Recent violent crime spree in the U-District

SEATTLE — A recent spree of violent crimes in Seattle’s University District has students on edge, afraid to walk from campus to their own homes.

Most parents become less protective the longer their kids are away at school, but University of Washington junior Alayna Spencer's experience has been the exact opposite; her mom, she says, is more concerned about her safety on campus now than ever before.

"My mom literally calls me every single time I leave work to make sure I can get to my car and my house without anything happening because it's so scary," Alayna told us.

Students up and down Greek row can't blame her.

"Now it's like people having to pair up, guys, girls, you have to be safe, have your headphones off, be looking around everywhere," Mohamed Nour, a sophomore, explained.

"We'll get a homeless guy standing on our doorstep that like has a knife or like he's screaming," said sophomore Jacob Koreen.

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Last week in the U-District was a violent one. Jan. 22 a clerk inside a University Way convenience store was stabbed several times when he confronted a shoplifter. Two days later shots were fired near a Walgreens off 12th Avenue and Northeast 50th; the day after that more shots were fired, also on University Way.

"Lately I think it's more frequent and definitely more scary for me," Alayna told us.

It appears officials are taking notice; last Friday Seattle police Chief Carmen Best tweeted that she met with the University of Washington Police Department as well as community leaders to focus on "how to best serve the safety needs of our community both on campus and through the U-District."

We pulled the numbers from Seattle police to determine how much and what kind of crime is plaguing the university district.

Crime has held pretty steady -- 2018 even saw a dip compared to the three previous years in the university district but off the university campus.

According to the University of Washington Police Department, which keeps its own crime statistics, there's been very little change in violent crime -- 11 robberies and assaults in 2017, 12 in 2018.

Officials tell us it could be in part to the "U Way Project" a collaborative effort SPD and UW launched in 2015 designed to clean up the avenue by first going after the area's most prolific drug dealers. So while university police tell us the recent incidents have students and parents like Alayna's on edge, they are anomalies and the most common crime on campus is bike theft.

Cox Media Group