Aurora Avenue neighbors revolt, blocking off street access after yet another shooting

One week ago, bullets blasted through the wall of a Greenwood neighborhood home and passed within inches of a window where a six-week-old baby boy was sleeping in his bassinet.

Saturday morning, roughly 40 shell casings were on the pavement near Aurora Avenue N. and N. 98th Street in Seattle after another shootout near the Burgermaster.

By daylight, the neighbors had had enough.

Residents along Seattle’s North Aurora corridor stopped waiting on City Hall. They hauled in large industrial steel planters and blocked off three residential side streets at N. 97th, 98th, and 102nd Streets near where they meet Aurora Avenue N. Neighbors said a representative from the mayor’s office and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) came out to push back. They were waved off.

“We’re honestly not thinking long term right now,” one neighbor said, asking not to be identified out of fear of retribution from pimps and dealers operating along the Aurora Avenue corridor.

“We’re sick of this,” he added, citing a lack of action from city leaders. “We’re going to close the streets.”

Seattle Greenwood neighborhood shooting: baby nearly hit by gunfire one week ago

Last Saturday, bullets came through the wall of Jake’s home near N. 98th Street and Linden Avenue N. in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood. His surveillance camera captured men ducking behind a car, then opening fire as an SUV drove past. Some shots hit near the window where his six-week-old was sleeping.

“I could have lost my six-week-old beautiful baby boy,” Jake, who asked that his last name not be shared, told KIRO 7. “I haven’t. I can’t. I’m unwilling to process that.”

Gunfire erupted three more times in the two nights that followed. Jake told KIRO 7 he reached out to public officials for help. Most haven’t replied.

“We love our neighbors, we love this city, but the city’s not taking care of us,” he said. “We feel abandoned. I want the city to actually name the problem, which is Aurora.”

Nearby Greenwood resident Peter Orr, who runs a block watch, said he lost count of the shots Sunday night, estimating nearly 20.

“I try not to talk at length with my kids about it,” he said. “Deep inside, I think we’ve got to do something about this before I can’t tell them that anymore.”

What the neighbors wrote on the Aurora Avenue planter

Organizers attached a letter to each of the planters. Its message was direct.

“For more than three years, many of us have been engaging almost daily with city officials, law enforcement, SDOT, and other local agencies to find both immediate and long-term solutions,” the letter read. “Homes have been hit by gunfire, narrowly missing children. Our military veterans, thinking they’d found a peaceful neighborhood, are now suffering from PTSD.”

The letter notes that after last summer’s Aurora Avenue shootout, which drew national attention, SDOT agreed to close two residential streets at Aurora and planned to close several more. That order never came from the mayor’s office. The gun violence moved deeper into the Seattle neighborhood instead.

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A Google Street View image of N. 97th Street and Aurora Avenue N. in Seattle shows a woman walking mostly undressed in front of the Public Storage building during the day. Residents said it is not an outlier. It is a typical afternoon.

Seattle City Council District 5 Councilmember Debora Juarez posted her first public statement on the Aurora Avenue gun violence Thursday, two days before Saturday morning’s shootout.

“We should not live in fear of being shot by a gun in our homes or community,” she wrote.

She cited Seattle Police Department (SPD) staffing cuts, noting the department has shrunk from roughly 1,203 deployable officers in 2020 to about 861 today.

For Seattle neighbors who hear gunfire nearly every night along N. Aurora Avenue, the statement landed as a list of procedural points. Forty-eight hours after it posted, the rounds were flying again on 98th Street.

KIRO Newsradio has reached out to the mayor’s office, SDOT, and Councilmember Juarez for comment on the planters and is awaiting responses.

The planters are staying put.

A resident told us there is no definitive plan.

“We’re just thinking about getting through the weekend without somebody being killed.”

“Seattle’s Morning News” has reached out to the mayor’s office for comment.

Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here. 

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