Seattle gang member with decade-long trail of shootings gets 4 years for latest crime

A member of a South Seattle street gang was sentenced to four years in prison and three years of supervised release Tuesday for his possession of a gun tied to multiple shootings, the U.S. Department of Justice announced via a news release.

Samuel N. Rezene, 38, has a long criminal history of drug trafficking, promoting prostitution, and being involved in various shooting incidents.

In one instance from Feb. 2012, Rezene’s then-girlfriend was shot and killed while riding as a passenger in a car Rezene was driving.

Seattle gang members’ recent illegal firearm conviction

Rezene was 83 days into his term of federal supervised release from a prior conviction when he crashed his parents’ car on Aurora Ave. N. in Seattle. Rezene fled the scene and left a firearm inside the vehicle.

“Less than three months after his release from a 92-month prison sentence, Mr. Rezene again had a firearm, drove dangerously, crashed his car in a high crime area, and fled from police,” Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller stated in the news release. “The only thing that stops his criminal conduct is time behind prison bars. This sentence is necessary for community safety.”

Law enforcement ultimately arrested Rezene, and he was indicted for unlawful possession of a firearm. Rezene pleaded guilty on May 30, 2025. The recovered firearm had Rezene’s DNA on the magazine. The bullets were also analyzed and linked to four shots fired incidents that occurred before Rezene was released from federal prison for a May 2017 conviction.

The recovered firearm was also linked to a Sept. 3, 2023, homicide that occurred in Seattle’s Holly Park neighborhood, a few weeks after Rezene was released from prison.

“As far as I can tell, this defendant wants to be taken out of society,” U.S. District Judge James L. Robart said at the sentencing hearing. “You don’t get a Glock 9 to protect yourself, you get that to be back in the trade.”

Rezene’s lengthy history of criminal convictions

In 2011 and 2013, Rezene and other associates were involved in two different drug robberies of rival gang members. The rivals retaliated by targeting Rezene, his home, and vehicles in repeated drive-by shootings. Rezene’s associates responded to the drive-by shootings by shooting up a business associated with the rival gang.

On May 15, 2014, while at a Renton gas station, Rezene was shot multiple times. Rezene grabbed a gun from his vehicle’s center console and attempted to return fire before collapsing. Rezene was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where he survived the injuries sustained. The suspected shooter was never identified.

After Rezene was released from the hospital, only a few months later, he was spotted by law enforcement shooting at a business associated with a rival gang in October 2014. For this offense, Rezene was sentenced to 31 months in state custody. He was charged federally in December 2014, found guilty at a bench trial in May 2017, and was sentenced to a 92-month prison sentence.

“The federal firearms statutes exist for the purpose of keeping firearms out of the hands of people like Samuel Rezene,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg wrote to the court. “Rezene has lived a reckless and dangerous lifestyle as a gang member and drug dealer. His commission of two drug robberies set off a violent chain of events that ultimately led to him being shot at the Shell station in 2014.”

Rezene’s numerous felony convictions, including drug trafficking, illegal firearms possession, promoting prostitution, and attempting to elude a police vehicle, prohibit him from possessing a firearm.

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