Monroe Ezell is a marked man. At 21, Ezell is one of the ranking
members of the Hoover Criminals 74, a South Seattle gang affiliated
with the Los Angeles–based Crips. Members of the Valley Hood Piru
(a Blood-­affiliated gang), and other Seattle gangs, want
him dead.

Ezell has a rap sheet with charges for robbery and drug possession,
and law-­enforcement sources say he is a suspect in a handful of
drive-by shootings around Seattle. According to Seattle Police
Department search-warrant records, Ezell was also a suspect in the
murder of 15-year-old Quincy Coleman—a known Deuce-8 gang member
with apparent ties to the Valley Hood Piru—who was gunned down
outside of Garfield High School on Halloween 2008.

Last month, Ezell was nearly killed outside of the King County Youth
Service Center, presumably by a rival gang member, possibly in
retaliation for Coleman’s murder. No arrests have been made.

“I don’t want to live like this,” a rattled Ezell now says. “You’ve
got to look every time a car passes that’s got too many people in
it.”

We’re sitting inside a South Seattle diner, about a month after the
shooting, and his eyes are tired and his shoulders sag. Ezell looks
weary. He is tall, but slight, having lost 30 pounds while he was
recovering in the hospital. As a waitress—clearly acquainted with
Ezell—approaches the table, Ezell lifts his long white T-shirt,
showing off his wounds. A plastic colostomy bag wraps halfway around
his abdomen.

“You’re lucky to be alive,” the waitress says.

On August 14, Ezell was standing outside of the parking lot of the
King County Youth Service Center with two younger Hoover
members—Ezell says rival gang members have frequently targeted
Hoovers as they leave court—when an SUV rolled down 12th Avenue.
The car pulled a U-turn at the end of the block and stopped in front of
Ezell. A man in the backseat opened his door, threw a red rag on the
ground, signifying a likely connection between the shooter and a
Blood-affiliated gang, and fired a volley of shots at the group,
striking Ezell in the arm, stomach, and buttocks. No one else was
injured. Ezell was taken to Harborview where, he says, members of the
Valley Hood Piru showed up to finish the job. SPD spokesman Mark
Jamieson confirms that a large group of young men showed up at the
hospital following the shooting and that officers were dispatched to
patrol the area. Jamieson was unaware of any arrests.

***

In the days following Coleman’s murder, Seattle police records say
witnesses spotted Ezell and a teenage accomplice—who, witnesses
told police, drove the car as Ezell allegedly opened fire on Coleman
from the backseat—at the scene of the shooting. The affidavit
also alleges that Ezell told an acquaintance that he had “killed that
little boy,” and one of Coleman’s friends, also wounded in the
incident, told Coleman’s mother that Ezell had killed her son.

Police picked Ezell up on a robbery warrant several weeks after the
shooting and interrogated him. Ezell told detectives he had been at the
Southcenter Mall at the time of the incident. Ezell denies any
involvement in Coleman’s murder, but police are still investigating his
alibi, and word of Ezell’s possible involvement in Coleman’s murder has
spread.

Coleman’s murder isn’t the only reason rival gangs are after Ezell.
While Ezell has pledged his loyalty to the south-end Hoovers, he
originally hails from the Central District, making him unpopular with
members of the Central District–based Deuce-8s, Deuce-0s, and
East Union Street Hustlers, he says. On top of that, Ezell believes he
has enough status within the Hoovers to make him a target for a rival
gang member looking to make a name for himself.

In the last few years, law enforcement has heavily targeted the
Hoovers, believed to be one of the larger and more organized gangs in
the city. In 2005, the Drug Enforcement Agency went after the South
Seattle gang with the Street Light Initiative. The DEA eventually
seized 23 guns and $250,000 in cash from the gang, and it charged 26
purported Hoover members with conspiracy to distribute cocaine,
marijuana, and OxyContin.

“We’ve prosecuted a number of Hoovers,” says Vince Lombardi, the
anti-gang coordinator for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “Most of the
Hoover cases we’ve done have been drugs or guns.”

In addition to attention from police, a number of young men with
ties to the Hoovers have also been targeted in shootings around the
Seattle area in the last two years.

On January 11, 2008, 14-year-old De’Che Morrison was shot and killed
near Martin Luther King Jr. Way and South Rose Street. Morrison is
believed to have ties to the Hoover and Down with the Crew gangs. On
November 22, 2008, Nathaniel Thomas, also believed to have Hoover ties,
was shot and killed inside Vito’s Madison Grill on First Hill. The next
evening, 16-year-old Daiquan Jones, a member of the Hoovers, was gunned
down at the Southcenter Mall after reportedly flashing gang
signs—or “stacking”—at members of the Low Profile gang.

Ezell has connections to other gang deaths in Seattle. He was
present when Allen Joplin was shot and killed at a party in downtown
Seattle in January 2008. During the shooting, Ezell says he was so
close to another girl struck by gunfire that her blood splattered on
his shoes. In August 2008, Ezell was also involved in a robbery on a
Metro bus in South Seattle with a group of young boys, including
16-year-old Pierre Lapoint. Four hours after the robbery, Lapoint was
shot dead near the corner of Rainier Avenue South and Graham
Street.

***

Leaning on the table back at the diner, Ezell rubs a scar on his
elbow, left by a bullet that passed through his arm. Below the scar is
a tattoo of his mother’s name. Doctors also repaired bullet wounds to
Ezell’s backside, and he still has a bullet sitting in his guts. And
these aren’t the only markings on his body left over from his life in
gangs. Ezell also has scars on his arm from where a police dog sunk its
teeth into him a few years back, and his left forearm bears a tattoo
with the name of a cousin killed in a shooting in 2002. Below his
cousin’s name, Ezell has a five-pointed star with an H in the center,
denoting his membership in the Hoovers.

After seven years in the Hoovers, Ezell is looking for a way out. He
has enrolled in school and is trying to come up with the money to pay
for classes.

“I would like to say it could end,” says Ezell. “They stop shooting
us, we stop shooting them.”

After finishing a large plate of pancakes, Ezell stands up and limps
past the front counter of the restaurant. The waitress turns to him.
“It’s a shame that had to happen for you to wake up,” she says. Ezell
turns to face her.

“I woke all the way up,” he says.

That remains to be seen. Ezell claims his departure from the Hoovers
would leave 40 or so younger members of the gang vulnerable to attacks
from the hundreds of Deuce-8, East Union Street Hustlers, or Valley
Hood Piru members out for blood. And while Ezell plays up his
changed-man image, the result of his near-death experience, his
gangster bravado remains. The man who shot him is being “hunted,” Ezell
says, although he claims he doesn’t want to see any harm come to his
assailant. He brags, “A lot of people are going to get killed over me
getting shot.” recommended

Jonah Spangenthal-Lee: Proving you wrong since 1983.

32 replies on “No Way Out”

  1. Drug prohibition has NEVER, EVER prevented drug use. People have been getting high for so long, it’s difficult to pinpoint a time in history when people were NOT getting high. EVERY “war on drugs” has been an obscenely expensive failure, resulting only in the pointless incarceration of otherwise innocent people, and the propagation of underground commerce by otherwise violent people. There are few clean & safe procurement alternatives; that’s why we ultimately subsidize the lifestyle of young men who frequently miss their targets and kill or maim innocent bystanders. THAT is the price of prohibition, along with the quarter-million dollars (minimum) per dude like Monroe Ezelll racks up in public health care. War on drugs? Sure, why not? But war is hell, and we’re all in it, every single bullshit public-policy day.

  2. Drug prohibition has never, ever prevented drug use. People have been getting high for so long, it’s difficult to pinpoint a time in history when people were NOT getting high. EVERY “war on drugs” has been an obscenely expensive failure, resulting mostly in the pointless incarceration of otherwise innocent people, and the often-violent propagation of underground commerce. Most people have few clean & safe procurement alternatives, leading them to subsidize the lifestyle of other people, who frequently miss their targets, only to kill or maim innocent bystanders. THAT is the price of prohibition, along with the quarter-million dollars (minimum) per dude like Monroe Ezelll rack up in public health care. War on drugs? Okay, fine. But war is hell, and we’re all in it, every single bullshit public-policy day.

  12. What’s this about Jonah being sacked? That is an OUTRAGE, at least based on the calibre of writing I have often seen following his byline.

  13. Relating to Mr. B’s comment, consider that certain jurisdictions, especially school districts, screen for THC (weed) with a hair follicle test. Several courts have ruled that “protection” of a student from drugs outweighs a student’s reasonable expectation of privacy, and students are subject to search without probable cause. In some cases, a student signs a sort of implied consent agreement as a condition required to participate in extracurricular activities. Never mind that one can test positive for THC through proximity inhalation (second-hand smoke.) The scientific validity is also in dispute. Perhaps Jon Golob has thoughts to share?

  15. It is a shame these young black men don’t see what is going on.The drugs were brought into the US in order that the black race could be extinct.It didn’t work with the KKK,so they found a better way. And guess what, both of them are sitting back laughing at them, and not only laughing at them, but also thanking them for doing their job. Somebody needs to heip open the eyes of our young people to whats really going on.

  16. Does anyone else have a clue as to what it will encompass to heal our communities and curtail our youths from this specific type of gang violence and fatalities? If so, I would like to chat with you? wpatters@uw.edu

    – Min. W.D. Dell Patterson

  18. It’s true that Jonah doesn’t work at the paper anymore. Obviously we can’t discuss employment issues, but we can say that Jonah did some great work at The Stranger, that he’s a good guy, and that we’re grateful to him for his time here. It has nothing to do with his (mild) criticism of Mike McGinn, as some have speculated—we fight about politics all the time here, which is part of what makes the paper interesting.

  21. “Aww gee now that a bunch of people want to kill me I don’t want to do this anymore”. Bullshit. Maybe he should’ve thought of that before committing acts of violence on others.

  22. @ #18

    Have you any idea how ridiculous your sentence reads? It sounds like an excerpt from a sketch with Keenan Ivory Wayans and David Allen Grier.

    Since you have access to a university, you may want to invest some time in the study of English, composition, and vocabulary.

  24. At #2: I don’t think he was suggesting prohibition; he was suggesting that people think about what they’re funding before they spend their student loans on drugs. It’s a little outrageous to suggest you have no choice but to subsidize gangs. There’s a pretty simple choice actually: stop doing so much coke.

  25. You know, there are other good programs on the telly other than The Wire. What’s with white people’s obsession with gansta-ism? Can’t you find a more sympathetic character in Seattle “trying to turn his/her life around”?
    -whiteguy

  26. I don’t know how people can sit back and judge someone when they have no idea what is going on. Just because Monroe is under investigation for murder does not mean he did it. Grant it, he is obviously a gang member, but that does not make him less of a person and that does not mean that he should die! And to MrB how dare you say that they need to kill each other off and no one will miss them!! You sound stupid! These young men have parents, siblings, grandparents and kids, so maybe you need to take that into consideration, if someone is really trying to change their life don’t knock them. If it took bullets for Monroe to get his life right than so be it, better late than never! And to duffomatic, you don’t know if he killed anyone, so its really sad that you would even wish death on anyone! If someone tries to change their life I’m supporting it i’m not knocking it, thats what wrong with our community now, everybody is against everybody!!! GET IT TOGETHER AND COME TOGETHER!!!!

  27. Nice piece. When the anthropomorphic Stranger is getting wasted in it’s slovenly studio apt, wondering where it all went wrong, I imagine Jonah’s departure will be a painful memory.

    JoNAH! Come BAAACK! I want to TOUCH your FACE!@

  28. I’ve always heard about people being hurt by the reckless things that people post, in response to articles. Being that Monroe is my brother, and reading these bullshit ass comments. You people are sick, really. You don’t know what it’s like to grown up in the streets and fight for your life every day. Yeah this is the lifestyle a lot of people chose, however most of us were born into this environment and there really isn’t too much we can do about it. You guys don’t know shit about the people who are interviewed, especially since the media is good for making people out to be a bad person. My whole thing is why would you get behind a computer and start typing away all type of shit you wouldn’t dare to say to a person’s face. Shit their family would see & be hurt by. Or even the fact you wouldn’t want anybody saying g hurtful things toward your children or loved ones. I’m just saying, people are cruel and this I know, but on the internet though. Who does that, you don’t know this man or anything about him. Your opinion about my brother, (which we all know is irrelevant) has been based on this funky ass interview. Hello, we all know how the media gets down so cool it on the insults. That shit is uncalled for, unnecessary & really nobody even cares what you have to say except for the people who are close to this man. Nobody perfect, everybody makes mistakes. Behind every action is a reaction, and I’m sure my brother is aware of that. I feel as if he got his wake up call & he knows how blessed he is to get another chance. Wanna see how it’s done, don’t sleep on us… & for those of you that get off on talking shit on the internet, HI HATER!

  30. I know this young man personally, and he is not the monster that he’s being portrayed as. Alot of the mahem that goes on within the gang community is a matter of survival. I do not condone the drug sellin and violence, and I am certainly not trying to give credence to the gang lifestyle or mentallity. Young Black Men are not the only demographic gangbanging on the planet. I didn’t hear any outrage from white folx when James Byrd was dragged to death in back of a truck.

  31. There are few clean & safe procurement alternatives; that’s why we ultimately subsidize the lifestyle of young men who frequently miss their targets and kill or maim innocent bystanders.

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