Auburn’s mayor, police chief address recent string of youth violence

AUBURN, Wash. — Auburn’s top leaders spoke at a public safety meeting to address the recent string of deadly violence involving the youth.

The city’s mayor and police chief spoke to more than 50 people, who attended the event at the Church of Nazarene in Auburn Thursday morning.

The mayor said she is concerned about the youth violence across the United States, but especially within Auburn.

“There are many people in our community who are hurting right now,” she said. “We are here to work on how to come together.”

“This is my neighborhood, and I am very concerned over juvenile crime, juvenile violence,” the mayor added.

Mark Caillier, the city’s police chief, said the department is experiencing a staffing shortage like many other departments across the region and country.

He said the recent string of violence involves juveniles who are not from Auburn but come to the city to commit crimes.

“A lot of these incidents are connected probably to 15 to 20 juveniles and it’s happening throughout region with these juveniles,” he said.

The Auburn Police Department is currently working with other agencies across King County, including law enforcement in Kent, Federal Way and Seattle, to address the violence at a regional level, Caillier said.

“It’s kind of small core that’s committing a lot of these crimes across the region and that’s who we focus on,” he added.

We asked both city leaders what the city is currently doing – that’s different from previous years – to address the violence and overcome the challenges they had shared.

“I don’t know if I have a ready answer,” the chief said. “We do continue investigate these crimes. We make arrests when we can. The problem is when you can’t predict everything.”

A number of people at the meeting shared mixed reactions with KIRO 7 News.

Families were grateful for the chance to talk with city leaders, while others expressed that they had hoped for tangible solutions.

KIRO 7 News spoke with Lonnisha Landry, who lost her 16-year-old son, Xavier Landry, to gun violence less than three weeks ago in a gas station parking lot on A Street, about the city’s response.

“You’re not doing enough. You’re leaving grieving mothers to having to figure things,” she said. “When the city is crying out and there’s blood being shed, we’re expecting people who have leading roles to do their part. So maybe if we push for a curfew, it would cut back on some of the gun violence because most of the gun violence at this time is from youth.”

While Landry understands the Auburn Police Department is facing a staffing shortage, she said the city needs to be more proactive and find other solutions to help keep children safe.

“I lost my son. So as a grieving mom, I’m just crying out for all mothers to say sometimes we can’t do it by ourselves, and we need the community’s help. We need judges and we need legislatures, senators, mayors and the police chief to stand with us and say, ‘Okay, we understand this is the problem and we’re going to help the streets feel safe,” she said.

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