Five people were wounded in a shooting during a community outreach event in Seattle, Wa., Friday night as two victims are fighting for their lives in critical condition.
The shooting occurred just before 8 p.m. in the parking lot of an old King Donut shop in King County, the Seattle Police Department wrote in a press release.
Four victims were rushed to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, including two listed in critical condition, Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz said during a press conference hours after the bloodshed.
The fifth victim was treated at the scene and did not require being hospitalized, police said.
“Honestly, this is really disturbing,” Diaz said. “When you have victims that were really just trying to do an outreach effort, trying to help people…get people on the right path- And this is what they end up getting hit with.”
Images from the scene showed at least 50 evidence tags on the ground over bullet casings.
“We know that there’s dozens and dozens of rounds that were fired,” Diaz said in a press conference.
Law enforcement believes two suspects opened fire from the parking lot into the adjacent lot where the event took place.
Diaz said the Department’s Gun Violence Reduction Unit is investigating the shooting.
The suspects remain at large as of Saturday morning.
“Right now, we’ve really got to get guns off the streets,” Diaz said.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell called the shooting a “tragedy” and expressed his thanks to the police for arriving on the scene and quickly rendering aid to the victims.
“These community leaders are putting literally their lives on the line to protect their own community,” Harrell said. “But you see what we’re trying to build here in Seattle with these fine officers working with these fine community leaders, trying to protect their babies here, trying to protect our youth.”
Harrell said there are “too many guns in the wrong places and in the wrong hands.”
A total of 335 people have been fatally shot in the city since the start of the year — with an additional 363 suffering non-fatal gun-related injuries, according to department statistics.
This month alone, 65 people have been killed in the city.
