Two men dead after shooting at Seattle park, neighbors say concerns went unanswered
After fatal shooting at Seattle park, neighbors say concerns went unanswered
An encampment at a North Seattle park is set to be cleared after a fatal double shooting, but neighbors say they've reported problems since June.
SEATTLE, Wash. - Two men are dead after a shooting near Virgil Flaim Park in North Seattle, a place parents say has gone from being the heart of their community to somewhere they avoid.
Police said officers responded around 6 p.m. Monday to reports of gunfire near the park and a growing homeless encampment. When they arrived, they found two men with gunshot wounds.
A 40-year-old man died at the scene. A 33-year-old man was taken to the hospital, where he later died.
What they're saying:
Neighbors said problems began in June, when the encampment appeared and started to grow. Families told FOX 13 they noticed trash piling up, along with alcohol and drug use. Within a week, they reached out to city leaders — including Mayor Bruce Harrell — asking for action, but said they never heard back.
Among the concerned is a group of mothers, speaking anonymously out of fear for their families' safety. One of them said her 2-year-old son was at the park with a 13-year-old babysitter when the shooting happened.
"My heart sunk. I was just devastated that, I'm really scared and upset that this is what's happening. Both my son and this, you know, other kid, 13-year-old kid in, in danger, and I, luckily, my son is young enough that he doesn't really understand what's going on. But for the babysitter to have witnessed that, that's so, so awful, I feel so terrible for her," she said.
Another mother said, "I don't feel safe. I'm worried about the future of our community. I want us to get to a point where we’re back at the park and restore faith in it and make it vibrant like it was a few months ago."
FOX 13 asked Harrell why the emails from neighbors were never answered.
"A few weeks ago, the encampment was cleared, and so we are responding the best we could with given the resources that we have," Harrell said. "I think everyone knows we did have a challenge or some resources, but we need people to keep communicating to us what they need done. We also, in our sort of a housing first model, we have to find a shelter. So we are finding shelter, asking people to remove, but those communications aren't going unnoticed. That's how we're able to qualify everything that we do."
Mayor Harrell's office shared the latest statistics, saying from 2022 to 2024, the city saw a 62% decrease in shots-fired incidents related to encampments or involving a person experiencing homelessness, and fires at encampments decreased by 45%.
Staff also say the Unified Care Team’s efforts have led to record shelter referrals and about an 80% decrease in tent encampments from 2022 to 2024.
One of the mothers said the recent violence has even forced her to have difficult conversations with her five-year-old child.
"We’ve talked about it some, but last night we were forced to more so talk about an active shooter situation, which is not something I was prepared or thinking of talking to my daughter with," she said. "So it was more about where to hide in the house, how to run and hide, what a gun is. Those were the conversations that I had to have last night. She was very brave, and she understood how to lock the door, and she understood how serious it was. But like, how could a five-year-old really know how scary a shooter situation is?"
What's next:
On Tuesday afternoon, signs were posted around Virgil Flaim Park by the city, urging campers to remove all belongings immediately and stating that the park is not a space for shelter.
Harrell says the encampment is scheduled for cleanup on Wednesday.
The Source: Information in this story came from the Office of Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, Seattle Police and original FOX 13 Seattle reporting and interviews.
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