Assault in Kingsgate park raises questions about safety

By Matt Phelps • July 7, 2009 10:09 pm
A man walks his dog through the Kingsgate 5 park in the Kingsgate neighborhood. The park is used by local kids and the community pool is just feet away. It was also the location where nine teens were assaulted by three adult suspects with a gun last April.
A man walks his dog through the Kingsgate 5 park in the Kingsgate neighborhood. The park is used by local kids and the community pool is just feet away. It was also the location where nine teens were assaulted by three adult suspects with a gun last April.

For nine teenagers in the Kingsgate neighborhood, the night of April 4 has become a nightmare that neither they nor their families ever expected to happen.

So too has their sense of security, which has become vulnerable after the investigation that has ensued.

According to the nine teenage boys and their families, who asked not to be identified, the incident took place at the park located in Kingsgate 5 next to the community pool. The teens gathered in the park at approximately 11 p.m. to hang out when they were allegedly approached by a man who asked if they were partying or wanted to fight. The teens told the man no to both questions and he responded by telling the teens to leave the park.

The man then left and returned with two other men, one of whom was armed with a gun. Words were exchanged and some of the boys were roughed up, with the gun being held to some of their heads, they later told King County Police.

The teens also reported the three men damaged a car belonging to one of the boys.

Without serious injury, the teenagers left and called police, who were unable to locate the three suspects.

Nearly a month after the incident, one of the teens saw the attacker at a local grocery store and called 911.

“I just wanted to know how long it would be until our kids could feel safe in their own neighborhood,” said one of the victims’ mothers.

Police arrested the suspect the following week, however he was released without bail. King County officials say the suspect may only face gross misdemeanor charges – which carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail if he is found guilty – because the weapon was not recovered.

One of the mothers, who has tracked the case closely, says she is not satisfied with the lesser charges.

“We want to know our sons will be safe,” she said. “We know who one of the attackers is and where he lives and we can’t get the help we need.”

But the county has based its decision to potentially prosecute the suspect on gross misdemeanor charges instead of a felony due to budget constraints and the lack of a weapon.

In an e-mail, a King County sergeant told families the prosecutor’s office “has determined that cases of this nature will not be handled as a felony due to the extra cost of the prosecution.”

In 2008, then King County Executive Ron Sims ordered the King County Prosecutors’ Office to take an 11.4 percent budget cut. As a result, the office has changed the way it charges some crimes, which has allowed criminals to plead to misdemeanors rather than felonies. The change has also raised the dollar limit at which property crime can be prosecuted in superior court from $250 in damages to more than $2,500.

In this case, the damage to the teen’s car was estimated at $1,800.

More than two months after the incident, the prosecutor’s office is preparing to charge the identified man and has located the other two suspects.

Though the families are not satisfied with the potential gross misdemeanor charges, they feel they are finally heading towards some resolution.

“The community needs to know – we were completely unsuspecting and never thought that these things could happen right in our neighborhood, until it happened to us,” said one of the mothers.