White Center double homicide, two victims relatives of 2020 CHOP shooting victim
Jun 11, 2021, 10:50 PM | Updated: Jun 12, 2021, 1:59 pm
Detectives are investigating a shooting outside outside Paradise Cafe on 16th SW on June 12. (KIRO 7, Deborah Horne)
(KIRO 7, Deborah Horne)
Four men were shot in what eyewitnesses say was a shootout in the heart of White Center.
Two men later died at Harborview Medical Center; two others are fighting to survive.
KIRO 7 learned one of the victims is the father of a teen killed last year at the CHOP.
Harborview Medical Center says the father is badly hurt.
But sources say there is grimmer news. His brother, in his 40s, was one of the two men who died.
Detectives wrapped up their work about an hour ago, centered on the parking lot at Taradise Café, trying to piece together what lead to this deadly encounter.
Chopper 7 was overhead in the moments after the shooting, which happened just before 4 p.m. on Friday.
“And as I was walking right here, she’s at the nail salon,” said Lindsey Young, “all of a sudden, I hear a bunch of gunshots go off.”
Young says she was dropping off food for a friend when she heard the gunshot coming from the parking lot at the Taradise Café.
“So ducked in behind a vehicle,” said Young, “and all of a sudden, you hear a white car crash into a couple of cars and into the next building across the street. It sounded like about 100 rounds went off.”
One of those rounds shattered the window of a business across the street.
“I heard a really big bang, and they shot through a window,” said the owner, who declined to be identified.
She says she was in her breakroom when the bullets came flying in.
“Had I actually been up in the front of the shop, I would have been hit,” she said, “So that was, I probably like should have died.”
King County Sheriff’s detectives were soon on the scene trying to figure out why the shooting happened at all.
“We currently have detectives actively working behind us here where this scene unfolded,” said Sgt. Tim Meyer. “We were dispatched to the 9800 block of 16th Avenue SW. That really became the center of our investigation.”
Four men, ranging in age from 40 to 53 years old, were shot. Two men died, and two others were hospitalized.
A Seattle attorney has identified one of those still at Harborview Medical Center as Horace Anderson. We talked to him a year ago after his 19-year-old son was killed at CHOP on Capitol Hill.
This latest shooting is leaving a lot of anxiety in its wake.
“The way the trajectory was, the way the bullets came, it was right where I would have been working,” said the owner of the shop where the window was shattered. “So I’m going home.”
The King County Sheriff’s spokesman says the two men who died here are part of a grim tally—16 homicides in King County so far this year, compared to 24 homicides in all of 2020.
According to Harborview, Anderson is in critical condition.
The other victim has been upgraded to satisfactory condition.
.@kingcosoPIO says 4 people shot in #WhiteCenter outside Paradise Cafe on 16th SW. Two people died at Harborview. @PhotogGriff & I are at 7 @KIRO7Seattle pic.twitter.com/n3XrImPXCp
— DeborahHorne (@DeborahKIRO7) June 12, 2021
#Update: Four persons were transported to a local hospital w/ two now deceased. This 16th Ave SW location will remain, for several hours, an active scene as detectives with the King County Sheriff's Office Major Crimes Unit continue this investigation. pic.twitter.com/UVPHj9JKQa
— King County Sheriff's Office PIO (@kingcosoPIO) June 12, 2021
