Woman says she was victim of drive by shooting, says ‘abandoned’ by SPD

A woman accuses Seattle Police of abandoning her after a drive-by shooting left her traumatized.

It happened in Columbia City last Tuesday, in the middle of a frantic search for the gunmen who just shot a 17-year-old boy.

When officers arrived, they discovered an Uber with two people inside had also been shot up.

In the last hour, KIRO 7 finally heard back from Seattle Police.  They sent an email just as we were going on the air at 4. They say there was just one shooting at this intersection at South Snoqualmie Street.

The 17-year-old was struck in the leg, the Uber caught in the crossfire.  All of it has left a young Seattle woman traumatized.

She felt they might have died.  “Yes, I mean, my headrest was completely shot up in one of the photos,” she said, showing a photo of it.

She is too afraid to show her face for fear of retaliation.  But this 24-year-old Seattle woman wants to tell her story after she says Seattle police did little to help after she got into an Uber caught in the crossfire between teenagers.

“This is right where my head was supposed to be,” she said. “But I had lunged as soon as, I mean seconds. I don’t know what took over me. But I just lunged before the back seat and covered my head until it stopped.”

She had come outside to get into the Uber for a ride home when shots rang out.

“All I heard was two separate gunshots simultaneously,” said neighbor Rose Fornier.

Forner and her daughter, Rebecca, heard the shots from inside their apartment.

“And then what did you hear after that?” KIRO asked.

“Nothing,” Rose said. “After the gunshots was over, nothing.”

But someone told her daughter, they saw a car take off.  “Yes,” said Rebecca.  “My neighbor’s grandson said he saw the white car drive off really fast, going around the block here.”

By then this woman was cowering in the shot-up Uber with her driver.

“Like those bullets went through this side all the way out the other side,” she said, demonstrating. “All the way through the whole entire car. There was bullet holes on both sides.”

She says they waited for an hour for a Seattle police officer to talk to them. And even then, it was a cursory, uncaring interview.

“Both of us,” she said, her voice breaking. “Like, we almost died and they just told us to leave.”

For its part, SPD defended the officer handling the case, saying he interviewed her and the Uber driver then told them they were free to leave. She says they felt discarded. Then she read the police blotter and it said neither of them was injured. She says they are both deeply hurt, on the inside.

Now she is considering suing the department.

As for the shooters? They are still on the loose.