Teen shot, critically hurt in Pioneer Square

SEATTLE — A 19-year-old is fighting for his life tonight after a shooting in Pioneer Square, and the shooters are on the run.

The victim’s brother, who was with him at the time, says the people who shot at them were total strangers.

“I heard three or four shots, then it kind of escalated. Like pop, pop, pop, pop, pop! About a dozen or so shots, I dropped down in my living room,” said Jackson Ray, who lives in Pioneer Square.

As people living in the area heard the gunshots, 18-year-old So'o Vitale and his brother, Mark, were running away from them.

“All I heard was tat tat tat tat! Me and my brother turned around and started running,” Vitale said. “The only time I looked back, I see my brother running. He was leaning like he got shot,” he said.

Vitale said his brother fell to the ground and he pulled him into a parking garage near Second and Cherry.

“He was looking at me, yelling at me like 'get somebody.' And I was like 'I can’t,' and he tried to calm himself down, and after that he just passed out,” Vitale said.

Vitale says he and his older brother - who is 19 years old - were hanging out near the 7-Eleven at First and Cherry when two men in a car started staring at them.

“They were mean-mugging us so me and my brother started mean-mugging them back. They pulled up in the alley, and two people came out and was trying to talk crap to me and my brother.”

He said he and his brother walked over, ready to fight. But they didn't realize at least one of the other men had a gun.

“So you didn't know the other guys at all?” KIRO7’s Deedee Sun asked.

“I didn't know who these people were,” Vitale said.

The shooting brought a heavy Seattle police response.

Several blocks of Pioneer Square were roped off with crime scene tape as officers marked shell casing after shell casing.

Other officers could be seen combing through surveillance video from nearby buildings.

Vitale says his brother was shot twice in the stomach and he's still working to process what happened.

“He literally raised me, I am a representation of my older brother. For me to see my brother go through that, that brings pain to my heart,” Vitale said.

Despite that encounter he had with the alleged shooters, Vitale was not able to provide a description of the men to KIRO7, saying it all happened too quickly.

Seattle Police say the 19-year-old’s injuries are life-threatening, and detectives are investigating.

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