(Image: Matt Mitgang/CHS)
(Image: Matt Mitgang/CHS)
Multiple people were shot and Seattle Police were searching the area Saturday night near the Cal Anderson Park basketball court.
UPDATE: Seattle Police says two men died in the shooting and a third was in critical condition.
Seattle Fire was called to the “Scenes Of Violence Major” incident near Nagle and Pine just before 10:30 PM to the shooting with at least three victims reported, according to emergency radio updates.
Witness reported multiple gunshots in the area on the west side of the park.
A citizen pleads with police as he tries to provide medical assistance as officers gave aid to a victim and waited for Seattle Fire personnel on Nagle Place (Image from witness video provide to CHS)
At least two victims were reported transported to Harborview. Witnesses reported what appeared to be a body under a sheet near Nagle and Pine.
Video of the scene on Nagle shows Seattle Police rushing to render aid to one unconscious victim and waiting for Seattle Fire personnel to arrive at the scene as citizens pleaded with officers and offered to provide medical assistance.
Seattle Police has said only that it is investigating a shooting at the park and said more information would be available.
UPDATE 4/30/2023: SPD has posted a brief on the deadly shooting:
Despite lifesaving efforts by police and Seattle Fire, one man was pronounced dead at the scene. Medics transported the two other victims to Harborview Medical Center where one man later died, while the other remains in critical condition. Based on witness information, police are looking for a fourth man who was involved but left the scene before officers arrived. CSI responded and Homicide detectives will lead the ongoing investigation.
Police did not release information on what they’ve learned about what led to the shooting and describes only a scene involving the three victims and a fourth “involved” man but no details about any suspects. Police are asking asking anyone with information on the incident to call the SPD Violent Crimes Tip Line at (206) 233-5000.
UPDATE 5/1/2023: CHS asked SPD for more information about Saturday’s shootings including how many guns were recovered at the scene and more information about how the fourth person was involved but the department has declined to provide additional details at this point in the investigation. “At this time, we do not have any additional information to release about the incident,” a Seattle Police spokesperson said.
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Welcome to summer.
It’s always at the basketball court /by Nagle and Pine ugh
It is.
Now I’m not some Knute Berger-esque “Seattle is Dying” dumb dumb.
But.
There were many shootings in the parking lot of what is now the Midtown building at 23rd/Union.
They tore down the ugly strip mall — after much ridiculous resistance — and put up apartments plus a ton of retail **without** a parking lot.
The shootings magically disappeared.
It seems, and bear with me, that it might be time to rip out these courts and replace them with nothing at all, since we obviously cannot have nice things in this city.
Wow, you’ve solved gun violence. If we turn the public park into an empty hole in the ground, people will just stay home and not shoot people. You’re a genius.
That’s a very stupid idea.
I was going to recommend some readings in logical reasoning but then realized the flawed assumption in my thinking.
Knute Berger? He’s not one of the Seattle is Dying folks, Knute is the editor of Crosscut, a left leaning publication decidedly optimistic about Seattle. Maybe you mean someone else. Or inform me of why that is your opinion.
Sad day on The Hill again. I’ve seen waves of drugs and disorder on the hill in my 20 years in the neighborhood, but never gun violence like this. We can’t normalize this, we have to believe it can be better.
Re: Berger, I’ll do the one thing you should never do on the internet and admit that was a misattribution on my part.
But the replies here have made me understand why this city is so f*cked up.
I seem to be marked “idiot” because I dared to say that, in areas with gun and other violence, we should consider making physical changes to the environment, such as replacing a strip mall with a large pedestrian-friendly, and car-unfriendly, building (as at 23rd/Union).
Or, if a recreation area seems to draw repeated gun violence such that, from the time I finished by run — which went through Cal Anderson — and ate, two people were shot to death only ~6 blocks from my apartment, we should consider changing the physical infrastructure and usage patterns there.
No, that wouldn’t do any good. I’m such a dumb dumb.
The commenters clearly believe that such a modification of usage at the site of repeated gun violence won’t do any good unless we somehow solve **all** issues around firearms in the United States.
And I agree!
We should take this incident as a way of understanding the 2nd Amendment was a **huge** mistake, repeal it, and have our federal Congress pass a mandatory gun confiscation law to get these firearms out of people’s hands.
But then again, what do I know?
Sorry… but no they haven’t. People still shoot at others way too regularly in the 23rd and Union area… Now they just do it from their cars while they are moving rather than while they are stopped…
The shootings and homicides @23rd and Union are a fraction of what they used to be. I agree, they still happen, but less. Changing the environment had an impact is what requested format is saying.
I dunno.. I’ve lived about a block and a half away for the last 25+ years and it I’ve heard / seen the effects of more gunfire around my house in the last 3-4 years than in the previous 20… if there was more when it was still Midtown center, they were being stealthy about it.
Bullsh*t.
Whatever… I’m just telling you what I have personally seen and heard and I have had sustained gunfire between cars actually wake me up several times in the last two years, which never happened until recently and seen the bullet holes in the Safeway, the PCC and Tacos Chukis (those all happened earlier in the day too), and know of at least 2 murders on 23rd between 19th and MLK…. I have no reason to lie…
I agree. The location has been the site of many violent incidents over the years. It’s a “public nuisance” and needs to be shut down, in the same way that problem bars are shut down when there has been recurring violence.
Are you saying that we could physically modify the usage of this area — say, tear out the playfields and replace them with parkland or maybe a public garden — and that would help reduce the incidence of gun violence that’s obviously related to the site’s current usage?
That can’t be right.
I mean, the commenters here **clearly** have schooled by in my moronic beliefs, and have shown me the light that unless I solve all gun violence, everywhere, once and for all, that my “solution” is just to be mocked.
So you and I cannot be right in anyway.
If you look at the photo it was at the tennis court where all the skateboard ramps are set up.
It actually wasn’t the bb court. They were just walking down nagle
Citizens with no badges or credentials… idiots
You could drop the “no” and it would read correctly either way.
Thank you to the police that risk their lives to help people and maintain a civil society in a city that is blinded by left-wing tribal ideology and irrationally hostile toward you. 49% of us want police and appreciate you.
Well stated, Reality. If we didn’t have police I think this would be much worse. We cannot normalize public shootings. Those basketball courts could use something else to keep them safe. It’s time for a re-design of that area of the park.
Do the courts have a fence to close it after a certain time? Some cities close things like tennis courts and parks /kick people out. Seems like the violence happens late at night not that it couldn’t happen at 4pm but still.
The East Precinct is a block away. I don’t feel any safer, or feel like civil society is being maintained when murders are regularly committed on SPD’s doorstep. Police presence does not stop crime from happening.
I would appreciate SPD more if I saw them investigating crimes rather than speeding around in their SUVs, running over pedestrians without any consequences.
The police officer who tragically hit and killed a pedestrian was responding as an EMT to an overdose emergency call at request of the Seattle Fire Department, with flashing lights on and sirens blaring. By law, everyone must yield to emergency vehicles responding to calls, including pedestrians.
Hundreds of people are hit and even killed each year by ambulances en route to saving lives. Do you casually slander EMTs with equal venom for “running over pedestrians without any consequences”? Why is it that in Seattle, anti-cop bigotry is donned proudly like a pointy hood by the self-same people who claim to oppose bigotry? Bigotry is bigotry.
Last year SPD responded to over 5,200 overdose calls, each call directly endangering innocent bystanders as they race to save ‘victims’, also indirectly endangering every other person in Seattle by burning through limited resources. Perhaps one thing we would agree on is that overdose ‘victims’ should henceforth be untended and allowed to live and die with the consequences of their own stupid risky behavior.
The overdose emergency you referenced was someone who was alert, talking to 911 dispatch, and had walked themselves to the sidewalk from their apartment to await an aid car (the lowest level of response to a potential overdose call). Did it warrant an all out emergency police response as well? Probably not.
SPD screws up. Everyone does. But a healthy institution responds by addressing the screw up honestly, apologizing, learning from the screw up, and taking concrete action so that it doesn’t happen again. SPD does none of those things, which is why I regularly see them speeding around the neighborhood without sirens on while maybe responding to something, but maybe just driving dangerously. It’s also why when there was a shooting outside of the Comet a few months ago, the bar owners were begging SPD to come collect evidence and witness statements, 3 blocks away from the precinct. That shooting was one of several in a string of shootings in the Pike/Pine corridor, now including this one. SPD just does not seem interested in solving serious crimes that happen right under their noses in Capitol Hill.
I hope they are able to solve this crime, and prevent further shootings, but SPD’s track record is not great, and judging a large, well-funded* institution by its track record is not bigotry.
*don’t try to tell me SPD was defunded, because they weren’t. Check their budget.
I appreciate police and want more of them in our city.
The homicide rate in Seattle is lower than many cities including right wing ones.
Can we please retire the argument that we arent as bad as some other cities, therefore we’re fine? Seattle crime has spiked upwards since 2020 — since CHOP crime and defunding police. Start there.
The person I replied to blamed “left-wing tribal ideology.” I pointed out homicide rates in self-proclaimed law-and-order right wing cities are higher than left wing Seattle.
You and the realist are free to move to a place that is so much better.
I want to live in a progressive city that works rather than performs a progressive dance for the true blue (and red) evangelical base. Seattle used to be a functional place before anti-police zealots defunded, demoralized, delegitimized, and demonized our relatively good and diverse police force rather then working to make it better. We were a functional place before the criminal justice reform zealots essentially legalized shoplifting, drug dealing, bike theft, vandalism and even assault. We were a functional place before the homeless industrial complex zealots created a right to privatize and destroy public spaces as an alternative to congregate shelters. The combination of these three movements has been disastrous for Seattle. Just because I would like to see a more balanced approach does not mean I am “right wing”. I am just tired of the leftist extreme (all carrots and no sticks), it’s very real effects on the quality of life in Seattle, and the denial of reality.
Wow.
You’re really feeding like greedy sow from that trough of right wing propaganda, aren’t you?
What color is the sky in the alternate reality you live in?
Thank you! I think your comment is an excellent summary of what has happened to our once-fair city over the past 10 years.
Their budget is higher than ever. Ended there.
“Left-wing tribal ideology.”
Your name is Reality, but you clearly live in a delusional dream world of psychological convenience.
The SPD has **eaten the city’s budget alive.**
But as long as the over-resourced SPD has useful idiots like you, “Reality,” that will never happen.
You can disagree with their opinion, but calling them an “idiot” is kind of proving the point of the “Left wing tribal ideology” comment.
They are literally a block away, what are you talking about
Are you unaware that the police are not sitting in the precinct through their shifts? It’s lucky if there is 1 person there to answer the phone. The place is certainly not packed with officers sitting around.
Do you really think they’re reading this and are swooning? My goodness.
I just wanna say it’s really appreciated that CHS put up these photos. I hope they can be more clear, more realistic and more graphic.
It’s time for people to see the truth, what the City has become… Seattle people love arguing about high-flying concepts like abolitionism, systemic racism… All these self-smarting -isms can make one lose touch with reality.
Talk about systemic racism does not remove ppl from reality. It IS one of many points of reality. Another is the fact that we’re in another gilded age with major economic stress on most regular ppl, widespread corruption and prejudice on scapegoats.
Proof that all the emphasis to clean up downtown is misguided. Capitol
Hill cannot continue to be overlooked. Very sad and disturbing incident.
What is “scenes of violence major”?
It’s one of the ways a violent crime is designated on the 911 dispatch roll
https://web.seattle.gov/sfd/realtime911/getRecsForDatePub.asp?action=Today&incDate=&rad1=des
Just what the cops need — a drunk tech bro with all the answers.
It’s sad of you taking this situation to judge some guy as a “tech bro” yet you know nothing about them. Maybe that was their friend or brother. You are out of touch my man.
Why would that be the case? Wouldn’t you assume they’re a nurse.
Anyone who lives around here knows Nagle is not a street you walk on after dark. As a dark canyon with little traffic between the unused back ends of big buildings and a seldom patrolled park, it’s a great space for lurking.
I don’t have a solution but surely with the police station a block away there’s at least some kind of presence they could put there. Park a cruiser or two there. Drive through it when going on or returning from patrol, something. An abstract police presence doesn’t prevent crime, but an actual police presence does. Would you draw your gun with a police car 50 feet away?
I completely agree. I live between Nagle and Broadway, and the stretch from Nagle & Pine through to LTD Edition Sushi is frequently the site of people lurking, appearing to drug deals / hand to hands.
I generally don’t understand the lack of foot patrol in Seattle overall. I know the city and the police department have a really bad relationship, and it seems like the police union here fucks things, but there’s gotta be a way.
I consider myself fairly progressive, but there’s still a place for police who are actually part of the community. Feels like both the ACAB portion of the citizenry and the Pouting Police need to grow the fuck up.
Wow, so many people blaming the basketball courts even though the story says only that the incident was “near” the basketball court.
I’m sure your immediate reaction to shut down the courts prior to any information being released has absolutely nothing to do with racism though.
I had a friend (white) who was assaulted on the court by a guy (white) while playing basketball there. The guy who committed the assault was later shot dead on the court by someone (race not known by me). So it is not about race to me. It is about violence and the environment which seems to encourage it.
Structural changes could make a positive difference but one guy was already dragged in the comments for saying that. *shrug*
Witnessed the incident Saturday for what it’s worth and the specific location was in front of Broadway Building residence driveway on Nagle. There’s a memorial there now. I agree that there’s a racial overtone to suggesting the courts are the issue, and agree that folks need to interrogate the facts and their own assumptions before they jump to that conclusion. However, I live on the street where the shooting happened, I saw part of it once it poured onto Nagle, and I have direct line of sight to the courts and surrounding area from my apartment. My official opinion is the city would be irresponsible to let folks continue to gather in that particular area of the park. The park needs basketball courts. They should either be somewhere else to avoid drawing crowds to that particular spot, or the city needs to repurpose some of the nearby space to make it less prone to criminal activity. That exact spot is too hospitable to conflict. Here’s why.
The pump house next to the basketball court shields that stretch of Nagle and the bench area next to the courts from sight, compared to the rest of the park which is relatively open. Any night of the week, folks park their cars in that specific spot behind the pump house and run drug traffic because there’s not a lot of pedestrian action except a relatively small number of Nagle residents. When folks gather at the courts during the day it tends to be people actually playing basketball, or having family gatherings. Totally cool vibe. At night, it’s a different story because of the bad stuff going down immediately nextdoor on Nagle. When conflict happens in that spot, it takes a literal gunshot for anyone in the rest of the park to even realize it’s happening.
what about turning the basketball court into a small dog park closed after dark?
seems to me it would get used all day long and activate the area.
plus it’s a huge need for the area!
All the courts should go in this case. The activity in the other courts provides plenty cover. Eliminate all obstructions – cut down the trees between the turf playfield and the courts, convert all the courts to a dog park, and make it illegal to park on Nagle in any capacity.
Right, bc what this city needs is more amenities for rich techies…
The city’s rampant crime is the direct result of massive, widening inequality, greedy big business’ refusal to pay for the cost of growth that overwhelmingly benefits their shareholders/Execs, and the cowardice of a political class that skims their cut off the top.
Right, because only “rich techies” have dogs.
when I still lived on the hill with my teenage son we had talks about that side of the park. It’s not a good scene that way. I’ve hung at the courts, skated at the DIY park, Cal Anderson was my backyard. It’s sad really, everything that’s gone down there in the past 4 years. It’s complicated though, mostly just makes me sad. I know people have statistics and arguments and there are a million opinions and people going at each other’s throats but first and foremost that’s a neighborhood. And a good one at that. People do care for each other, I’ve seen how people look out for each other and I wish that love and care was more infectious. People are hurting, suffering and taking it out on one another. It’s just more lateral violence in the gayborhood. I don’t know what else to say, it’s heartbreaking. I remember Omari asking, pleading with us “Where’s our humanity” and I think that’s about all there is to ask people at this point. Where’s our fucking humanity for each other. Even y’all hear shit talking each other. That’s just another facet of why we’re out there killing each other in a park named after a man who died of AIDS. where’s our fucking humanity.
This is such a tragedy. My deepest condolences, I hope the young man in the hospital survives.