UPDATE: Gunfire investigation at 35th/Morgan

4:24 PM: Seattle Fire and Police are converging for what SFD has classified as a “scenes of violence” response at 35th/Morgan. Updates to come.

4:28 PM: Police have just told dispatch they haven’t found a victim yet. So the SFD response has been closed. We have a crew en route to find out what the initial report was.

4:32 PM: The initial call appears to have involved gunfire, according to another radio exchange. A K9 team was on their way.

4:37 PM: Police confirmed to us on scene that they’re investigating gunfire but so far no one has been found hit/hurt. They’re investigating on the east side of the 35th/Morgan intersection, which is blocked, so avoid the area.

5:17 PM: Just went through 35th/Morgan on our way back from Summer Fest. The intersection is now fully open, no police in sight.

6:13 PM: Listening back to archived police radio from around time of this dispatch, we so far have not found descriptions of the circumstances or shooter/s, but a mention that officers found at least four casings, and that “suspects” were last seen southbound on 34th. The incident #, if you have any information, is 24-194122.

ADDED MONDAY: We followed up with SPD, and received this summary:

On July 14, Seattle police responded to the area of 35th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Morgan Street for shots fired at about 4:12 p.m. It was reported one man fired a shot toward another man and they both left the area. A wall of a nearby building had several holes from the gunshots and shell casings were recovered. A King County Sheriff’s Office K9 was called to the scene. No suspect or shooting victim was located.

Myles July 14, 2024 (4:26 pm)

Heard 3 or 4 gunshots around 4:10

I’m 2 blocks north

Rdubs July 14, 2024 (4:34 pm)

4 shots a few minutes before all the sirens came. Sounded like a handgun.

~hockeywitch~ July 14, 2024 (4:51 pm)

Yep 4 gun shots.. I live at 35th and Morgan.. I k ew those weren’t fire works… Dispatch said it was an elderly lady. 😪 won’t say what else was heard per scanner..

WSB July 14, 2024 (6:13 pm)

An “elderly lady” was the suspect? I have listened to two different Broadcastify archives of the dispatch and there are no descriptions of the shooter/s nor circumstances. So much is communicated screen to screen, or else on a frequency that wasn’t recorded. The only additional information I’ve heard so far is that suspects, plural, were last seen southbound on 34th, and that officers found at least four casings.
- HP July 14, 2024 (6:49 pm)
  
  The getaway route for the shooting suspects was 34th Ave SW, a permanent Healthy Street with traffic-calming features. A safe place for kids to play, according to SDOT. They must be local, otherwise the STREET CLOSED signs would have stopped them :)
- ~hockeywitch~ July 14, 2024 (6:51 pm)
  
  I heard dispatch, via the scanner, say to Engine 29 and 36, Elderly woman shot. Corner of 35th Ave SW and SW Morgan… I had 3 friends here that heard it too….fire then said they were staging at 35th and Juno, and another at 35th and Myrtle… and then before they code greened everyone they asked to confirm the patients condition That’s what we all heard. I live across the street and were listening. Too close to home.
  - WSB July 14, 2024 (8:46 pm)
    
    Definitely no one was shot. But that explains the initial response, as they don’t send an SOV response unless they believe there’s an actual injured victim. I heard all the rest of it, including multiple confirmations that there was no patient before the SFD units were canceled (“code green”). Thanks.
    - ~Hockeywitch~ July 14, 2024 (9:54 pm)
      
      I most definitely would prefer it to be no one shot.. When we heard Elderly woman shot, we were all thinking of the retirement home just up the street. I am going to put my mind to rest that no one was shot. Thank you for what you do.

Astrocat July 14, 2024 (5:11 pm)

Yes, heard this, too. We are 4 blocks west and 2 blocks north. One shot followed by 3 more closer together.

TJ July 14, 2024 (5:54 pm)

There are police and AMR along one of the on-ramps to the West Seattle Bridge going eastbound. Is it possibly related?

WSB July 14, 2024 (6:10 pm)

There was a rescue-response crash on SB 5 at 4:30. Still no victim related to this situation.

1994 July 14, 2024 (8:15 pm)

When will people learn that gun violence does not solve the problem they are having?!?

ArborRes July 14, 2024 (8:42 pm)

Thank goodness no one appears to have been injured (other than the emotional trauma, which is bad enough). I feel like we are all sitting ducks, and I realize that might be an overly emotional response. Maybe this is a “dumb” question, but is anyone (police or other department) tracking the number of shootings in West Seattle? I feel like they are fairly frequent (as well as violent crime), but seeing the data would confirm (or dispute) that. I have looked at the online crime data map for the City of Seattle and it is not that easy to sort and filter (at least for me). https://www.seattle.gov/police/information-and-data/data/online-crime-maps

WSB July 14, 2024 (8:49 pm)

If you sort the online data for Southwest Precinct, that’s West Seattle and South Park. You can also sort for individual neighborhoods.