7db4/1240035290-shootingapril17.jpg

The corner of 42nd and University is blocked off right now after a shooting. A police spokesperson told a group of reporters about 10 minutes ago—The Stranger‘s Anthony Hecht happened to be out there—that the victim in the shooting is a white male who was with some friends about an hour ago and got shot in the side of the face. The suspect is possibly a black male in face makeup. There’s some uncertainty about this, but according to information circulating at the scene, there was apparently an altercation between the shooting victim’s group of friends and another group in Juggalo-style face paint.

The victim was taken to Harborview. The fire department says it’s serious but not life-threatening. The current thinking is that this was a street-kid thing, rather than a gang thing.

We will keep following this.

Christopher Frizzelle was The Stranger's print editor, and first joined the staff in 2003. He was the editor-in-chief from 2007 to 2016, and edited the story by Eli Sanders that won a 2012 Pulitzer...

47 replies on “Shooting in the University District”

  7. i was at allegro right when it happened. heard the LOUD “that sounds like a gunshot noise” noise but didn’t think anything of it really until all the sirens joined the scene a few minutes later. was leaving their then anyway and decided to walk by, not realizing i would walk through blood on the sidewalk… left a few minutes later, the area was being taped off, and saw a couple “juggalos,” one with a big old black hound, in the allegro alley who seemed interested in the crime scene for personal reasons but whom i thought would have been too stupid to walk that close to something they were involved in… also had the malfortune of sitting close to a guy on the bus ride back to the suburbs whom was “really close friends” with the victim and who had held the guy after he was shot… he said him and the victim had both been in the military together…

    i think it is odd to note that i lived on capitol hill and in the central district (“rough” neighborhoods) and had yet to ever get this close to violent blood in the streets…

    no home to “safe” old kent…

  8. NOW home, sorry… meaning the parents place. i meant to mention i just moved to the u district after living on cap hill and the CD for the last couple of years…

  9. I was mugged across the street from my apt in the U-District. There are 2-3 muggings within a 6 block radius of my apt every month these days. I’m so glad to be out of there when my lease expires

  10. i’ve seen the suspect before on the ave. he’s an aggressive fucktard. there needs to be way more police presence on the ave, and an elimination of loiterers making the street so uncomfortable.

  11. @2, I was trying to think of a “black Joker” line, something that ties into Heath Ledger’s portrayal, but I got nothing; so sue me

  13. Unequivocally agreed w/ @10, I see these Juggalo shitbags with their dog every day. Lived on the Ave for several years, it was never ideal, but it’s been on a pretty steep decline the last year or so (the alley beneath my apartment has a violent incident in it almost nightly). More police presence needed, definitely.

  16. Matt from Denver – shouldn’t be long now before they rear their hideous heads – there was another shooting at 12th and Jefferson, too.

    To quote John Darnielle:

    “When cloven hoofprints turn up in the garden, we keep up the good fight.”

    I will look forward to your comments.

  17. my roommate and i drove by on our way to georgetown. she joked that it was probably a shooting, and i joked that it was probably a juggalo. … woops.

  18. i just want it to be clear that i wasn’t saying that dog-boy was the suspect. according to the friend of the victim i saw on the bus, the suspect had already been apprehended by that point. i don’t imagine the actual shooter would be that stupid, but maybe his friends? or maybe it wasn’t “juggalos” at all, but people on scene (afer) thought those kids looked crime’y enough to blame…

    kudos to street kids and to taking people for their words, ideas and actions and not just what they look like. seattle needs to open its mouth and talk to the ears sitting next to it on the bus BIG TIME.

  19. Good job for the UW’s student email “alert” system. They’ve been pretty consistently running 24 hours behind alerting for petty crimes and muggings, which: ok, fine.

    Except now we have a guy shot a block from campus and a SHOOTER ON THE LOOSE causing the south Lander residence halls to be locked down. And nothing. No notification. What exactly is the point of this system then? It would have helpfully alerted V. Tech students to stay inside the day after.

  21. I live on the block – between 41st and 42nd on the ave – and have been receiving these crime alert e-mails about twice a week for the last several weeks/months. When i lived in this neighborhood ten years ago, I don’t remember hearing about so much face-punching and face-shooting. Is it just that I get more e-mail alerts now? Or has the crime rate skyrocketed?

  24. I was on the Ave by myself late on Wednesday night. I was a little nervous, and I like to think I look like someone you don’t mess with. My exact thought that night was, “There should be a more a of police presence on the Ave”

  27. @ Greg, #26 –

    Insane Clown Posse fan club. Living the thug life in honor of their favorite band. Men who “sing” (?) in clown costumes.

    Brilliant? Definitely.

  31. Black people are so much cooler, vibrant and exciting than whites. Besides, it is white oppression that forces the black youfs to kill each other, they have been made irreparably retarded by evil white people, so nothing they do is their fault, they are not responsible for their actions in any way.

  32. This is why, although I have lived in the U-District for six years, I try not to walk down The Ave south of 47th after dark. To many belligerent assholes looking to pick fights with each other.

  36. @30 & @31, thanks for your asshole-ish input.

    One thing that i think is pretty obvious here is that the suspect’s racial background is not clear. I’ve heard reports from both secondhand accounts and news briefs that it was a black guy with a white bandana over his face, or a kid in juggalo makeup. So, what’s been determined? As far as I can tell, nothing, aside from a two-toned face, with some degree of masking.

    But now this *actual* Evergreen Student is going to make a race-based generalization: If it was a “juggalo”, I really doubt he was black. ICP’s fanbase tends to be made up of dumb white kids, not dumb black kids. Just sayin.

    Also, I’ve seen some extra-menacing juggalos patrol the Ave as recently as Tuesday night.

  37. I overheard a guy on the bus today speaking very loudly about the incident. He claimed to be best friends with the victim and apparently both the victim and suspect knew each other to some degree. The plot thickens.

  38. Yeah, there’s a whole crew of kids who hang around the alley east of University Way at 42nd. Seems like they keep to themselves mostly. Maybe this was more of an internecine thing. Still, weapon play is a deal breaker. Maybe time to get them to move on.

  39. well for fucks sake; where is a honky male supposed to score a quick dub sac of weed, if not the Ave? Seriously. (yeah, a consistent connection is best, but; that’s a bit oxymoronic considering the substance at hand)

    Sure, it’s best to go during the day, so you can see what’s up, but wtf?

    It’s supposed to me a MARKET, right?

  40. Before we take this destructive white/black talk any further, could we please remember that our president is Binaca Obama? Thank you.

  41. I remember when drug dealers on the ave were white. They had inverted crosses in their ears and Iron Maiden t-shirts. Crack was all the rage, not this meth shit. In the year 1987, on the same street as the recent shooting, I watched a body builder Asian guy from the UW point at a Metal Head, and repeat, “Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse….”. The Asian guy’s friends laughed. The Metal Head punched him in the face, and the Asian guy proceeded to beat the fuck out of him. Those were the days. The ave has gone way down hill. Maybe Obama can save it!!!!

  42. This story is a good demonstration of how useless our local newspapers are. I’ve been able to find out far more information about this case from blogs than from either the PI or Times, both of which have the same blurb tonight they did last night.

  43. @42 Bob, do you have links to other blogs containing information on this. Not calling you out, but just another curious person who wants to know.

  46. Need some super cool loitering laws for the police to enforce. When I lived in Portland someone who casued trouble on a regular basis could be trespassed from an entire neighborhood. I live in the U District and gotta say this has been a pretty bad year. Where is the City in all this? Our real great mayor and the council have been silent on the matter, thanks a whole lot. We need to adopt the slogan “Welcome to the U District, be nice or leave”.

  47. You guys don’t understand the Dark Carnival. You need to respect the five joker cards. This shooter wasn’t a Juggalo, he was an emo imposter trying to bring shame to ICP and the whole Psychopathic Records family.

    ICP rules.

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