(Image: CHS)
There will not be metal detectors or police in the hallways as students return to Garfield High School Tuesday morning but there are pledges by city and community leaders and police to bring to a close a third consecutive spring of gun violence around the 23rd Ave campus following the deadly shooting of student Amarr Murphy-Paine in the front parking lot during the Thursday lunch break. Police also have asked for patience as detectives continue the effort to arrest the shooting suspect caught on school security video who opened fire on the victim at point blank range.
“Following last week’s shooting, we want parents, students and teachers to know they can continue to expect an enhanced presence from Seattle police officers in the neighborhood and near Garfield High School until the end of this school year,” a Seattle Police Department spokesperson said in a statement to CHS.
The 17-year-old Murphy-Paine can be seen on school security video trying to break up a fight before he was gunned down. Murphy-Paine was remembered by loved ones and the communities around Garfield in a Friday night vigil.
SPD’s efforts to arrest his killer continue though official updates are being released at the discretion of detectives.
Little has been said about the effort. Monday night, police asked CHS to repeat the calls for anyone with information about the shooting to contact the SPD Tip Line at (206) 233-5000. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and interim Chief Sue Rahr said last week it was especially imperative that adults who might information come forward due to restrictions on interviewing minors as witnesses under state law. “Every tip can make a difference,” the department says.
UPDATE: In a midday statement Tuesday, SPD says time is required to process “the large volume of digital data (including video and cell phone records)” collected in the case.
“The Community Violent Crimes Task Force is working with the FBI, ATF, DEA, and many local agencies to assist with the large volume of digital data (including video and cell phone records) which must be identified and analyzed,” SPD says. “Accessing much of that information requires multiple, complex search warrants.”
While the wait for an arrest is hoped to end soon, the efforts to make the area around Garfield safer will continue into summer. The murder comes against a backdrop of a surge in shootings. Gun violence has soared in King County since the pandemic. There were 1,701 “shots fired” incidents across King County reported in 2023 — including 107 homicides involving guns. Both represented greater than 40% jumps
SPD says it will have at least two officers in the area every day through the end of the school year in two weeks but police will not join school district security on the Garfield campus.
In the summer of 2020, the Seattle School Board suspended a partnership with SPD that provided five armed officers with rotations and placements across Seattle’s public schools. The program — which cost the district about $120,000 a year — remains on hold. “As a general rule, law enforcement activity should take place at a location other than school premises,” the district’s policy states.
There have been calls by SPD officials and District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth has said she would support restoration of the school resource officer program.
Meanwhile, Garfield principal Tarance Hart has made a handful of immediate changes to help the campus get through the final days of the school year safely including implementation of a “closed lunch” policy through the end of the year that will restrict students to remaining on campus through the midday break to better control access to the school and make surveillance easier for school district security.
In a message to families about the return to campus Hart said officials “understand that some families may choose to keep their students at home for the remainder of the school year due to the recent violence experienced on campus” and that the school is putting resources in place to help families who choose not to come back to school. Hart said there will be no remote learning options as in some past gun violence-related closures.
During Friday and Monday’s campus closure, students could access confidential support services and meal services at the Meredith Mathews East Madison YMCA.
Hart said headed into Tuesday morning that private security staff will be placed around the campus and “additional Seattle Public Schools Security Specialists will be present.” The Seattle Police Department presence will be “outside the campus,” Hart said in the message.
(Image: Converge Media)
Under district policy, excused absences for students can include “safety concerns, including threats, bullying, or assaults.”
What is next?
The Seattle Police spokesperson said the goal is “making sure everyone is safe” and said officers will be visible “before and after the school day.”
“Additional officers will also be on patrol in the area when they aren’t responding to other dispatched calls,” the spokesperson said.
For the longer term, Mayor Harrell, councilmember Hollingsworth, interim Chief Rahr, and principal Hart must face the facts that springtime gun violence extends past last week’s tragic killing.
The mayor has asked for an initiative addressing state law to allow him to do more to restrict gun ownership but a combination of policing resources and community efforts must also be improved to quell campus violence and remove more guns from the streets as soon as possible — especially headed into what is now a deadly time of year for the area’s young people.
The are are calls for more gun buy-back efforts and for more to be done to address the amount of stolen guns that make it onto Seattle’s streets. A crackdown on realistic looking air rifles and pellet guns could also be pursued.
One core area is prosecution. The King County Prosecutor has implemented a “Safer Schools Strategy” it says is focused on individuals. Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion says efforts began last year “notifying schools of students with pending felony firearm charges to improve safety planning.” The initiative has also increased communication between schools and the court probation system “regarding high-risk, high-need students on supervision and conditions of release with the court.”
Harrell’s office has also undertaken initiatives including a program focused on prevention and early intervention of youth mental and behavioral health challenges organized after the fatal shooting that took the life of a 17-year-old in 2022 on the Ingraham High School campus.
The “learning programs” were designed to teach community members “how to how to identify a young person displaying signs of mental or behavioral health challenges, when and how to intervene, as well as how to coordinate access to available resources if clinical intervention is necessary,” according to the mayor’s office.
Last year, following the Ingraham shooting, Seattle Public Schools said it had moved to address safety concerns raised by gun violence at and around its schools as district Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones formed a new “community action team” consisting of safety, civic leaders, and community action groups to evaluate data and assess the experiences at schools and surrounding communities. The team included SPS school leaders, Seattle Police Department, City of Seattle, and community groups and partners that provide enrichment opportunities before and after school.
The district said it was also conducting safety reviews of every campus. Recommendations from the effort included the need for consistent safety and emergency signage and updating all building locks “to be sure they can be activated from inside a room.”
Principal Hart has also continued to ask parents and community members to volunteer at Garfield. More broadly, he has said he wants students to have mentorship and exposure to different pathways and careers.
The Community Passageways organization is also a growing presence in the area and has been supported by city funding to have an office in the area with a facility in the 23rd and Jackson shopping center. Its community ambassadors with intervention training are frequently on campus. Thursday, the group was attending a Gun Violence Awareness event sponsored by the Seahawks and King County at Lumen Field.
The physical environment near Garfield is also an important factor.
The area around Garfield High and the Garfield Community Center is part of a $8.4 million Garfield Super Block project that officials and community leaders hope will transform the area’s public space. Construction is hoped to begin in 2025.
In the near term, more could be done to control traffic flow around the campus — especially during the busy morning and after school crowds.
What is clear is that all of these efforts weren’t enough to prevent Thursday’s tragedy and that the repetition needs to be put to a halt. “East Precinct increases patrols around Garfield High School as students return to campus,” a headline from June 2023 CHS coverage reads.
Tuesday, some of the strongest signs of hope may have been simply the crowds of students returning to Garfield and dozens of greeters including the 100 Black Parents group assembled outside to welcome the kids back in a “We are here, and we care” effort to mark the restart of school.
UPDATE 11:30 AM: The Seattle Police Department has released a statement about its ongoing investigation into the shooting addressing questions about why an arrest hasn’t yet been in the case:
The Seattle Police Department has been working around the clock, gathering evidence after the tragic shooting that took the life of a 17-year-old boy at Garfield High School. Dozens of SPD personnel are currently gathering and analyzing information.
The Community Violent Crimes Task Force is working with the FBI, ATF, DEA, and many local agencies to assist with the large volume of digital data (including video and cell phone records) which must be identified and analyzed. Accessing much of that information requires multiple, complex search warrants.
Many have asked why SPD can’t make an arrest based on social media posts.
Here’s why:
That information is second-hand and must be verified. We need community members to contact the SPD Tip Line 206-233-5000.
This allows us to verify information and more quickly obtain the necessary search warrants to acquire the material we need. Information posted on social media does not give investigators the ability to obtain search warrants or develop probable cause for arrests.
We are asking the public to PLEASE contact the Tip Line to share information and help us positively identify and apprehend the person responsible for this murder.
UPDATE: A fundraiser has been set up to support the victim’s family:
As a South and Central District Seattle community, we ask you to come together to support the Murphy-Paine family as they grieve this unimaginable loss of a child and sibling. If you are able, please consider making a contribution to support funeral expenses and living/housing expenses while the Murphy-Paine family navigates this hopeless loss.
You can give here.
UPDATE: The Garfield PTSA is working on a Safe Schools Action Plan and voted Tuesday to demand the Seattle School Board for a decision on restoring the school resource officer program at Garfield before the start of the 2024/2025 school year.
The draft plan includes nine demands for school, district, and SPD officials:
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Without a plan to ban guns these things will continue to happen and we’ve known that for well over 30 years. At some point in the next 20 years when this current generation of kids cowering in fear of all the guns that previous generations allow to be freely available is assuming political power there will be a push to begin to ban guns and then in the following decades incidents like this may become less common. So maybe in 50 years these won’t be daily headlines. This is the future people from the 1980s wanted. The outrage is ignorant. The cause is clear. The problem is overwhelming so I get that no one can wrap their head around it. In the meantime it’s devastatingly sad for all of those who lose their lives and for us all to live in a society that has been crafted this way by political psychopaths.
By the look of it, at least some kids aren’t cowering in fear. They are using guns to intimidate, wound, or kill each other. Maybe just maybe, we could acknowledge some kids act out with violence and need some sort of expanded institutional care so they are a threat to themselves and others?
Part of getting to any ban on guns through is systemic culture and societal building, and it is a catch-22. A society and culture that must ban guns for its own health has to have the societal and cultural cohesion and vision to do so. It’s not just a straightforward political project divorced from all else.
A lot folks come somewhat close to identifying this, but then have their own ideas about what that means in particular and it already existing and they’re one of the best examples of. “Why can’t people just be good Christian keepers of their brothers and sisters in Christ?” is a self dealing ‘everyone else needs to act right like I do’. Super lacking, super dead end.
KUOW recently did an article. SIXTY NINE students were arrested for carrying guns- some committed violent crimes. What was the background of this particular shooter? Was he known to have a history of carrying firearms and allowed back into the school- as was the case with the Ingraham shooter that left a student dead?
Ever live in a rural area? People who are far away from services and who live where there are wild animals need weapons. The sheriff is sometimes _hours_ away. There are bears and wolves.
You’re never going to convince those people to give up their weapons. Never. Thus there will always be guns around. Instead, ask why this kind of violence is so much more common than when we were kids? There were plenty of guns around then too, and they were easier to buy and own in our cities (fewer gun laws back then).
I think perhaps you’ve watched cocaine bear one too many times….
You hit on the issue right there. It’s a cultural issue for sure.
Not saying we need to continue to work on it, but … homicides are about half what they were in the 70s, and continuing to fall. Keep up with the end of the world stuff, though. https://www.axios.com/2023/12/28/us-murder-violent-crime-rates-drop
How about a real solution? There are 400m guns in the US. Limited new gun purchases and buy backs aren’t going to even put a dent in that number.
We need stronger laws, that are enforced, by a strong police presence.
All the police in the world won’t make a difference if they aren’t backed by a willingness to prosecute those that break the law.
The 2nd Amendment is unlikely to be changed in the next 50 years, so unfortunately we’re stuck with it whether we like it or not. The GOP – and other cohorts – are firmly entrenched in ensuring it remains in place and any threats to their interpretation of it are neutralized. Further, it’s difficult to amend the Constitution…there’s no situations where I could imagine 75% of the states agreeing on anything at all.
The overwhelming majority of violent crime is committed by a tiny cohort. The issue isn’t ‘guns in general’, it’s ‘guns in the hands of criminals’.
Also, is anyone seriously arguing that this high schooler possessed the weapon legally?
I’m not against gun control but I agree that it’s ridiculous to say the problem is only guns. If that was the case it would be a far more diverse segment of society who is committing this violence. You need to also address the cultural norms of communities that have high rates of gun violence. And since the overwhelming majority of it is committed by young men what sort of toxic norms among this demographic can be lessened to make tragedies like this less frequent.
And guns getting into hands of juvenile delinquents who had bad parents
I drove by and saw an officer sitting in her cruiser staring down at her phone.
Thank you for your in depth coverage and context, much appreciated.
Yes, this report is much superior to that in the Seattle Times.
It seems like the “no snitch” rule is fully in effect. There is no doubt that some students know who committed this murder, yet they have not used the anonymous SPD tip line. Otherwise, there would already be an arrest.
My understanding from a family friend who is a student at Garfield is that it’s common knowledge who the shooter was — I think it’s more an issue of evidence policies and procedural issues than it is not knowing.