Parents speak out days after 16-year-old son stabbed to death in Tukwila parking lot
Jan 13, 2025, 6:02 AM | Updated: 6:04 am
Alan Jaller, 16. (Photo courtesy of the Jaller family's GoFundMe)
(Photo courtesy of the Jaller family's GoFundMe)
The parents and other extended family of a Tukwila teenager stabbed to death Friday afternoon are speaking out. Their profound grief comes amid the search for a killer.
Alan Jaller was just a 16-year-old Colombian immigrant when he was stabbed to death some 800 feet from Foster High School.
Eyewitnesses said the fatal encounter was with another teenager. His death has hit an entire immigrant community.
Jaller’s parents are being comforted by their church family. As you might guess, what has happened has left them and this community devastated.
“Why my son?” wailed Miguel Jaller, holding his wife’s hands tight.
GoFundMe: Alan Jaller and His Family
The parents of Alan Jaller spoke through a translator. But the grief over losing their 16-year-old son, their youngest, needs no translation.
Eyewitnesses said Alan Jaller was with a group of friends when he encountered a group of teens who were still upset about something that happened the day before.
Tukwila crime roundup: Fatal stabbing, double shooting, police cars struck
They said they got out of separate cars holding pocket knives. One of them repeatedly stabbed Jaller, wounding him so severely that he died where he lay.
Tukwila police placed Foster High School and Showalter Middle School on lockdown as a “precaution.”
Now, a family must soon bury a son in a country that was supposed to give them a new life.
“She wants to thank the first responders and the fire department that tried to revive her son for 25 minutes,” the friend translating for Yerlenis Gaviria, the victim’s mother, said.
Such deep emotion. They said their son was here to seek asylum, as was his alleged killer.
They said they are waiting for him to be arrested.
KIRO 7 has calls and texts to Tukwila police to find out where they are in the investigation.
