FOLLOWUP: Southwest Teen Life Center security cameras now operating, councilmember says; community safety meeting set

| Crime | Safety | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

(WSB photo, January 23)

A month and a half after the deadly shooting of a 15-year-old at Southwest Teen Life Center, the Seattle Parks-operated facility has working security cameras again, as announced by District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka today in his weekly newsletter:

I am very happy to report that the security cameras are now installed and working at West Seattle’s Teen Life Center, the location of the tragic shooting of Chief Sealth International High School student Mobarak Adam in January – Seattle’s first homicide of 2024.

I want to thank Mayor Harrell and our Parks Department for their partnership in helping us deliver this new camera system at the center. We continue to monitor progress on the investigation into this tragic event. As more information becomes available from the SPD, we will share out. Mobarak’s family deserves answers. I will continue to partner closely with the Mayor and SPD to ensure that the City provides Mobarak’s family with the clarity about what happened at the facility that they so desperately need.

As for who monitors the cameras and how, that’s a followup question we’ll be asking. Meantime, three weeks after Parks Deputy Superintendent Christopher Williams said his department would be part of a community meeting regarding safety at school and Parks facilities in the area, a date is set: The Chief Sealth IHS PTSA tells WSB that the meeting, with city, district, public safety, and other reps expected to participate, will be at the school at 6 pm April 16th.

AmyC March 15, 2024 (11:58 pm)

We noticed them yesterday while at the pool for swim lessons. There’s a big flat screen by the front desk facing towards the pool, with a split screen of 3 or 4 locations on it.

Rebecca March 16, 2024 (2:55 am)

I’m curious if that athletic complex, which is district property, has any cameras? I constantly see kids over that way skipping class, driving unsafe, and it seems like very little supervision by school staff especially during lunch hours….

Kp March 16, 2024 (1:19 pm)

There isn’t, and the school doesn’t care.I owned one of the condos across the street and both the High School and Denny kids constantly trespass into the property as well as hang out in the complex parking areas. They are disrespectful, litter, destroy property and talk back/ threaten and ignore the residents when told they are trespassing and asked to leave. They do the same at the athletic complex and streets surrounding it. Several times a year residents try to contact the principal and other school authorities and are told the areas are not on school property and that they can’t do anything about it.I feel bad complaining about the kids horrible behavior, because when I was that age I was a problem child. But we never destroyed property and certainly took every measure we could to avoid contact with adults, let alone have the balls to talk back to them!The shooting was inevitable, cameras will do no good. Parents and School authorities and the rest of us adults need to take more accountability and raise proper children.

Jeff March 16, 2024 (9:27 am)

Good that they are there, but it is unclear that they would have provided any benefit in the case it has been tied back to. If nobody is talking, nobody is talking. That poor family.

Andros March 16, 2024 (7:41 pm)

They wouldn’t have helped and it’s a lost situation. We need to change those laws and then haul them in front of a judge. They are minors and need to be treated as such.
- Huh? March 20, 2024 (3:30 pm)
  
  Are you implying that minors don’t have the same 5th amendment rights as adults? Haul them in front of a judge who will do what exactly? You can’t force anyone to talk (without threats of violence). As awful as the situation is for the family of the deceased, the other kids are just doing what many recognize is in their own best interest; not speaking.

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