot while gathered around a cluster of small blue tents erected by the group in the parking lot of the Rainier Beach Safeway in the 9200 block of Rainier Avenue South.

Until Friday, the teams had provided pop-up resources at the Safeway every Friday night for three years without incident, according to Jayme Hommer, the chief development officer for Boys and Girls Clubs of King County, which sponsors Safe Passage. She said the teams “provide hot meals and resources to community members and create a safe space for grieving, healing, and connection in response to community violence.”

No arrests were made and police had no further details Saturday.

Two of the victims, a 24-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man, were initially listed in critical condition. They were both upgraded to satisfactory condition Saturday, according to Harborview Medical Center.

Two other men in their 20s were treated at the hospital overnight and released Saturday. A fifth victim was treated at the scene and released, according to police.

The shopping center’s parking lot has a history of violence, and police have repeatedly warned the owners about crime on the property, according to a pair of lawsuits filed this spring by the family of a bystander who was killed there during a shooting in 2020.

The Safeway and a liquor store next door attract milling crowds, particularly on weekend evenings, and over the years the parking lot as been witness to “scores of crimes, including assaults, shootings, murders, prowls, robberies, theft and intoxication,” the lawsuits allege.

According to police, at least two shooters opened fire around 9 p.m. Friday, with witnesses saying dozens of rounds were fired into the temporary tents and tables set up by the SE Network, the parent organization of Safe Passage.

Thinh Ngo, 36, was in the Safeway when he saw people running, and heard a girl yelling, “Gun! Gun! Gun!”

“And next thing I heard was popping,” he said, noting the gunshots didn’t sound loud to him.

“It didn’t register to me that it was shots, even,” adding that it took him several seconds to realize that he needed to get away.

One of Safe Passage’s primary goals has been to connect with those who hang out in the Safeway parking lot, form relationships and de-escalate any interactions that might turn critical, according to its literature.

“We are deeply saddened by this traumatic incident,” said Hommer, the Boys & Girls Club spokesman.

“It is particularly devastating that this act of violence is in direct contrast to the purpose and mission of this space,” she said. “Our community warriors put their lives on the line every day to ensure that the members of our community are safe.”

“They’ve been there every weekend,” said Otis Ames, the director of critical incident response at the Freedom Project, a community anti-violence and anti-incarceration group that responded to the shooting. “They’ve been working to help the community and disrupt gun violence for years. This is supposed to be a safe space, and people in this community know that and appreciate it.

“We can’t let this change what we do,” he said.

The shootings sparked fear and outrage in the community and hand-wringing by police and politicians who have watched as gun violence has spiked throughout the city.

Chief Adrian Diaz called the incident “really disturbing,” given that the victims were involved in community outreach to address the very issues that led to the violence Friday night. Diaz was joined at the scene by Mayor Bruce Harrell, who denounced the shootings as “appalling and unacceptable” in a post on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.

“There are too many guns in hands where they do not belong, and we can never accept this violence as a normal fact of life,” the mayor wrote.

City Councilmember Tammy Morales, whose District 2 includes South Seattle, said in the coming days she will work with “all parties” to discuss “evidence-based solutions that will prevent such tragedies from recurring.”

The shooting is being investigated by SPD’s Gun Violence Reduction Task Force, which was formed by Diaz in June to address the spiral in gun violence.

Police are asking anyone with information to call the SPD Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000.

Shantel Patu, executive director of Urban Family, said her group was called to the scene to manage the crowd and help people impacted by the shooting. She said the pop-up has been a constant mechanism for good, focusing on youth programs, neighborhood safety and family support.

With the increase in gun violence in Seattle, she said it’s time for the community to step up, and for parents to look inside their homes at what their kids are doing and what they’re going through.

The lawsuits, filed in King County Superior Court this spring by the family of Christopher Wilson, name as defendants Safeway and Yee LLC, a family-owned company that owns the shopping center housing the store, its parking lot and adjacent properties — including a former King Donuts shop — alleging they are liable for negligence, nuisance and wrongful death for failing to address the ongoing violence and crime on the property.

Wilson, 35, was one of two bystanders struck and killed in the Safeway parking lot by rounds allegedly fired by another man involved in a gang-related dispute the night of May 23, 2020.

According to the documents, SPD on Jan. 30, 2020 “formally identified the area surrounding the liquor store as host to a history of public safety issues constituting ‘chronic illegal activity.’” The previous year, SPD officers were dispatched 89 times to “multiple shootings, numerous assaults and fights” and liquor violations.

The state Liquor and Cannabis Control Board has received numerous community complaints as well, according to the lawsuit.

Among the incidents outlined in the lawsuits were a May 5, 2019, shootout inside the liquor store after two groups of young men — including teenagers — got into an argument, leaving several people hurt, and a Dec. 29, 2019, incident where gunfire erupted at a candlelight vigil for a victim of gun violence.

“With a wholesale lack of security to protect business invitees, defendants exacerbated the problem of third-party criminal activity in the parking lot,” the lawsuits allege. “Defendants each and all knew about the danger of shootings at their parking lot … and knew that the shootings posed a substantial risk of harm to bystanders patronizing the lot for business purposes,” claims the lawsuit, filed by the Seattle firm of Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala.

Friday’s shooting underscores an unsettling increase in gun violence in the city.

Two weeks ago, three men in their 20s were shot a few blocks away from Friday’s shooting scene, in the 9000 block of Seward Park Avenue South. No arrests have been made in that shooting.

Last weekend, two men and two women were shot early Sunday during a street racing event on Capitol Hill, near Broadway and East Pike Street.

One of the women, 20, died at Harborview Medical Center, according to police. The woman’s family identified her in an online crowdfunding campaign as Essence Naje Greene.

With an alarming uptick in gun violence in the lead-up to summer, the Seattle Police Department in June created a community violence task force of officers and detectives pulled from units across the agency who will target people responsible for the shootings.

The task force, composed of about 50 officers, is focusing efforts on four areas where violence is widespread: Aurora Avenue, downtown, the Central District and the city’s South End.

Seattle police investigated 55 homicides in 2022, up from 41 the previous year. Fifty-four people were killed in Seattle homicides in 2020, 20 more than in 2019.

Seattle Times staff reporters Filip Timotija and Daisy Zavala Magaña contributed to this story.