Teen girl shot near Seattle’s Garfield High School likely not intended target

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) reported a shooting occurred near Garfield High School Wednesday. The incident happened in the 400 block of 23rd Avenue.

A 17-year-old girl was taken to Harborview Medical Center in satisfactory condition. She was shot in her right leg while sitting at a bus stop.

No one else was injured in the shooting.

SPD wrote in a statement Thursday it believes the teenager was not the intended target of the shooting. She is a student at Garfield High.

The suspect in the shooting is described as a Black teen boy wearing a camouflage ski mask, SPD reported in its statement Thursday. It was reported to SPD he fired the gun from a light-colored SUV directing those shots at the bus shelter.

The vehicle was last seen leaving the area westbound on East Jefferson Street.

SPD will continue to have an enhanced presence in the area to ensure the safety of parents, students, teachers and the community, the department’s statement also reads.

According to Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz, at about 2:40 p.m. on Wednesday, an SUV was traveling southbound on 23rd Avenue and Jefferson when shots were fired from the car.

Police are investigating a shooting in the 400 block of 23rd Avenue. One victim transported to Harborview Medical Center. More information to follow.

— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) March 13, 2024

Garfield High was not put into a lockdown, but mote of a shelter-in-place order after the shooting, SPD Officer Brian Pritchard said Wednesday.

“It was more of a ‘shelter in place.’ They just wanted students to be safe,” Pritchard said, according to KIRO Newsradio. “So, they just held them over (and) didn’t let them come out until our investigation was over.”

2 shootings in the area don’t appear to be linked

It is not believed this shooting is connected to a homicide that happened later Wednesday near 24th Avenue South and South Main Street.

SPD reported a woman was shot sometime after 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Central District, just a few blocks from where the 17-year-old girl was shot and wounded earlier in the day.

More from Wednesday: Woman fatally shot near Garfield High School, scene of earlier shooting

When officers arrived on the scene, they found the woman, reported to be about 30 years old by KIRO 7, lying on the sidewalk. Despite lifesaving efforts by SPD officers and Seattle Fire Department (SFD) medics, the woman died at the scene.

Investigators continue to work these cases.

Anyone with information about either shooting is asked to call the SPD Violent Crimes Tip Line at (206) 233-5000.

Editors’ note: This story originally was published on March 13, 2024. It has been updated and republished multiple times since then.

Contributing: Steve Coogan; James Lynch, KIRO Newsradio

Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here.