As authorities continue to look for the gunman, a 17-year-old son who was shot outside Garfield High School on Thursday passed away at Harborview Medical Center.
According to Deputy Chief Eric Barden, the assume is reportedly a high school student.
Shots were fired in the university’s parking lot during meal time, and a Garfield High pupil was injured, Seattle Public Schools said in a statement. Around 6:15 p.m., according to authorities, Harborview Medical Center after confirmed the young died.
” I ca n’t use the word trauma enough to describe what our children are going through”, said Mayor Bruce Harrell, a graduate of Garfield High School, at a news conference Thursday. ” This is not the first shooting at Garfield, and these children deserve better”.
Harrell stated that he is directing the Portland Police Department to increase guards.
The ministry will “redouble” its work in the Central District to assist students and families feel healthy, according to interim police chief Sue Rahr.
” We’re not coming in here to be difficult- key policing”, Rahr said at the media event in the Central District’s Mount Calvary Christian Center. ” We’re coming into the area to obtain with the group, function with the group”.
Soon after 4:30 p.m., Barden reported that crime scene computers were cleaning up the area and that police were meeting with witnesses and students.
Garfield began releasing kids around 3: 15 p. m. Kids trickled out of the school’s rear windows at 3: 45 p. m. as vehicles gently snaked down East Alder Street. Parents were gathered nearby the gate and across the city, some crying or giving each other kisses.
The district reported that while regular school activities were going on, Nova High and Washington Middle School near were in” shelf-in-place mode.” Outside doors were locked, but regular school activities continued.
Jeff Scott said he was relieved when his child, a Garfield sophomore, emerged from the school.
Responding to the institution after another killing so soon after the last one” smelled surreal,” he said.
A pupil was shot in March , while waiting for her vehicle outside the class.  , There was also , a firing outside the university in October , and a , series of local shootings , last June that did not involve kids but prompted increased surveillance on college.
” Kids should n’t have to deal with this — it’s too much”, Scott said. ” I honestly do n’t know what we do about it”.
Melanie Skinner waited across the street for her child, a Garfield scholar, to come around. Skinner claimed to have organized a rally calling for more action to stop firearm violence near the school following the March shooting.
” I’m really raw”, Skinner said. ” It’s become so normalized”.
Police , urged people to avoid the place. The firing occurs 15 times before Garfield High’s final day of classes.
According to Barden, the victim entered Harborview Medical Center for operation. Later, authorities confirmed that he died from his injuries.
Officers responded at about 12: 30 p. m. to accounts of gunfire at the school and found the child on the ground, Barden said. Before Seattle Fire Department paramedics arrived and transported him to Harborview, officials applied stomach seals and administered first help.
Cops learned that before the firing, the 17- year- aged tried to break up” an encounter” between two males, Barden said. He claimed that one of the boys once became “apparently unhappy” and exchanged terms with the target before shooting him and fleeing.
Authorities have not identified or found the think, who fled on foot and was wearing a dark hoodie, light blue jeans and white sneakers.
According to Barden, officers “flooded” the locations where suspects were seen running but were unable to find him.
Witness interviews are being conducted by police while security camera footage is being reviewed. Barden encouraged people with information about the killing or accused’s personality to call , 206- 233- 5000.
” This is an incredible tragedy for the community”, Barden said. ” It’s the community’s top priority to protect young people”.
Mount Calvary Bishop Reggie C. Witherspoon Sr., who said he knows the defendant’s home, said his soul is” crushed”. Witherspoon said the group, not merely officers, are responsible for transforming the growing flood of firearm violence. At the Thursday media event were likewise staff members from Urban Family, a group that promotes youth assault.
” We have an incident on our palms”, Witherspoon said. We could lose an entire generation of young people, the statement goes.
Serafina Alberoto, 16, and Meriyem Roba, 16, both Garfield sophomores, were buying meal from a local meat buy when they said they saw seven Seattle police cruisers move toward the class.
At 12: 32 p. m., Roba’s rookie brother called her and begged her not to move back to the school.
” He said,’ Do n’t  , come,  , do n’t  , come , — , the whole school is on lockdown,'” Roba said. ” He was panicked”.
Roba and Alberoto said they are cold as murders have become so frequent at their school. They pointed out the areas of recent shootings from a seat on a terrace outside the university.
” We feel unsafe , — , think if that was one of us”? Roba said.
” It can be one of us anytime”, Alberoto said.
The freshmen claimed that some Garfield students have been drawn into gangs and are struggling with their emotions. According to them, their social media accounts frequently feature other pupils posing with firearms.
The pupils said their advisors are overworked, and meetings with the school’s therapist are unique.
” We need to give them hope of a prospect, because if they think they’ll kill at 25, why not do this”? Roba said, gesturing at the murder scene audio.
On Thursday, Seattle Public Schools ‘ site linked to , a section for Gun Violence Awareness Day, which falls on Friday.
Gun violence has plagued Garfield students and staff for years on or near the school.
There have been almost five on-campus gun violence occurrences in Seattle schools since the 1990s. Two of those were at Garfield. In 1994, a scholar pulled out a gun and started shooting during a fight in the lunch, injuring two kids. A youth group associate shot and killed a Garfield scholar from a rival gang behind the school building in 2008, according to wikipedia.
Michelle Martine, a second grade teacher at Stevens Elementary School and a parent of a 16- year- ancient Garfield sophomore, said she raced to the school after learning of the shooting.
Martine yelled at the police officers gathered next to the school to halt operations tomorrow while standing behind the yellow crime scene tape.
” Do n’t send our kids back here, it’s cruel”, she yelled. The rest of the year, no school.
Martine claimed to have taught the 17-year-old girl who was shot in March outside Garfield High School. When the girl was standing next to her, her son, who is close friends with her, said that he missed him by several inches.
Martine said she has been afraid to walk to Garfield ever since, despite the fact that her son does n’t want to miss his friends or school.
Martine claimed that Garfield High School did not close the school the day after the two-month-old shooting. She anticipates that the district will shut down the school tomorrow or the rest of the year to safeguard its students.
” My job as a teacher and a parent is to keep kids safe”, she said. ” I just do n’t want to see a kid end their school year on the ground, dead”.
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Dahlia Bazzaz and David Gutman, Seattle Times staff writers, contributed to this article.
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