SEATTLE — Amid a rise in fatal shootings along the northern Seattle corridor of Aurora Avenue, residents are calling for change as stray bullets threaten their safety.
Seattle Police Department (SPD) data shows there have already been more fatal shootings this year in central North Seattle than in all of last year, and it’s only October.
“Around 2 a.m., my husband and I were sleeping in our bedroom and we hear just, uh, loud, many, many gunshots,” said Jahira Teague. “There’s a hole, maybe 3 feet above from where we were sleeping, and then we saw from the other side of the wall where it had entered in.”
A bullet barely missed them while they slept when it went flying across their bedroom. The frightening scenario even prompted the couple to make changes to their home layout.
“We actually moved [bedrooms]. That’s our office now,” said Teague.
Another man who lives south of them, near Aurora Avenue on North 96th Street, said, “I don’t feel safe in my own home.”
A longtime Seattleite, Richard Reyes, took video of the gunshots he heard reverberating through his neighborhood over the weekend.
“I’m concerned somebody could just shoot right through the window,” said Reyes.
Four separate households along the Aurora Avenue corridor — north of 95th Street — echoed the same sentiment: they are routinely losing sleep over fear of stray bullets coming into their home.
Natalie Rodriguez, another nearby resident, experienced just that earlier this year.
“I noticed it was lodged in between some papers here,” she said, pointing to the desk in her living room, referring to a bullet she found after hearing her glass window shatter.
She lives just up the road, off Aurora Avenue in the Broadview neighborhood.
“If the bullet would have gone any farther, it might’ve actually gone straight through my bedroom where I was sleeping,” said Rodriguez.
Seattleites like Rodriguez are concerned they might become another statistic. SPD data shows the North Seattle area surrounding Aurora Avenue is a hotspot for shootings and shots fired.
“Now we have a 3-month-old, and it’s getting worse, and you would think there would be police patrolling,” said Steelsmith. “I’m gonna beg for one police officer to go up and down the street between 100th and 109th, between the hours of 12 and 3 a.m, and those shootings will stop. I guarantee it.”
KING 5 reached out to Seattle police to ask whether they plan to increase patrols in this area. SPD spokesperson, Officer Shawn Patrick Weismiller, replied, “Violent crime is our highest priority… We constantly assess trends in crime, and when staffing allows we make adjustments accordingly.”
But for the nearby residents, if adjustments do not come soon, they’re out.
“I’m either gonna try to get the word out or move,” said Steelsmith.
“I wanna move,” added Reyes.
“I’ve actually started looking at apartments in the Edmonds area,” said Rodriguez.
“We do hope to move,” said Teague.
SPD data shows shootings tend to become more frequent in the summer months, and that’s true of the last three summers in a row.
