Police searching for suspect in shooting outside Garfield High

A 17-year-old-boy is in serious condition after he was shot near Garfield High School Thursday.

Police are searching for the suspect, who is believed to be a high school-aged male, Deputy Chief Eric Barden said in a news conference.

Shots were fired in the school’s parking lot during lunch time, and a Garfield High student was injured, according to a statement from Seattle Public Schools.

Nova High and Washington Middle School nearby are in shelter-in-place mode, with outside doors locked but normal school operations continuing, the district said.

Garfield began releasing students around 3:15 p.m. Classrooms were being dismissed in a staggered manner, according to the district. Families can pick students up on the east side of the football field, located at the rear of the building. Families can prepare to meet there, the district said.

Students trickled out of the school’s back doors at 3:45 p.m. as cars slowly snaked down East Alder Street. A crowd of parents stood anxiously near the gate and across the street, some crying or hugging each other.

Jeff Scott said he was flooded with relief when his daughter, a Garfield freshman, emerged from the school.

Responding to the school after another shooting so soon after the last one felt “surreal,” he said.

A student was shot in March while waiting for her bus outside the school. There was also a shooting outside the school in October and a string of nearby shootings last June that did not involve students but prompted increased security on campus.

“Kids shouldn’t have to deal with this — it’s too much,” Scott said. “I honestly don’t know what we do about it.”

Melanie Skinner waited across the street for her daughter, a Garfield student, to come outside. After the shooting in March, Skinner said she helped organize a protest calling for more intervention to prevent gun violence near the school.
“I’m really raw,” Skinner said. “It’s become so normalized.”  

Police urged people to avoid the area. The shooting comes 15 days before the last day of school at Garfield High.

Harborview Medical Center was treating the teenager, who was in serious condition, spokesperson Susan Gregg said. Barden said the victim went into surgery at the hospital.

Officers responded at about 12:30 p.m. to reports of gunfire at the school and found the boy on the ground, Barden said. Officers applied chest seals and rendered first aid until Seattle Fire Department paramedics arrived and took him to Harborview.

Homicide detectives and members of the gun-violence reduction unit have responded to the school.

Detectives learned that before the shooting, the 17-year-old tried to break up “an altercation” between the suspect and another person. After walking away, the suspect approached the 17-year-old and shot him multiple times, Barden said.

Police have not yet identified or found the suspect, who fled on foot and was wearing a red sweatshirt, light blue jeans and white sneakers.

“This is an extraordinary tragedy for the community,” Barden said. “It’s the community’s top priority to protect young people.”

Detectives are reviewing surveillance camera footage and interviewing witnesses. Barden encouraged anyone with information about the shooting or suspect’s identity to call 206-233-5000.

By 1:30 p.m. Thursday, more than a dozen Seattle police cruisers, including one for a K-9 unit, were parked along the west side of the school.

Police placed crime scene tapes to block anyone from entering the school.

Serafina Alberoto, 16, and Meriyem Roba, 16, both Garfield sophomores, were buying lunch from a nearby chicken shop when they said they saw seven Seattle police cruisers zoom toward the school.

At 12:32 p.m., Roba’s freshman brother called her and begged her not to walk back to the school.

“He said, ‘Don’t come, don’t come — the whole school is on lockdown,’” Roba said. “He was panicked.”

Roba and Alberoto said they feel numb as shootings have become so frequent around their school. From a perch on a patio outside the school, they pointed out the locations of recent shootings.

“We feel unsafe — imagine if that was one of us?” Roba said.

“It can be one of us anytime,” Alberoto said.

The sophomores said Garfield students are struggling emotionally, and some have been drawn into gangs. Their social media feeds often show fellow students posing with guns, they said.

The students said their counselors are overworked, and appointments with the school’s therapist are rare.

“We need to give them hope of a future, because if they think they’ll die at 25, why not do this?” Roba said, gesturing at the crime scene tape.

On Thursday, Seattle Public Schools’ website linked to a page for Gun Violence Awareness Day, which falls on Friday.

Michelle Martine, a first-grade teacher at Stevens Elementary School and a parent of a 16-year-old Garfield sophomore, said she raced to the school after learning of the shooting.

Standing behind the yellow crime scene tape, Martine yelled at the officers gathered next to the school to close the school tomorrow.

“Don’t send our kids back here, it’s cruel,” she yelled. “No school for the rest of the year.”

Martine said she taught the 17-year-old girl who was shot outside Garfield High School in March. Her son is friends with the girl and was standing next to her when the shooting happened, the bullets missing him by inches, she said.

While her son doesn’t want to miss school or time with his friends, Martine said he’s been afraid to walk to Garfield ever since.

Around 2:45 p.m., she said she hadn’t received an update from the school or district since 1:45 p.m., and was anxious to know her son was all right.

Martine said Garfield High School did not close the day after the shooting two months ago. She’s hoping the district will close the school tomorrow or for the rest of the year to protect its students.

“My job as a teacher and a parent is to keep kids safe,” she said. “I just don’t want to see a kid end their school year on the ground, dead.”

Seattle Times staff reporter David Gutman contributed to this report.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.