SEATTLE — Next week, the city of Seattle is offering active shooter training to businesses on Capitol Hill. The training will be like what was offered to King County Metro Transit police in 2014.
Now, those who work and live in Seattle's traditional gay community say they need such training, too.
"I think that it's pretty necessary," said Kelly Bennett. "Because our crime rate has just, like, it's been, like, growing, like, exponentially."
Bennett works at a Capitol Hill restaurant. He says he has been upset since the deadly random shooting last November outside the QFC at Broadway and East Pike.
"The person that died was just a random person that got hit with a stray bullet that went through the window," said Bennett. "So I definitely think it's necessary."
"So maybe it was necessary whether or not Orlando happened?" he was asked.
"Yeah, yeah," he said. "I definitely believe that."
But the massacre of 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, coming as it did during the month of Pride for the LGBTQ community, has hit hardest here.
"It struck home for many of us," said Sierra Hansen, executive director of the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce.
So they signed on immediately for the active shooter training Seattle is offering.
"There are a lot of concerns and fears with the recent tragic events in Orlando," Hansen said. "And I assume the city is responding to that in a very responsible and proper way."
Cox Media Group
