Casey McNerthney of seattlepi.com shared the following information about the man who was found shot yesterday evening in Woodland Park:
A man shot three times Monday at Woodland Park died at Harborview Medical Center, hospital staff said Tuesday.
The man, whom authorities identified as a victim, had a violent history that included drug convictions, theft, eluding police and unlawful firearm possession, court documents show.
Investigators have not released a suspect description.
Police were called at 5:18 p.m. to the 6000 block of Aurora Avenue North, a short walk from the Green Lake trail and the Woodland Park off leash area. Homicide detectives were called to the scene shortly after.
The victim was shot twice in the neck and once in the right arm, a fire department spokesman said. CPR was performed on the victim as he was rushed to Harborview Medical Center. It was not clear how long he’d been wounded when authorities arrived, medics said.
Authorities said at least one of the shots caused serious brain damage.
The victim was initially thought to have been the passenger in a vehicle. Officers were looking for a 1980s- or 1990s- model white Cadillac, or possibly a white Honda. A witness told police a white Honda was in the area shortly before the shooting.
Police searched for hours in the area – which police say is known for occasional prostitution activity, car prowls and transients. Investigators blocked both entrances to the lawn bowling area and investigators were entering the park through Lower Woodland, near the lake trail.
The 31-year-old victim has a criminal history going back to when he was a juvenile. His name was confirmed by Harborview, but seattlepi.com is not naming the man because his identity has not been released by the King County Medical Examiner, pending family notification.
In April 2006, police say the man put a handgun against the chest of an acquaintance in Kent and demanded everything he had while patting down his pockets. Investigators say the man took $150 in cash and a pack of cigarettes before driving away in his Dodge Stratus.
He was charged with first-degree robbery, but the case was dismissed in 2007. The man, who had at least five felony convictions, completed his Department of Corrections supervision from an earlier case in Feb. 2009.
He was with his father near the Pike Place Market when police say they were involved in a cocaine deal in fall 2006. The man pleaded guilty to attempted cocaine possession. His 41-year-old father – a man with more than 100 warrants, according to court documents – pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess cocaine.
Monday’s shooting death is the seventh homicide from Seattle incidents this year and the first since Feb. 12 when a 22-year-old man was shot after a disturbance at a Sodo nightclub. All of this year’s homicides have been shootings.
Get your facts straight. You take information from Seattle police and we see how their department is run. LOL you should stick to writing about lost dogs and restaurant openings because you’re not good at this. Seattle PI doesn’t want to release his name because they know this man has a lot of family and friends in Seattle and in his church. Next time someone’s loved one gets killed in your neighborhood don’t just talk to the “police”and report charges that were dropped or never files or FALSE or bogus report true things OR don’t report because really it makes you “the writer” look ignorant. I think you should be ashamed of yourself.
Thanks for the feedback, Jasakchoza, and I’m truly sorry if this seattlepi.com article was upsetting to you.
As with all stories that relate to Green Lake, we’re working to bring the neighborhood as much available information as possible about this incident.
If you have additional information about the victim of this crime that you would like to share, please feel free to add it to this comment thread or to email us at tips@mygreenlake.com, and we will share that information as well.
Thank you, and I am sorry for your loss.
Amy
I am in agreement with Jasakchoza. This victim is not the person you have made him out to be. People can make changes in their lives you know. He has a beloved wife and four small children. You want to cause more grief on them than they already have? You should’ve done more investigating on his present life rather than digging to find some negative to print. This is a disgrace to his wife and family, church family, and his Pastors.
Thanks for the feedback and additional information, Enreval.
What others have brought up about this murdered man: his marriage, his four kids, and his friends at church and elsewhere are, in a sense, irrelevant to his murder. People don’t often get killed for being married, for having kids, for having friends or for going to church.
They do often get killed for “a violent history that included drug convictions, theft, eluding police and unlawful firearm possession.” If we want to understand his murder, there’s where we need to look. If we want to find his killer, there’s where we must go. It’s unlikely he was killed by a babysitter from his church who was angry at not being paid enough. It’s highly likely he was killed in some drug deal gone sour.
There’s a sad moral here. Lead a double life and your better life won’t necessarily protect you from the consequences of your bad life. You’ve got to break utterly completely from that life. You can’t weave into and out of it.
And I’m quite aware that drug addiction and the crimes used to support it are hard to escape. I used to direct a group home for drug addicts and alcoholics and I worked at a homeless shelter in Alaska. But that’s also a powerful argument for not taking the first steps along that path or for sugar-coating the disasters that can follow.
this man was never on drugs. you evidentally dont have time to mind your own business. i pray one day you and your loved ones are not touched by tragedy. and look at all the charges that were never filed against him. are you a seattle police officer???
Do you realize how naive you sound? People get killed all the time for nothing. Children are been shot in their schools, guess they shouldn’t be going to school right. Babysitters get killed for babysitting (wrong place at the wrong time). This man was murdered, people are murdered everyday for nothing that has to do with a violent past or drugs. Someone you love could be murdered for no reason other than we live in a world with some very sick individuals. Don’t look down your nose when you have no idea, your naive, try to remember that when trying to explain or rationalize the murder of someone. This is where we at in this world, idiots trying to rationalize a murder until it happens to someone they love.
I live just a few blocks from where this occurred. I feel awful for the family and my thoughts go out to them. However since this occurred many in the area have been struggling to understand what happened. Was this a random act or was this the result of something else like a drug rip or some other preceding incident?
As much as the family may not like to see this information in print, we the public, have a right to know what happened in our neighborhood. I just ran his name through the Washington case search list and this man and his father both appear to have quite a record. Suffice it to say, at this point it does not appear to be a random act. That likely means nothing to family and friends in terms of acceptance, but it certainly helps to calm those of us who live here as we can now surmise there isn’t some crazy person roaming Green Lake/Woodland Park shooting people at random.
To the family, sorry for your loss. To the reporters, thanks for the info.
I suggest you run the names of some of your own relatives, friend, co-workers you might be surprised at what you find.