SEATTLE — A student-athlete was grazed by a bullet as he waited in the stands at the Southwest Athletic Complex in West Seattle.
It turned out the shots were being fired into the air nearly a half-mile away near a memorial to a rapper who grew up there.
Rapper Treyvon McKoy was killed more than a year ago. His murder remains unsolved.
Last night, a feud erupted near a memorial for the rapper and injured a Northshore student-athlete. By all accounts, he was not badly hurt. Seattle police said he refused treatment.
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But where he was when he was hurt in relationship to where the shooting was left just about everyone amazed.
On the day after a bullet made its way to the Southwest Athletic Complex, track Coach Mike Cunliffe is putting his athletes through their paces. He was here for Friday night's West Central District Championship Track meet.
"And it was a great meet," said Cunliffe. "Everything was going along very well."
But a few minutes after he left, a stray bullet struck an athlete from the Northshore School District as he sat in the stands.
"Yeah," said Cunliffe. "It was a bit a bit offsetting knowing that you just left and something like that happened."
What happened actually occurred at 24th Southwest and Southwest Kenyon Street, nearly a half-mile away.
A group gathered outside a memorial to rapper Treyvon McKoy, got into a feud of some sort and started firing weapons into the air, eyewitnesses said.
"Close enough," said Alessandra Rafael, a neighbor, "that we didn't want to come out and check what it was."
But a bullet shattered a window of one of her neighbors. A slug still rested on a window sill. The neighbor, who declined to be identified, said they have been living with a constant threat of violence.
"And people on this side of the building are calling all the time about the activity that goes on out here," she said. "And nothing's being done about it."
She blames the memorial to McKoy and the crowd it's attracting.
"Yes," she said. "I want to move. I don't want to live here. I don't feel safe. There needs to be a constant (police) presence back here."
Seattle police took down the memorial to the delight of neighbors. But his grandmother is vowing to put it back up.
Seattle police said they have no suspects in the shooting.
Cox Media Group
