RENTON, Wash. — A Renton neighborhood is on edge after a weekend shooting in a park sent four young people to the hospital.
Two female victims remain in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center.
The shooting happened Friday night during a going-away-to-college party at Ron Regis Park.
Now neighbors say they shouldn’t have been allowed in the park at all.
There are signs that indicate the park is closed at dusk and that the gate will be locked. But neighbors say that hasn’t happened since 2020, and now the city is saying it may never be locked again.
“There was a shooting,” said John Schommer. “There were 110 shots fired right across the street from my house.”
The enormity of what happened late Friday night at a party in a park that is supposed to be closed at dusk is still sinking in for Schommer.
It ended in so much gunfire that Renton police say they recovered more than a hundred shell casings.
“My partner, she’s definitely afraid,” said Schommer. “She’s worried about our kid being in the house and a stray bullet flying into the house and harming him.”
That fear came horribly true for the families of four young people, with two of them still at Harborview Medical Center. Family members posted photos of 20-year-old Mercedes Jimenez-Soto that include her injuries and the bullet-riddled vehicle that was in the parking lot.
“I came out and saw all the commotion,” said Jennifer Steen after her daughter woke her up to investigate. “I saw kids lined up. I saw probably five or six police cars, fire trucks, ambulance. Yeah, all of it.”
She and her neighbors say this is a popular place for young people situated along the Cedar River. However, many visitors routinely ignore the signs that the park is closed and head to its darkest corners.
“We make sure our home is safe,” said Schommer. “But what can you do against a stray bullet?”
Now he wants the city to close the park gate at night to discourage gatherings like the one that turned violent Friday.
“If we’re going to have laws that close the parks at a certain time and there are signs that say ‘gate closed at dusk,’ I think we should enforce that or not have the rules,” Schommer said.
He forwarded an email from the head of the parks department.
Back in June, she said the city doesn’t have the resources to close park gates at night. She suggested he call 911 if he sees anything illegal.
KIRO 7 is checking with the city to find out if that might change in light of the violence here Friday night.
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