A weekend shooting outside a neighborhood convenience store in Seattle's Central District left a man with a gunshot wound but claimed no lives, a fact the shop's owner seized on with relief. The gunfire broke out on Sunday outside Parnell's Mini Mart, at the intersection of 23rd Avenue South and South Dearborn Street, a corner that was thrown into sudden chaos before quickly emptying as people scrambled for cover.
Surveillance video from the store captured the frightening sequence as it unfolded. According to the family that runs the shop, the person who was ultimately wounded had arrived at the scene with a group. On the footage, shadows can be seen moving quickly the instant the shooting began, and in one frame a figure appears to jump as the shots rang out, a small but telling detail of the panic that gripped the corner.
Moments later, the video shows the wounded man making his way into the store, hopping on one leg with an uninjured companion by his side. Inside, other customers reacted the way anyone would to gunfire on their doorstep, running toward the back of the shop to take shelter. The owner's father grabbed a phone and called 911, while the family moved to lock the doors and secure the store as the situation played out.
Rather than wait for help at the store, the injured man did not stay long. The footage shows him leaving the shop alongside the other man, shedding his sweatshirt as he stepped outside before getting into a vehicle and driving away from the scene. It was only later that he resurfaced at Harborview Medical Center, arriving on his own with a gunshot wound to his leg. He was listed in serious condition.
The damage from the stray gunfire spread well beyond its intended target. A bullet left a hole in the siding of the store and another in a window, a gap the family covered over with little more than a strip of tape for the time being. Rounds also struck a neighboring building and the family's own car, leaving holes in it and flattening one of its tires.
The reach of the shooting did not end there. A woman who lives in a home just off 24th said one of the bullets had hit the siding of her mudroom, a reminder of how far the danger had traveled through the quiet residential blocks around the corner. For the shop's owner, the overriding sentiment was that, as bad as the wounded man's injury was, the outcome could have been far worse. No one was killed, and no one else was hurt.
The store owner described it as a scary situation and said he was simply glad that nobody had been killed, adding that the area was supposed to have gotten a lot better even as episodes like this still occur. The Seattle Police Department's gun violence reduction unit has taken over the details of the investigation. So far, no arrests have been made, and the search for those responsible for opening fire on the busy corner continues.