Gun violence has recently been taking a heavy toll on Seattle youth. On June 6, a 17-year-old Garfield student Amarr Murphy-Paine was killed in a shooting at Garfield High School. Another 17-year-old student was shot in the leg at a bus stop across from Garfield High School in March. In January, a 15-year-old student was killed in a shooting at the Teen Life Center next to Chief Sealth High School. In 2023, a 19-year-old suffered gunshot wounds at Garfield’s Teen Life Center parking lot, and in November of 2022, a 17-year-old student was shot and killed at Ingraham High School.
Mayor Bruce Harrell’s recent executive order addressing gun violence in schools lays out these stark facts, which don’t include two other recent deaths of teenagers by gun violence in the region, an 18-year-old student in a parking lot next to Kent-Meridian High School, and a 17-year-old from Kent-Meridian at a Big 5 Sporting Goods store.
Murphy-Paine’s death raised an outcry from the surrounding community, including a vigil, a silent march, a unity walk, and a “We are Here and We Care” event the morning students returned to school. Mourners have demanded action to curb the violence and ensure a safe learning environment at local schools.
While Seattle’s homicide numbers have fallen in the first five months of 2024, with 16 recorded versus 25 during the same period in 2023, shootings and shots fired have risen 8% year-to-date versus 2023.
100 Days of Action
Recent events prompted King County Executive Dow Constantine to announce “100 Days of Action” against gun violence in his recent state of the county address. He has asked the relatively new King County Regional Office of Gun Violence Prevention, part of the Public Health Department, to coordinate this work in collaboration with regional and community partners, including the City of Seattle.
In his address, Constantine referenced a recent meeting about gun violence at the White House, where several jurisdictions reported “seeing positive results from short, intensive violence prevention campaigns.”
The Office of Gun Violence Prevention and its partners are still lining up the details of the County’s 100-day campaign, but said they’d be announced later this summer.
Community outcry continues
Meanwhile, community members are deeply concerned about the continuing gun violence in and around Seattle schools, and some have been questioning the efficacy of both the city and the school board.
