Community conversation about High Point safety and gun violence next week

As reported here early this morning, our area’s first homicide victim in more than a year ad a half was a 28-year-old man shot in High Point; our area’s previous homicide victim was a 15-year-old boy shot in High Point. Between those two deadly shootings, there have been not only shootings with physical injuries, but also incidents with damage and/or close calls that have terrified residents. Even before today’s murder, a community event was planned in High Point next week to address gun violence, “It Takes a Village,” hosted by DNDA in collaboration with other organizations – here’s the announcement they sent us today:

It Takes a Village will occur August 18th, 5:00-7:30 pm, at Neighborhood House in High Point.

It Takes a Village is a community seminar presented in collaboration with the Seattle Housing Authority, Seattle Police Department, and Seattle Public Schools. The event will feature a presentation by Fahima Mohamed, DNDA’s High Point Youth Coordinator, highlighting findings from surveys of local youth and parents/caregivers about the impact of gun violence in the neighborhood.

Following the presentation, representatives from participating organizations will take part in a panel discussion, providing an opportunity for community members to ask questions, share concerns, and learn about available resources and support services.

To conclude the evening on a positive note, attendees will be invited to enjoy ice cream and participate in a basketball dunk competition, helping bring the community together after a conversation on an important and challenging topic.

Neighborhood House is at 6400 Sylvan Way SW. To RSVP for this event, go here.

P.S. This is separate from the SPD-hosted “Our City, Our Safety” meeting this Wednesday (August 12), 6 pm at Delridge Community Center (4501 Delridge Way SW), but some of the same issues will likely be discussed there too.

West Seattle resident August 10, 2026 (2:34 pm)

There will be some that say we need more police officers but that’s a defense move and it’s hard to be exactly where the gun fire is at any given moment Baltimore’s strategy reduced gun violence in their city and we should look at them for guidanceLook up Baltimores program on Group Violence Reduction “This strategy follows a strict process:Direct Call-Ins: High-risk individuals are called into meetings with law enforcement, community elders, and social workers.The Ultimatum: They are told clearly that the shooting must stop. If their group commits another murder, the entire group faces immediate, coordinated federal and local prosecution.The Help: Simultaneously, they are offered an immediate way out, including emergency housing, stipends, education, and employment help.Success Rate: Over 91.5% of GVRS participants have not been revictimized or re-involved in shootings after enrolling.”

K August 10, 2026 (3:58 pm)

Reply

Thank you for bringing that up. There are numerous studies showing that giving poor people a little money, housing, support has a far bigger impact on reducing crime than giving cops lots of money. Youth crime is disproportionately on this rise, and that trend holds up state-wide. We need to get to the root of issues instead of being reactionary if we want to make our communities safer.
Dmartin August 10, 2026 (8:21 pm)

Reply

I hope there are High Point residents who are reading this. That sounds much better than what Seattle is doing.
Beefcake August 10, 2026 (10:09 pm)

Reply

Get out of here with those evidence-based solutions! Don’t you know Kabuki & their fellow commentors want to Get Tough by acting out the same revenge fantasies that we’ve been doing as country for decades. It’s just common sense!

Yuppers August 10, 2026 (3:55 pm)

Yes,we need more studies, research And conversations and meetings to solve this gun violence issue when the solution is more officers and security cameras.

Kabuki theater August 10, 2026 (6:09 pm)

The loudest “community voices” in Seattle have a vested interest in pretending that these are complex, nuanced socioeconomic problem that can only be solved with Programs (read: $$$).But that’s all wrong. High Point is valuable, contested territory for two or more drug gangs. From their perspective, shooting at each other to resolve the dispute is economically rational. We can either lock up those bad guys under existing laws re drug, guns and criminal conspiracies, or we can let them keep fighting in the streets. I know 100% which one Seattleites will choose, at least we’ll get to learn about available resources and support services and eat ice cream every few months.

GLH August 10, 2026 (6:43 pm)

Saka is going to beg for more cameras, which don’t prevent or solve crime unless they’re speed cameras (which are the only cameras Saka opposes). We’re a neighborhood without a representative.

Sunflower August 11, 2026 (8:10 am)

Reply

The talking point that cameras don’t solve crime just is not true. I’m a former prosecutor. That past two years I worked on over 10 murder cases and each was solved in large part by police accessing private surveillance cameras, most actually recorded the shooting. It’s crazy not to utilize them in public spaces too.
1994 August 11, 2026 (10:31 pm)

Reply

Cameras helped solve the hit & run killing of an elderly man on Roxbury late at night about 4 or 5 years ago. The hit & run was posted here on the WSB and I believe the subsequent write up of the solving the crime was also on WSB. Cameras do help solve crimes!

HP resident August 11, 2026 (1:52 pm)

Thank you so much to the author for acknowledging that there have been many other “incidents with damage and/or close calls that have terrified residents”. High Point has the highest ratio of children to adult residents in the entire city and we owe its kids much, much better than this. I have heard neighbors say our concerns are being dismissed because overall crime rates are low. Any time children are terrified or traumatized, regardless of whether someone is killed or not, lasting damage is still done. I have read about Seattle’s mobile mental health crisis unit and how they are deployed to help the unhoused. It seems like such a great program. And I’m also a little disappointed that nobody mobilizes to show up for the neighborhood kids in a similar way. Who’s looking out for their mental health?