Family and loved ones of Elijah Lewis are worried that court proceedings are stacked against justice as the trial of the man who shot and killed the 23-year-old community leader and activist and injured Lewis’s young nephew in a road rage confrontation on Capitol Hill begins.
Defendant Patrick Cooney pleaded not guilty in the April 1, 2023 killing and has remained jailed on $2 million bail since. Lawyers for the 37-year-old are set to argue Cooney shot Lewis in fear he would be run over as he rode a rental Lime scooter up E Pine. Lewis was in the neighborhood to pick up his nephew from his nearby apartment home and take him to a monster truck rally at Lumen Field to celebrate the child’s birthday. Much of the confrontation was captured on security video.
Cooney’s defense team has successfully argued to limit some evidence from being presented to the jury when proceedings begin including that police reported the shooter was also armed with a knife and his firearm lacked a serial number.
Judge Sean P. O’Donnell also ruled to limit the presentation of police records showing Cooney has been investigated for firearm incidents multiple times while riding Lime scooters around Capitol Hill prior to the shooting.
In one October 2022 incident on 12th Ave, security video obtained by police showed Cooney ride up to the back of a car blocking the bike lane, rap on the trunk, and point to the driver to move. When the driver got out of the car to confront Cooney, the scooter rider pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at her. As the driver put her hands up and backed away, Cooney allegedly told the woman “I ought to kill your ass.”
In another incident in March 2023, Cooney allegedly broke off a Volvo’s side mirror and racked the slide on his handgun to threaten the man after the driver cut him off along 12th.
The early blows to the prosecution have worried Lewis’s family and friends. “My conclusion is that they’re preparing to let [Cooney] walk,” one friend told Converge Media. “This court is following the Supreme Court dictum that no Black man has any rights to name white men’s failure.”
This is Patrick Cooney. The man who murdered Elijah Lewis and wounded his young nephew. He’s now trying claim self defense. I’ll never forget Elijah being murdered and people in the comment section of Seattle news reports, suggesting that it was probably gang related. https://t.co/kEPrSWkqtb pic.twitter.com/PHEIpBJTRm
— GNCordova (@GNCordova) January 15, 2025
But the King County Prosecutor has much to work with.
Cooney, a Yesler Terrace area resident, faces charges of second degree murder and first degree assault.
Police say Cooney was riding the rental electric scooter on E Pine just after 5 PM when he became embroiled in the altercation and opened fire into the vehicle Lewis was driving, striking him with a fatal shot and hitting the child in the calf. The child was treated for his injuries and released from the hospital. Lewis was shot in the chest and died at Harborview later that night.
Police say security video from Seattle Central and the Walgreens at the corner of Broadway and Pine shows Cooney opening fire on the car even as it was turning to leave the area onto Broadway.
The prosecutor’s office says Cooney held a concealed pistol license.
Five spent shell casings were found at the scene. Three bullets were accounted for including the one that killed Lewis. Autopsy results show he had been shot in the back.
Jenine Lewis with a painting by Myron Curry of her son, Elijah Lewis
Lewis, 23 years old at the time of the killing, is remembered as a dedicated community builder and entrepreneur in the Central District and Africatown communities. He was proud of his efforts as a self-described “serial entrepreneur” in addition to his work with Sankofa Theater and doing outreach for the Africatown Community Land Trust and events like this Black Wall Street festival. A USA Today columnist wrote that Lewis “could have been the next MLK.”
Lewis was honored later that summer during the work to refresh the Black Lives Matter mural on E Pine.
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