- Mayor Mike McGinn at a press conference this afternoon: "We will not rest until we find the person who fired that weapon, and we need the community's help."
Early Sunday morning, as Nicole Westbrook, 21, was walking with her boyfriend to their apartment at 2nd and Yesler in downtown Seattle, she was shot and critically wounded in what Mayor Mike McGinn and police officials are calling a "random" act of gun violence.
Westbrook had just recently moved here from Albuquerque to study at the Art Institute of Seattle, and is now "on life support, struggling," McGinn said as he called on people who know anything about the crime to come forward.
“There is somebody who knows who fired those shots," McGinn said. "We will not rest until we find the person who fired that weapon, and we need the community’s help.”
With McGinn were Nicole Westbrook's older sister, Marcia Westbrook, and her aunt, Joyce Esquer.
- Nicole Westbrook's older sister, Marcia Westbrook, left, and her aunt, Joyce Esquer, right.
"My baby sister is a beautiful young Navajo woman," Marcia Westbrook said. "She came here to start a new life with her boyfriend, and to achieve one of her goals.”
Nicole Westbrook was out exploring and enjoying her new city, Marcia Westbrook said, "almost home" when this happened.
Joyce Esquer, Nicole Westbrook's aunt, spoke of the honor and sacrifice shown by Nicole's father, Marshall Alan Westbrook, who was killed while serving with the U.S. military in Iraq; Nicole's uncle, Kenneth Warren Westbrook, who was killed while serving with the U.S. military in Afghanistan; and Nicole's brother, who is just back from a tour of duty. "There’s no honor in what this individual, or individuals, have done," Esquer said. "And there’s no honor in silence.”
Seattle Police Chief John Diaz said officers were on the scene of the shooting within 20 or 30 seconds on Sunday, and Deputy Chief Nick Metz said that while some officers performed CPR on Nicole Westbrook other officers saturated the area, looking for and interviewing witnesses. “We believe a car went by, and around that same time several shots were fired," Metz said. “Right now we do not believe that Nicole or her boyfriend were intended targets. We believe this was a random act of violence."
He asked anyone who was in the area at the time to call 206-233-5000 and speak to detectives, and he made a direct appeal to those who might have been in a car that was spotted near the scene of the shooting.
"You know who you are," Metz said. "For those who were in the car—we’re asking you, we’re begging you, the best thing you can do is to turn yourself in. You are a potential accessory, and if you want to protect yourself the best thing you can do is to talk to our detectives.”
According to the mayor's office, there have been 12 homicides in Seattle since the beginning of this year and 118 reports of gun violence—part of a seven percent spike in violent crime in the city year-to-date.
McGinn ticked through all the things police are doing to curb the trend—emphasis patrols and illegal gun busts, for example. “But as this case illustrates," he added, "to solve crimes like this, and to prevent further gun violence, we need the community… There is somebody who knows who fired those shots.”
Seattle police say they will be releasing a video of the car of interest shortly.
