SEATTLE — City leaders are addressing a violent weekend in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, including a triple homicide and more shots fired.
After weeks of zero reported homicides across Seattle, a violent weekend brought a triple homicide outside a nightclub, leaving families in mourning.
Everybody who had a little glimpse of Keilani was impacted by her. She didn’t deserve to die this way,” stated Christina Rivas, the mother of 19-year-old Keilani Harris, who was killed outside the Ohm Nightclub.
Another shooting reported Tuesday in the 100 block of South Washington sent one person to Harborview Medical Center in serious condition.
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The most recent data from Seattle’s Crime Dashboard, in addition to the two weekend shootings in Pioneer Square, brings the total number of shootings and shots fired in the historic neighborhood to eight so far in 2025. That’s three more than in all of 2024, according to the dashboard.
“[I’m] still in shock. Hoping we can get some efforts in place to make sure people can come down this summer safely,” Alliance for Pioneer Square Executive Director Lisa Howard told KOMO News. “The gun violence needs to stop, and we need to be convening for happy reasons and not something like this.”
City leaders said despite progress being made on city-wide public safety challenges, they acknowledge there’s work to do.
Councilmember Bob Kettle is the city’s public safety committee chair.
In these difficult times like this weekend, we need to keep the press on and know that we’re moving in the right direction, and we just need to keep tackling these challenges and shrinking the permissive environment that underlines these things as we move forward,” Kettle stated. “We’re making these daytime improvements throughout the city and then we have some backsliding at night.
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He explained it could take years for the public to see the impacts of existing legislation at work in the effort to combat gun violence across the city. That includes a new bill setting safety guidelines for after-hours establishments; tougher penalties for street racing; and the addition of the Real Time Crime Center that has yet to come online.
“What would you say is the city’s biggest challenge tackling gun violence going forward?” KOMO News’ Jackie Kent asked.
“Part of this is the easy availability of the guns, and also a lot of times these are younger people,” Kettle responded. “And, this is where things like the after-hours establishments bill is so important. We’re making statements to them, and we need to change that dynamic.”
Mayor Bruce Harrell, in a statement following the Saturday shooting, wrote, in part, that police in two years seized more than 3,400 guns from Seattle streets and boosted officer recruitment, but that more must be done to prevent “senseless gun violence” heading into the summer.
A spokesperson with Mayor Harrell’s office said later this week that the office plans to share details about a summer safety plan to prevent and reduce violence near crime hotspots, like parks and other public places.
