SEATTLE — The Seattle community gathered together to mourn on Monday night at a sunset vigil while law enforcement continues to look for answers and an outstanding suspect.
You could feel grief and anger as people continue to process what happened. A candlelight vigil, flowers left for the lives lost, as local activists came together to condemn Sunday’s shooting.
At times, things got contentious.
“Enough is enough! Enough is enough!” shouted the crowd.
An emotional and tense scene as local organizers and city officials, including Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and Police Chief Shon Barnes, were in attendance.
“I don’t know how to make sense out of it,” Seattle Center Director Randy Engstrom admits. “But I also know this is not going to break us.”
Amongst the speakers was Arron Murphy-Paine, the father of Amarr Murphy-Paine, the 17-year-old who was shot and killed at Garfield High School just over two years ago. Grieving again for this community, hoping to prevent youth gun violence from affecting another family.
“You don’t want to be this parent,” he blared into the megaphone. “What we saw yesterday, that’s an example of it could happen to any of us.”
For everyone left scrambling to pick up the pieces today, it’s been traumatic. But for business owners, last night’s shooting also comes with financial repercussions.
“Vendors we were talking about, you know, the time was cut short. The show was supposed to end at 8 p.m. It ended at about 6 p.m.,” says vendor Robert Ramirez.
“For us vendors that we invest time and money to come out here, it’s a lot of time,” notes the owner of Otaku Sugoi. “But when we think about what happened and the fact that we’re safe, what those families are going through… it didn’t matter anymore.”
He mourns not only those killed, but the city and Bite of Seattle festival as well.
“It’s very sad. It’s very sad for the families. Very sad for us. Very sad also for the community,” Ramirez says.
They say they’re going to think twice about coming out to this event next year. Or, other events.
“This happened here. But, I mean, it could happen anywhere,” added Ramirez, who is from Los Angeles and owns a family-run business.
He says he was about 50 feet away when the shooting started. All he saw was the stampede of people. But, luckily, he was able to quickly grab his 68-year-old father and pull him to safety.
They packed up their trailer today, heading to Portland next.
Meanwhile, one thing that leaders stressed at tonight’s vigil: continued collaboration and a focus on at-risk youth. They stressed that even with safeguards in place, everyone has to continue to work together to make the most of community resources.
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