I got into a digital conversation with a co-worker about how bad gun violence seems to have gotten just across the bridge on the morning of May 30.
The brief three-sentence conversation took place just after she saw a tweet that there was another shooting in Seattle. It was our deadline day, so I tried to block out the news and plow forward with getting the paper out.
That same friend sent me another message, something to the effect of: “It was at Cafe Racer in Seattle, gunman left on foot and still at large.”
My heart sunk.
The first thing that popped into my head was that my sister and her family live just blocks from Cafe Racer. She goes for jogs in that area. I know Cafe Racer because my band played there in April.
Getting the paper out became secondary to getting a hold of my sister, who tries to avoid the news, or at least me talking about it. I called her house with no answer. I called her cell with no answer. I called my brother-in-law at work and he found out she was at the U-Village but didn’t talk to her. My panic was replaced with new concerns as I saw a tweet saying that my nephew’s school was in lockdown because of the shooting.
Just after sending the final page of the paper to press my sister called me back wanting to know if lockdown meant she could go pick up my nephew from school. I was just relieved to hear her voice because you always think the worst, no matter how unlikely.
Then news of another shooting in downtown Seattle, just blocks from where my brother-in-law works. That shooting would later hit even closer to home as the victim was Gloria Leonidas of Bellevue, a long-time Evergreen Health Foundation board member.
To make things even more unnerving for my sister and me, the gunman committed suicide just a few miles from where I grew up in West Seattle.
Like most people, I was glued to the radio, TV and internet during the rest of the day.
I had met quite a few of the regulars at Cafe Racer when my band played there. Cafe Racer was an unusual place to play. Very small, very intimate and inviting. There was a gigantic picture of Jesus made from marshmallow Peeps. Quite a few paintings on black velvet and a bejeweled motor scooter helped to make up Seattle’s only “Bad Art Gallery.”
The show was fun because the place was double booked and packed full of people. After we played we hung out outside to give room to those wanting to see the last band of the night. The kitchen had closed and the cook came out to have a cigarette. He and a bunch of my friends struck up a conversation about the music, the venue and various other things.
It turns out he was one of the victims of the horrific shooting on May 30 and will hopefully survive. It was surreal to think that we played there just a month prior. It was sad to think that kind, intelligent man was in the hospital fighting for his life.
There is something wrong with our society when someone with mental health and anger management issues is able to obtain a concealed weapon’s permit. Three different news sources quoted the murderer’s family members saying they were afraid something like this would happen.
The scary thing is that something like this touches us all despite the fact that in Seattle there have been 21 homicides in 2012. That matches the total for all of 2011.
The inevitable arguments have ensued over gun rights and laws. There has even been some commentary about government cuts to mental health resources. But in reality this type of incident is hard to predict, hard to prevent, it can happen anywhere and affects us all.
Contact staff writer Matt Phelps at mphelps@kirklandreporter.com.
