Harborview Medical Center treated dozens more gunshot victims in the last two months compared to last summer

SEATTLE - If you thought our area was dealing with more shootings than normal, you are right.

Harborview Medical Center alone says in the months of June and July of this year, they have treated 28 more gunshot victims than the same time last year.

The violence is leaving behind a trail of emotional turmoil and pain for so many families. 

Adriel Webb was known to say ‘Good for the night’ to his mom.

It was a way to let his mom know he was doing ok.

Now Shalonie Barnett will never hear those words again and never hear him repeat the last thing he said to her.

 “I love you,” Barnett said.

The second someone decided to open fire at a gas station in the Central District last week, Barnett lost her only child. Her 18-year-old son had aspirations of becoming an engineer after graduating high school and on the way to Highline College.

“It was not intended for my son, my son was at the wrong place at the wrong time, bullets don’t have names and they keep just taking innocent lives,” Barnett said.

Alicia Dassa knows the unimaginable pain that Barnett is going through.

“Instead of seeing Connor once a week at his dorm for dinner we see him here,” Dassa said.

Q13 News talked to Dassa on Friday at the cemetery where family and friends visit Connor Dassa often.

On Mother’s Day, Dassa lost her son in a drive-by shooting.

Connor, a UW freshman, had plans to become a lawyer. He was well-known in the Rainier Beach community as a leader and volunteer. He graduated from Rainier Beach High School.

“He was the class president at Rainier Beach, he was a youth track coach for Rainier Beach Track Club and those kids were so drawn to him,” Dassa said.

Connor and Adriel were friends and both cases remain unsolved.

“We’ve known seven families personally who has lost their children since the beginning of 2020 to gun violence,” Dassa said.

Four of those seven were young men, shot and killed after Connor’s death in May.

In the months of June and July of 2020, Harborview Medical Center has treated 28 more gunshot victims compared to the same time last summer.

“To me, it tells me we have a lot of people who are lost, we have a lot of people who don’t feel important, who don’t feel loved and we have to figure out how to change that,” Dassa said.

Both moms are determined to keep their son’s legacies alive by fighting for that change.

“That person who took my son’s life he was failed, that is by us, that is everyone, that is the community you know his family or whatever, whatever we all failed no one should feel so angry and alone that they go out and take someone’s life,” Barnett said.

Barnett says Adriel had a beautiful personality and an amazing smile. Adriel's funeral happened on Friday.

Meanwhile, Connor’s family has created a non-profit called Walk Away To Live to help stop youth violence.