Seattle city council candidates talk crime prevention on North Aurora

SEATTLE — Days after another shooting on Seattle’s Aurora Avenue, neighbors are outraged by what they’re calling inaction by city leaders.

Officers responded to the gunfire around 4:45 a.m. Tuesday outside an Arco gas station near North Northgate Way. SPD found a 44-year-old man with cuts on his head from broken glass.

Neighbors and business owners in the area told KOMO News they are glad it wasn’t worse, but they’re fed up with the shootings.

Peter Orr woke up to the pops of the rapid gunfire.

“It was a split second of disbelief, like, ‘This is happening again?’” he explained. “It’s incredibly frustrating. I mean, nobody wants that around residential, for sure.”

Seattle police reported that one man injured by broken glass was not involved in the shooting, but was parking his delivery truck in the lot at the time.

The suspect or suspects are still missing. Police believe a gold Chevy SUV parked in the lot at the time was the target of the shooting. They later found that SUV abandoned on North 105th and Fremont Avenue North.

Down the block from the crime scene, Little Amazon Fish and Pets Owner Linh Nguyen said the trend of gun violence might lead her to retire soon.

“They see it getting worse and the city is not doing much,” Nguyen stated, “Customers call me early in the daytime and ask, ‘How is it over there? Is it safe to go there?’”

She said she’d like to see more communication between city leaders and businesses to help prevent similar crimes, and she believes no one is listening.

“They need to have a plan to fix the city. Right now it looks like they don’t have any connection. Communication is bad,” she added.

She and neighbor Kendall Gregory believe something needs to be done, but there are differing opinions on how to address the violence and sex trafficking that fuels drug use and more safety issues.

“Maybe more cameras or more officers around,” Nguyen said.

“Just suppressing sex work is going to move it to other areas,” Gregory added.

These concerns KOMO took to the two candidates vying for the city council seat for this district.

Community advocate and primary leader Nilu Jenks does not support the city’s SOAP ordinance that bans people charged or convicted of prostitution-related offenses from certain high-crime areas.

Instead, she wants to hire more detectives for undercover operations.

“How would you deploy or fund permanent patrols on North Aurora, and without draining resources from other parts of Seattle?” KOMO’s Jackie Kent asked.

“We do have a public safety gap here. We do not have enough officers, is expanding the CARE team so that we can increase the response time on [less urgent] priority 3 calls so that our police officers can respond to priority one calls more quickly,” Jenks said.

Meanwhile, challenger Julie Kang is pushing for more officer hires and public safety investments, like cameras.

“It’s about the perception and having officers in the community engage with the community. I think that would help with some of the violent crime that’s happening, including the shootings,” Kang stated.

Jenks applauded a recent move by the city attorney to allocate staff to handle sex trafficking cases.

“What we really need is a collection of evidence. That goes back to those undercover operations and detectives so that we have the evidence that we need to do those prosecutions,” Jenks said.

“We have to understand what are the other cities in King County where things are working? And, why is it that we are still left behind, we are still waiting, we are continuously in state of emergency,” Kang added.

Both candidates said they support the mayor’s budget proposal for about 66 more officer hires.

Though Kang said that’s only a starting point.

In response to the Tuesday violence, the mayor’s office released the following statement: Every act of violence in Seattle is a violation of what people deserve – to be safe, comfortable, and confident as they go about their daily lives. From day one, the mayor has been clear that she shares Seattleites sense of urgency around reducing gun violence. Mayor Wilson has stayed focused on strengthening public safety communication practices, releasing a new approach to reducing gun violence, and introducing a balanced budget which invests in public safety and well-being.”