The headline implies that most murders are “random,” and therefore it’s a matter of note, worthy of being put in the headline, if a murder is not random. What the police here mean by “not random” is that the perpetrators knew the victims beforehand. The three home invaders / murderers in this case were black and evidently their two victims were also black, and it seems to have been some kind of gang-related or revenge murder. So the police call it “not random.” The police in this country automatically designate as “random” all murders in which the killer did not personally know the victim beforehand. If a criminal sees a person who meets his requirements, and decides to rape or kill that person, and then proceeds to rape or kill that person, that is considered a “random” attack. Which means that virtually all murders of whites by nonwhites in this country are “random.” By the reasoning of today’s police, the
, were all “random” events.
North Seattle double-slaying not random, police say
Police say the two young men who were fatally shot late Monday in a North Seattle town house were apparently targeted.
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Seattle police investigate outside the town house where a home-invasion robbery Monday night ended in the fatal shooting of two of the home’s occupants.
Sure, they threw plenty of parties, but the young men who lived in a North Seattle town house were always polite and cleaned up after their gatherings, according to neighbors.
There was always lots of traffic, too: Cars would pull up and park outside of neighbors’ houses along Interlake Avenue North, usually for only a few minutes, before driving off again, they said.
Seattle police say two men, ages 18 and 20, were fatally shot in the town house Monday by a trio of home-invasion robbers, who apparently targeted the victims. Police did not say what, if anything, the assailants stole.
“This was definitely not a random-type crime,” said Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson. “This residence was targeted by the suspects for whatever reason.”
At 11:06 p.m. Monday, police and medics responded to a 911 call at the town house in the 1400 block of North Northgate Way, said Jamieson. One of the men later died during surgery at Harborview Medical Center; the other died in the hospital’s emergency room, a nursing supervisor said early Tuesday.
Relatives said the two victims lived at the town house.
A third man, who was in the town house at the time, was not injured.
He apparently witnessed the shootings and provided police with vague descriptions of the home-invasion robbers, Jamieson said.
The three assailants were described as African-American men in their late 20s or early 30s and were dressed in all-black clothing, he said.
Jamieson said the victims were targeted by their assailants, but police are still working to figure out the relationship between them.
Neighbors said they suspected drug activity at the town house, and Jamieson said “that’s certainly going to be something the detectives are looking at.”
Autopsies are scheduled today, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, which did not release the men’s names Tuesday.
The deaths are Seattle’s first homicides of the year.
The town house was built about two years ago, and neighbors said the three roommates moved in about 1 ½ years ago. The beige duplex with white trim is wedged behind another house that borders North Northgate Way.
Police tape was strung across the alley leading to the residence, which is paces from Interlake Avenue North, about three blocks east of Aurora Avenue North.
A white Cadillac that neighbors said belonged to one of the victims remained parked at the end of the alley.
Kyle Simon, a University of Washington senior, said one of the victims was a friend who graduated in 2008 from Ingraham High School.
Simon skipped class Tuesday morning to pay his respects at the town house.
“He was always laughing. He was a funny guy, a good guy,” Simon said.
The town house was “a party house,” with a constant flow of visitors, mostly young people in their late teens and early 20s, said neighbor Molly Davis.
The three roommates, though, were polite and always cleaned up cigarette butts and other party debris, she said.
“I’m just rattled,” said Davis, 37.
Between the traffic along North Northgate Way and the hard rain that fell Monday night, Davis said there’s no way she could have heard gunshots.
Amar Ali, 17, and his mother, Asema Mebrat, also visited the house Tuesday. Ali said his older brother, who attended Shoreline Community College with at least two of the home’s three residents, had just seen them Monday.
“They were happy and everything,” he said. “When I first heard about [the shooting], I thought it was a joke.”
After seeing news about the shootings on TV, Ali and his mother drove to the scene.
“I knew where he lived, so I wanted to come down and see for myself,” he said.
Neighbors reported seeing different cars park along nearby Interlake Avenue North at all hours, usually stopping for a few minutes before driving off.
Jesse Heminger and his brother, who live down the block from the town house, had previously spoken to one of the residents about the parking situation, asking him “to keep it on the down-low,” said Heminger, a 20-year-old musician and landscaper.
The man he spoke to “was a real cool guy.”
Monday night, Heminger was watching a movie when he noticed two cars park outside his house. He didn’t think much of it since “it was normal for people to park in our driveway.”
The cars’ occupants returned minutes later, he recalled.
“I was wondering why these guys were in such a hurry to leave. They just hopped in real fast,” Heminger said. “Now I wish I’d paid more attention to it.”
Seattle Times news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report, which also includes information from Times’ archives.
Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com
Gintas, who sent the article, sent this comment after I had written the above entry but before I had posted it, so we independently had the same thought: