Three Dead, Four Wounded as Gunfire Erupts Three Times in One Night Across Seattle's Belltown
A 17-year-old boy was the third fatality after a trio of shootings tore through the Belltown nightlife district within roughly 24 hours, as Seattle police say a gunman from the final attack is still on the run.
Three people are dead and at least four others wounded after gunfire broke out three separate times over one violent stretch in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, capping a bloody weekend that culminated in the shooting death of a 17-year-old boy just before midnight.
According to the Seattle Police Department's official blotter, officers responded to a report of shots fired near Elliott Avenue and Bell Street shortly after 11:44 p.m. Sunday. They found the teenager suffering a gunshot wound; despite lifesaving efforts by officers and Seattle Fire medics, he was pronounced dead at the scene. A 21-year-old man was also shot and taken to Harborview Medical Center in serious condition. Police say the shooting followed an altercation, and the gunman had not been located as of the latest update.
That shooting was the third in Belltown within about a day, according to KIRO 7. Around 12:37 a.m. Sunday, gunfire broke out near Denny Way and Cedar Street amid what police described as an illegal street takeover, wounding three people; one man later died at Harborview. Less than 90 minutes later, near 3rd Avenue and Blanchard Street, a woman sitting in a parked car was shot multiple times through the vehicle and later died of her injuries. Police have not said whether she knew the shooter, who also remains at large.
A neighborhood on edge
The back-to-back-to-back attacks left Belltown, a dense residential and nightlife corridor just north of downtown, reeling. KOMO News and FOX 13 Seattle both covered the shootings as they unfolded through the night, with reporters describing a heavy police presence across multiple crime scenes within blocks of each other.
"WE WILL WORK AROUND THE CLOCK TO INVESTIGATE THESE INCIDENTS."
Interim Police Chief Andre Sayles, who responded personally to the fatal teen shooting alongside Assistant Chief Powell and homicide detectives, said the department is treating the cluster of violence as a priority and is working to identify what sparked each incident. None of the three shootings appear to have been publicly linked to one another as of Monday afternoon.
No arrests have been announced in any of the three cases. Seattle police are asking anyone with information to call the department's Violent Crimes Tip Line at (206) 233-5000. The investigations remain open, and the medical examiner's office had not released the identities of the three victims as of Monday.