When I heard a loud popping sound this afternoon around 4:30, I immediately dismissed it as more construction noise from across the street. However, my co-worker approached my desk: “I think that was gun shots!” she said. We immediately went to the window. From the seventh floor, we could see people scattering from the corner near McDonald's, and police officers came screeching to a stop at the intersection with their lights on and sirens blaring. We rushed to the other side of the building where our co-workers were watching out another window. From this angle, they had seen a white SUV speed off down the street, hit a parked car and then screech around the corner onto Second Avenue
Since the company I work for takes up the entire floor, we had a pretty good vantage point of the action from several different office windows. As we looked down someone was able to see a man’s bare feet sticking out of the doorway of a café across the street. They were not moving. An ambulance arrived and paramedics rushed into the café with a backboard and other medical equipment. I was already entirely freaked out when I noticed a stream of blood running down the steps toward the sidewalk. Super creepy; there was no way I was leaving the building any time soon.
Over the next hour, we watched as the crime scene was roped off with yellow tape, reporters and bystanders gather on corners to gawk at the scene, and the traffic begin to back up for blocks and blocks as police cars, ambulances and fire trucks were blocking most of Third Avenue and Pine Street. Ironically, I had happened to drive my car to work that morning instead of take the bus, so I wouldn’t have to stand in the mayhem half a block from where the drive-by had taken place.
Honestly, what the heck is happening to the world? The Seattle Times, King 5 News and Komo 4 News all stated that the victim (a 25-year-old man) was taken to Harborview Medical Center SEATTLE
Just recently I wrote about the craziness of this neighborhood where I work. And it seems that things are getting worse by the day. This happened in broad daylight, at the end of a workday. An innocent bystander could easily have been caught in the middle. I actually go to this café for lunch quite often. And almost every day at the bus stop I see groups of people get into arguments. How much longer before one of them pulls a gun and I am caught in the crossfire? Pretty creepy, if you ask me.
Can’t we all just get along?
Click here for Wednesday's update on this crazy neighborhood I work in...
4 comments:
Oh man!! At least we dont have shootings up here at the Times. Pass!!!
Honestly, that is just downright scary. Stay safe down there, Sarah!
If you read the paper everyday there have been at least one to two shootings or stabbings alone in Seattle. The gangs are getting worse here, notice more graffiti. Crime will continue to go up, since Seattle Police Department SUCKS! Their response time is one of the worsts in the nation and they have no community aspect of policing, this is how the gangs will take over. It's sad, but it's slowly happening.
PEACE and yes be safe, if you want to go to the shooting range with Shan and I, let me know!
A subject I think about all the time.
Seattle is filled with people who have no reason to live. They want to be hit by cars, they want to be shot, they want to be beaten, because their existence has no meaning. They want to be hospitalized and/or left for dead because they have no self-worth, but they just can't take themselves out. (Suicide, after all, is considered a huge sign of weakness, and no one wants to be remembered as a wimp.) They can't accept self-hate, so they live in denial and seek out excuses for hating others. They have nothing to look forward to.
This is a city-wide epidemic. Almost once a week a walker or bicycler will almost be hit or killed by me, not because I'm trying to hit them, but because they're trying to get hurt and make it look like my fault. Which is harder, stopping your stepping for five seconds, or stopping my 4000-pound vehicle? Do you believe so strongly in an afterlife that you would throw your life away in such a prideful manner? Is there such a thing as a righteous death? Sometimes I wish murder was legal.
Maybe it's the weather, but the high suicide rate of this city is easily backed up by the regular instances of street violence - too many people are getting next to no love in their lives and don't care about hurting themselves or others. I relay this summary to all my East Coast friends and relatives who ask me what it's like living in Seattle. Lots of rain, lots of depression, and lots of people who want to die but can't bring themselves to commit suicide so they unconsciously beg others to end it all. It's like everyone is looking for a fight just so they can lose and become a victim to publicly validate their sadness.
A banner on the Space Needle that says "It's Okay To Be Sad" would be a big help. It's not weakness and you don't have to lash out - everyone has pain.
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