Seattle residents set up barriers to block drug violence, prostitution from spilling into neighborhood

Seattle residents along the North Aurora corridor took matters into their own hands after another violent weekend left roughly 40 shell casings scattered near Aurora Avenue North and North 98th Street. Violence between gangs and pimps has been increasing in the area.

Last week, bullets tore through a Greenwood home near North 98th Street and Linden Avenue North, passing dangerously close to a window where a six-week-old baby boy was asleep in a bassinet.

According to police, the latest shooting occurred around 4 am Saturday near the Burgermaster at 101st Street and Aurora Avenue North. Seattle police said callers reported more than 30 gunshots. Officers arrived to find crowds dispersing from a nearby club and shell casings on both sides of Aurora Avenue.

Police said multiple buildings and at least one vehicle were struck by gunfire. Surveillance video obtained by KOMO News captured about 15 seconds of rapid gunfire. Additional footage reportedly showed groups firing from behind cars toward the Burgermaster property.

Neighbors determined on Saturday that they were done waiting for city officials. Residents installed large industrial steel planters across residential side streets at North 97th, 98th, and 102nd Streets, where they connect with Aurora Avenue North. The barriers were placed in an effort to stop gun violence, prostitution, and other criminal activity from spilling in from nearby neighborhoods.

Neighbors said representatives from the mayor’s office and the Seattle Department of Transportation arrived and objected to the closures, but residents refused to remove them. According to KIRO 7, a letter was attached to each planter explaining why the neighborhood had acted. “For more than three years, many of us have been engaging almost daily with city officials, law enforcement, SDOT, and other local agencies to find both immediate and long-term solutions,” the letter stated. “Homes have been hit by gunfire, narrowly missing children. Our military veterans, thinking they’d found a peaceful neighborhood, are now suffering from PTSD.”

Residents say the violence is not isolated. After a high-profile Aurora Avenue shootout last summer, SDOT reportedly agreed to close several residential streets, but neighbors say the mayor’s office never issued the final order. They say the result has been more crime moving deeper into the neighborhood.

The frustration comes as Seattle continues to face the fallout from a depleted police force. SPD has fallen from roughly 1,203 deployable officers in 2020 to about 861 today, following the 2020 riots and the City Council’s push to defund the department.