‘That could happen to anyone’: Seattle police see third homicide of 2024

SEATTLE — We now have a third homicide in the Emerald City this year. The King County medical examiner has identified the victim as 28-year-old Corey Baron.

He died from his injuries last Friday, five days after he was shot in the 1900 block of East Jefferson Street. Baron was struck at the intersection but was able to drive several feet before his car came to rest.

Connor Putnal remembers January 28 as a Sunday so warm he had his back windows open even at 9:15 that night.

“And I heard five, what sounded to be gunshots you know, pretty quick in a row there,” Putnal said. “And so I texted my friend who lives next door and he was out of town at the time. But it was quite concerning.”

Soon, Seattle police converged on East Jefferson Street. A driver had been shot. His passengers said they initially thought he had hit a rock.

“Their car kind of scraped my roommate’s car as it came to a stop in front of our house,” said Natalie Lyons-Cohen.

She wasn’t home when the shooting happened but her roommate was.

“It’s a little scary, obviously when anything like that happens really close to your house, yeah,” Lyons-Cohen said. “Mostly we were just hoping everyone was OK.”

And for a while, it seemed 28-year-old Corey Baron might make it. But Seattle police got word he died last Friday.

His is Seattle’s third homicide so far this year.

January 23, 15-year-old Mobarak Adam was fatally shot in the bathroom at the Southwest Teen Life Center in West Seattle.

Eight days later, 32-year-old Joel Chino Silva was found dead on the sidewalk near a homeless shelter in the Chinatown International District.

Lyons-Cohen saidshe isn’t afraid except perhaps for this.

“Like if it really was just super random, that could happen to anyone,” she said.

Seattle police haven’t said that. In fact, they haven’t really said much about this shooting.

We know all three homicides remain unsolved. That means there are at least three suspects still on the loose.

If you know anything about these shootings, you’re asked to call the Seattle Police Department.

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