‘Unsettling’: North Seattle shooting wounds 1; neighbors are fed up
Jul 19, 2024, 5:29 PM
Police at the scene of a shooting overnight in North Seattle. (Photo: Luke Duecy)
(Photo: Luke Duecy)
Police are investigating an overnight shooting in North Seattle. According to police, one man was shot near North 90th Street and Nesbit Avenue North, just one block off Aurora Avenue, around 1 a.m. Friday. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital.
The incident comes on the heels of a rash of shootings police said are connected to the sex trade along Aurora, including a shootout last Saturday in the same area.
In that incident, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) said multiple people fired more than three dozen shots in a matter of seconds. Dozens of shell casings were found near the corner of Aurora and North 101st Street, while police found bullet holes in nearby buildings. Investigators said it may have been the result of a turf war between rival pimps who were fighting over sex workers in the area.
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North Seattle residents are fed up with area crime
Some neighbors who live in the area are fed up with what they describe as constant violence, drugs, and prostitution. One group has taken to copying license plates of men soliciting prostitution and posting them on a website called isjonajohn.com. The site shows time-stamped images of plates captured by video cameras. The caption on the front page of the site reads, “Picked up a prostitute on Aurora Ave? Did you drive into our neighborhood? We’ve probably got your license plate.”
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Other neighbors tell KIRO Newsradio they wanted the police to do more to clean up their neighborhood and get the crime out. “I mean it’s unsettling,” one young mother who didn’t want to share her name in order to protect her family. “I have a 3 1/2-year-old kid, and we live just a few blocks away, so it’s not a good feeling.”
Another neighbor who lives near the scene of the latest shooting says he’s had enough. “A couple of weeks ago we had people over there burning fires,” a man named Omar said to KIRO Newsradio. “It’s not a good feeling having them here.”
Luke Duecy is a reporter for KIRO Newsradio.
