Gunfire returns to Aurora Avenue less than 48 hours after Seattle replaced neighbor barriers with drive-through bollards

Less than two days after the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) removed neighbor-installed steel planters and replaced them with concrete barriers spaced wide enough for a car to drive through, gunfire again rattled the North Aurora neighborhood early Sunday morning.

Shots were reported around 6 a.m. Sunday, roughly three blocks west of the new traffic-calming installation that Mayor Katie Wilson’s office had installed Friday. Officers responding to that shooting could hear additional gunfire coming from another location nearby, according to resident accounts shared with KIRO Newsradio.

According to neighbors, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) later located shell casings just north of 102nd Street and Evanston Avenue North, roughly 50 feet from a daycare.

What happened overnight

Resident Andrew Steelsmith, who has been documenting the violence and city response in real time, said the night escalated hours before sunrise.

“Despite the heavy police presence on Aurora, we had pimps and johns looping around our calm streets all night,” Steelsmith wrote.

SPD was called around midnight as tensions between pimps escalated on 109th Street, Steelsmith said. Officers arrived about 10 minutes later with solid blue lights to disperse johns.

Pimps, he said, didn’t go far.

“Pimps sat in their cars 10 feet away, waiting for them to leave. Business resumed 20 minutes later,” Steelsmith wrote.

About six hours later, the shooting near the daycare was reported.

The barriers the city installed are not the barriers neighbors built

Last Sunday, fed-up residents hauled large steel planters into three residential side streets, 97th, 98th and 102nd, to physically block cut-through traffic at Aurora. They cited months of drive-by shootings, including bullets fired into a home that came within feet of a sleeping five-week-old in a bassinet earlier this month.

On Wednesday evening, the mayor’s office called the situation “unacceptable” and announced SDOT would replace the planters with what officials described as “temporary traffic calming treatments.” SDOT removed the planters Thursday and, on Friday, installed concrete barriers spaced widely enough that vehicles can still pass between them.

Within hours of 97th Street being reopened, Steelsmith said, sex workers returned to the block.

By Friday night, neighbors were watching the same loop they had spent three years documenting: pimps and johns circling Aurora, turning onto the residential side streets, looping back to Aurora and starting over.

By Sunday morning, the shell casings were back too.

Saturday walkthrough: Police chief showed up. The mayor and council member did not

On Saturday, the day before the latest gunfire, city officials walked residents through the new installation to explain what had been done and what came next.

Steelsmith said the meeting included representatives from the mayor’s office, SDOT, and SPD Chief Shon Barnes. Residents got the chance to make their case directly.

For neighbors who have spent two weeks pleading for action after bullets came within feet of a five-week-old, the absences landed hard. Chief Barnes runs a police department of roughly 860 deployable officers. He showed up. Mayor Wilson, who runs the city, did not. Juarez, who actually represents this district and whose constituents are the ones counting shell casings at bus stops, apparently did not send a staffer.

Residents on Nextdoor called the no-shows part of a broader pattern of City Hall treating the Aurora corridor as a problem to manage from a distance rather than a neighborhood to stand in.

Neighbors react

The response on Nextdoor came fast, and frustrated.

“You have to wait a week for them to workshop a plan? So underwhelming,” wrote Seattle resident John. “Doesn’t SPD have one of those ridiculous mobile command vehicles they could park right there and set up camp? It’s common LE practice for special issues or events.”

Another commenter, Richard, called it “another example of the Seattle Process.”

“They could’ve said it worked as well or better as blocking 101st,” Mike wrote. “That moved it one block, and this moved it three blocks.”

Meghan, who said she lived at N. 102nd Street and Evanston Avenue N. for seven years before moving to Edmonds, didn’t mince words.

“The people in that neighborhood deserve so much better than to be held hostage by criminals who don’t care if their children get shot in their beds,” she wrote. “If I still lived there, I’d be putting my recycling bins, planter, whatever, in the road at night to keep them out. Shame on Seattle for their impotence and ineptitude.”

Tom said he had noticed and appreciated the increased patrols, but laid the blame elsewhere.

“I do not blame the Seattle Police for the out-of-control tolerance of rampant violence by this city council. This is all on you! Make North Seattle safe,” he wrote.

Several residents pointed to a North Precinct Advisory Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday, June 3, at 7 p.m. at Epic Life Church, 10510 Stone Avenue N., as the next chance to confront city leaders.

What the city has promised

In its Wednesday statement, the mayor’s office said SDOT would spend roughly two weeks working with the mayor’s office, SPD, and residents to determine whether the area would benefit from more permanent barriers and, if so, at which locations. An announcement is expected as soon as June 5.

Neighbors on Nextdoor said they’re not sure what that announcement will actually be.

“Friday will be announcing the decision or announcing the intent to make a decision?” Kyle asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Steelsmith replied.

In the meantime, the calming treatments stay. The patrols continue. And the loop the residents have documented for years keeps turning.

Sunday morning, three blocks west

The new gunfire reported Sunday happened well outside the area where the new concrete barriers were supposed to influence. Officers responding to one shooting could hear another underway. Shell casings landed within steps of a daycare.

No arrests have been announced. SPD has not yet released a public statement on the early-morning shooting.

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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