The Seattle 911 log shows that 15 units were dispatched to the corner of Dexter Avenue North and Valley Street. The status is listed as "Fire in Building." The address—771 Valley Street—is listed as home for Merlino Italian Baking Co, 206 Motorsports, Auto Hound Collision Center and other businesses. I haven't heard back from the Seattle Fire or Police Departments. Anyone down there see a fleet of emergency vehicles and plumes of smoke outside their window?

Seattle police are looking for a shooting suspect after shots were fired near Broadway and Madison.

It appears at least one person was injured in the shooting.

Police are looking for a "transient looking" black male in his 30s-40s, dressed all in black who was seen running from the scene.

Update: Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Dana Vander Houwen says one person was transported to Harborview with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, which makes SPD's search for a suspect a bit puzzling.

More soon.

Update 2: Police are still trying to figure out exactly what happened. It appears one shot was fired inside of a toyota Tundra parked outside of the Polyclinic on Broadway. Police still aren't sure whether the "transient" is related to the shooting.

Update 3: The injured man was taken to Harborview with a gunshot wound to the shoulder. Police say the shooting may have been accidental.

Update 4: SPD now believes the shooting was a suicide attempt.

Three members of the Fremont Arts Council's seven-member board of directors have resigned, apparently frustrated by infighting within the organization.

The three board members, Ben Exworthy, Sara McChristian and board president Nick Morse sent out their letter of resignation earlier today:

It is with regret that we, Nick Morse, Ben Exworthy and Sara McChristian, are resigning from the Board of Directors for the Fremont Arts Council, effective immediately. This has been an extremely difficult decision, made more so by our continued hopes for the FAC as an organization, and the potential for it to be so much more than it is.

Though we have only been on the Board for a short time, we have accomplished and initiated much — and weathered much more. In the last three and a half months, we have been accused of working in secrecy, lacking transparency and that we have ignored requests for information. None of these concerns could be less true. Our efforts as a board have been energetic, thoughtful, deliberated, and, at times, pretty creative. We have dealt with a host of issues, many of which caught us by surprise once we were on the Board.

The rest of the reallllly long letter is after the jump

Three reasons:

1) Money and influence. Nickels had already raised more than $243,000 at the end of November with more than $174,000 on hand. Last time, he had well over half a million once election day rolled around. Not only would beating that amount take a long time, the big donors are all already in Nickels's pocket. It's not about "unions and developers," it's about not pissing off the guy in charge. Folks who've supported Nickels in the past aren't going to turn around and give money to an opponent now.

2) Light rail. Nickels fought hard for this year's light rail package, both as mayor and as head of the Sound Transit board. He actually does deserve some of the credit for getting it passed. People don't forget things like that.

3) Potholes. On a similar note, Nickels has—rightly or wrongly—crafted an image of himself as a mayor who takes care of the basics. Call about a pothole, and it'll be fixed in 48 hours. That's a small thing, but it counts among ordinary citizens who care more about the street in front of their house than whether Paul Allen is getting density giveaways in South Lake Union.

Now, I know I'm not the local politics guy, but how can nobody serious be running against Nickels this year? I don't understand. I know that incumbents are difficult to knock out of office, but it seems like if someone raised enough money to make and run one commercial—one well-made, slightly inflammatory commercial—they'd be able to become the next mayor of Seattle.

Way back when, I voted for Nickels against Sidran and I was excited when he won. I think it was the first time in my life I actually voted for a winner in an election. But I've been nothing but disappointed in the man since.

General political wisdom seems to say that nobody wants to be mayor right now, but that's bullshit. And I know that Nickels has developers and unions on his side, but that doesn't mean as much as it used to, either. Seattle needs its own Barack Obama, somebody smart, outsiderish, and willing to get individual donors excited about donating to the cause. It really wouldn't be that hard to do, as far as political feats go. Why is nobody doing this?

King County Prosecutors have filed murder and assault charges against 18-year-old Carlos Bernardez for his alleged role in a shooting at Chop Suey early Sunday morning.

Bernardez is accused of fatally shooting local MC Joseph Ryan (AKA 29-E) and wounding Avery Turner (1st Black Prez).

It appears prosecutors have not charged anyone for the attack on James Jones (known as Trama), the apparent target of Sunday's shooting.

Prosecutors also filed drug charges against 25-year-old Roger LaBranche after, court documents say say, police found a back pack filled with 45 grams of cocaine, nearly 300 ecstasy pills, 81 grams of marijuana, a handgun and $7,000 cash in his car—a rented Pontiac Grand Prix—parked outside of Chop Suey.

More coverage of the shooting can be found here and here.

Assuming that Neighbours, Seattle’s venerable gay nightclub, survives the “Ricin Threat of 2009,” owners must still deal with the ongoing fallout of lease dispute from last summer.

In August, a family land trust that owns the dilapidated dance hall on Broadway and East Pike Street sent a letter terminating the nightclub’s lease and ordering the club to vacate the premises by the end of the month. In the letter, landlords argued that Neighbours, which has been getting gays hammered to disco and new wave since 1983, was only permitted to run a tavern, restaurant, and cabaret—not a nightclub. (More here.) Neighbours responded with a lawsuit against the owners, arguing they had a right to stay.

“The old owner was fine with us,” says Mona Elassiouti, who manages finances for Neighbours. She says after the family's primary representative died, his brother Donald Regalia took over. “The brother has different interests,” she says.

But now, four months later, the Regalia family says Neighbours hasn’t been paying rent. “We haven’t received rental payments in two months and there have been shortfalls in rental payments for two prior months,” says the Regalia's attorney, Charlie Lyman. “Unfortunately, we have been frustrated that we have requested meeting on several occasions but it hasn’t come to fruition,” he says.

“We didn’t want to sit down with someone trying to kick us out,” says Elassiouti.

As for the accusations that rent isn’t paid: “That is completely incorrect,” responds Neighbours attorney Mark Kimball. “I have looked at the accounting recently. I think we overpaid slightly and we are current on the rent.”

Rumors have swirled that the bar will be demolished for condos. But Lyman dismisses the speculation. “There is absolutely no plan in place that I know of to demolish building and put condos there that I am aware of,” he says. When asked if the Regalia family would seek to keep Neighbours in the space through the end of its lease in 2020, he said, "The answer is yes and no." He wouldn't elaborate on any specifics.

Both parties say they expect the disputes can be resolved by the end of the month. “We are planning to have a meeting regarding settlements,” says Kimball.

Connelly's latest column, in argument form:

1. The city retrofitted school buildings after an earthquake in 1965.

2. No kids were killed after the earthquake in 2001.

THEREFORE,

3. If the city invests in snow-clearing equipment in 2009, no kids will be killed in the next snowstorm.

A COROLLARY:

4. Investing millions in snowplows and de-icing materials will SAVE KIDS.

On the other hand, the city could just plow Joel Connelly's route to work next time and save itself millions of dollars and the P-I thousands of gallons of ink.

According to Bike Portland (Oregon), that city had zero bike fatalities in 2008—a fact Portland traffic safety manager Greg Raisman told the blog he attributes to more awareness of cyclists on the road (and more cyclists on the road, period). Additionally, Raisman told Bike Portland, the city has engineered its roads to slow drivers down, added more bike facilities, promoted cyclist and driver education, and enforced traffic laws. It's no wonder, then, that 13 percent of employees in Portland's central city commute by bike.

Meanwhile, in the past month, one Seattle cyclistone Seattle cyclist has been struck by a car and killed and another remains in the hospital with life-threatening injuries from a hit and run. As of 2007, between one and two percent of Seattleites commuted to work by bike, but surveys have suggested that up to eight percent would if they felt safer on city streets.

The Cascade Bicycle Club, which advocates for pro-cycling transportation and land use policy, announced its legislative agenda this month. It includes: Pushing for Transit Oriented Communities legislation supported by many other environmental groups (promoting incentives for dense, bikeable, walkable, transit-oriented communities); funding for safe routes to school; incentives for school districts to locate schools in places accessible by walking, biking, or transit; a requirement that a percentage of big capital projects be dedicated to nonmotorized transit; and (hooray!) legislation requiring traffic detectors at stop lights to be calibrated to detect cyclists and motorcyclists.

Tim Killian, a longtime player in city and state politics, has filed to run for Seattle city council. The first name on Killian’s Board of Advisors is former City Attorney Mark Sidran, who was reviled during his 12-year tenure by civil-liberties advocates for pushing laws that banned sitting on sidewalks and allowed police to impound cars driven by people with suspended licenses. Killian ran Sidran’s unsuccessful campaign for attorney general in 2004—a position for which The Stranger endorsed Sidran.

“From Mark I take a strong commitment to efficient and effective governance,” says Killian. But Sidran’s support seems philosophically incongruent for Killian, who has championed several measures to expand civil-liberties protections. Killian ran the city referendum to repeal the four-foot rule at strip clubs, coordinated the statewide medical-marijuana initiative, and sits on Washington’s sentencing guidelines commission, which "promotes accountability and equity" in criminal sentencing.

“The fact that anyone is listed as an advisor doesn’t suggest we see eye to eye on every issue,” says Killian. “They represent … divergent viewpoints and I think my ability to bridge that gap is vital in moving this city forward.”

Killian’s second advisor? Cary Moon, co-founder of the People’s Waterfront Coalition and an advocate for the surface/transit alternative for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Killian has been an advisor to the PWC.

Killian is reticent about his platform’s specifics—he supports increasing urban density, and, not surprisingly, favors replacing the viaduct with a surface/transit option—and says he’s planning community forums. He hasn’t announced which position he seeks on the council, but plans to decide by June. “I’m sort of waiting to see what all of the incumbents decide to do,” he says. Council Member Richard McIver, for instance, is not seeking reelection.

Eight other council candidates have filed: Sally Bagshaw, James Donaldson, Jessie Israel, David Miller, Dorsol Plants, Robert Rosencrantz, Jordan Royer, and Robert Sondheim. For mayor, David Wolbeck has filed to run against Nickels. City Attorney Tom Carr has filed unopposed.

Seattle City Council president Richard Conlin announced this morning that he will run for reelection instead of challenging Mayor Greg Nickels.

And this?

It's big and bright and seizes the attention of all who happen to walk or drive toward Yesler and 4th.

DEAD PIG UPDATE: Don Baxter, an enforcement supervisor for the Seattle Animal Shelter, just called to say an officer has visited the scene of the swine.

“The individual had picked [the pig] up and disposed of it,” Baxter says. “The individual owns farm in Snohomish County. The piglet had died there and he brought it in as he was doing business in Seattle and he left the pig at his rental property.” The Animal Shelter was concerned primarily for the animal’s welfare in the city. “We wanted to make sure it hadn’t suffered and the reason for it becoming deceased was some instance that happening in city of Seattle.” He added that the carcass "could potentially attract rats, rodents or other vermin.”

+++

Keith Salender was walking past his neighbors' house near the corner of Belmont Avenue and East Howell Street today, and, in their littered back yard, he saw a pig. A dead pig. Just laying there. Here's Salender on confronting his neighbors:

When I asked them about it they said, "yeah we know."

When I advised them that it was a somewhat concernable thing that someone may consider contacting the animal police thingy over they said "oh well we're just feeding it to the dogs."

On the phone a minute ago, Salender says, "They do have dogs, but their dogs weren't out there. There's a fence. They have chickens and crap back there, too." Considering Slog has already posted images of soda splatter, milk crust, ketchup water, and a basement pudding bath, we will post the dead-pig/winner of today's "what's grosser?" contest after the jump.

Seattle School District Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson has released her final school closure recommendations:

Goodloe-Johnson has recommended closing the African American Academy, Cooper Elementary, Meany Middle School, TT Minor and Summit K-12. As I posted earlier, Montlake Elementary and AS#1 were removed from the closure list.

The school board will vote on the recommendations on January 29th.

Seattle School District Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson is expected to announce the final school closure list later today.

So far, it appears Montlake Elementary and Alternative School #1 are off the closure list.

The district's initial list of proposed closures, released in November, recommended closing the African American Academy, Arbor Heights, Meany Middle School, TT Minor and AS#1.

The proposal also recommended relocating Lowell, NOVA, Pathfinder, Van Asselt, Summit K-12, and Thornton Creek elementary.

Also at this morning's city council briefing (a detailed account of Metro head Kevin Desmond's presentation available here), Seattle Public Utilities solid waste director Tim Croll told council members that SPU will be trying to make up for service missed during the storm. Although Croll, in response to a question from council member Richard McIver, said SPU couldn't do much about squirrels getting into trash—"they can chew through just about anything"—he did say that customers who missed more than two trash pickups (a lot of folks in West and Southeast Seattle, apparently) can expect a rebate. "We will do our best to confirm which areas were missed twice" and "come up with options for a rebate," Croll said. Council members also grilled Croll and SPU deputy director Sharon White about the whereabouts of utilities director Chuck Clarke, who resigned to become chief executive of the Cascade Water Alliance in December. "Is he in town now?" Tom Rasmussen asked. "Yes," White replied. "Was he invited?" "Yes." "Did he decline?" "I will be here when Chuck leaves, so there’s a bit of continuity, so I felt I was best suited to come here." That wasn't enough explanation for Tim Burgess, who remarked sharply at the end of the meeting, "If we have invited a department head to come, they should come."

SPU spokesman Andy Ryan says the department is still figuring out how many people went more than two cycles without trash pickup, and will figure out how much of a rebate to issue, what it will cost the city, and how to pay for the rebates in the next few weeks.

Kevin Desmond, the general manager of Metro, just spoke to the city council about Metro's response during the snowstorm. Overall, Desmond came across as more willing to admit fault and less defensive than Grace Crunican, the director of the city's transportation department, did yesterday—appropriately, perhaps, given that Metro did a truly abysmal job at getting information to the public and providing riders with timely updates. At the very least, the lessons Metro says it has learned are the right ones: Create a plan for catastrophic weather events, get more people on the phones, and come up with a better system for getting information to the public.

Here's some of what Desmond had to say.

On customers' plight during the storm: "We deeply appreciate the patience of our customers and we also certainly understand the frustration that our customers felt… Nobody likes to wait by the curb for a very long time for buses that may or may not show up or buses that pass because they are very, very crowded. ... I know it’s very frustrating when you’re waiting for a train or bus that’s not going to show up."

On the transit agency's lack of a "snow plan" for major storms:

"We were fully prepared for [the initial storm the night of December 17]. ... We had taken our articulated trolley buses out of service and started operating on pre-established snow routes throughout the region. .... [However], during the 18th, conditions deteriorated quite quickly throughout the county. We saw quickly that morning that our articulated [long-bus] fleet began to fail and our trolley network began to fail as well. ... That morning we had over 200 buses stuck at one point in time... We then had to immediately create an ad hoc 50 percent service plan. That was not something we had pre-established or pre-planned. That then became the plan that we had operational for roughly the next seven or eight days."

On Metro's "Achilles' heel":

"About half of our fleet are either articulated [double-length, flexible] or electric trolley buses. ... Those [buses] serve Metro and this community very, very well under normal circumstances. But
during these snow events they are, in effect, an Achilles heel for the organization because they do not operate very well. ... People were saying, 'Why can't the bus run? My street is clear.' ... Trolley buses have to turn around at their terminals, and if terminal locations, which tend to be deep into communities, are not accessible, even if large portions of the route are clear we just can't operate the trolley network."

On the breakdown in communications:

"Customer and public communication... really is the biggest problem we faced in these events. And unfortunately, it’s going to continue to be a problem in future events. ... The nexus of everything that happens at Metro is our radio control center. That radio control center is completely limited by the number of radio channels available to us [four] and the number of people who can sit at those stations. We're building a new system that will dramatically increase the number of channels available, but that will not be online until 2010. [In the meantime], a coordinator can get a call on the radio and not be able to answer it for eight hours."

On "unpublished routes" and other flaws in getting information to customers:

"Our 80 percent plan includes published routes. Once we went off of that that is when we started to break down in our ability to really convey good information, because we were making up routes or portions of routes kind of on the fly. ... The web site didn’t work particularly well for what we ended up doing. Even where we had buses on routes and they were operating we still were faced with a lot of conditions we couldn’t control. ... We have some 9000 bus stops in the system and trying to get information to each and every one of those bus stops is obviously a challenge."

On the lessons Metro has learned:

"In something as dramatic as this event, we need to create, say, a 50 percent plan … [in which buses operate] only on those arterials and streets that we know... we can keep open. The tradeoff is there will be less scope of service. People will have to walk. But at least we can be confident in keeping service operational. ... [Second], improving coordination with SDOT... deploying resources directly at SDOT's facilities. [Third], augmenting staffing. We had a huge number of people that couldn't get through [Metro's phone lines] because of a busy signal. Fourth, improving our information flow. As we get our new [radio system and GPS trackers in buses, in 2010], that will make a difference, but even before then we need to improve. Our web site does not do justice to what our consumers need."

Desmond will do a similar, but "more elaborate," presentation to the King County Council next Monday, January 12, at 9:30 am.

The city council is currently holding the second of four meetings to evaluate the city and county's storm response; watch live online here. Currently, they're grilling Seattle City Light Director Jorge Carrasco, who's currently talking about the last major storm. Up next: The Department of Human Services, Seattle Public Utilities, Transportation (whose director, Grace Crunican, came off as defensive and out of touch yesterday—acknowledging, for example, that she was able to make it to Portland for Christmas while many Seattle residents were trapped in their homes), and King County Metro. Metro's director, Kevin Desmond, told me around Christmas that Metro was doing the best it could under rotten circumstances (roads that went unplowed; an antiquated system of getting information to the public). That answer was likely cold comfort to many Metro riders, who were often stuck at bus stops for hours with no information about when or whether their buses would arrive. (The decision to stay on a holiday schedule through January 2 was a further blow that left some riders busless for a full three weeks). Desmond will be speaking to the council in about half an hour, maybe a little more.

I just spoke with Marina Castillo, the mother of Carlos Bernardez—one of the men who police say was involved in the shooting at Chop Suey early Sunday morning.

Castillo did not attend Bernardez's bail hearing earlier today but she does not believe her son was involved in the shooting.

Police say Bernardez and another man, 25-year-old Roger LaBranche, opened fire inside of the club early Sunday morning, but Castillo says she's familiar with most of her son's friends and doesn't believe her 18-year-old son knows LaBranche. "He’s older, you know. I know my son’s friends. This person, I don’t know him," Castillo says.

Castillo says she had not seen her son—who lives with her—over the last few weeks, but spoke with him briefly yesterday evening before SPD SWAT officers stormed her home in Yesler Terrace and arrested Bernardez. Yesterday afternoon, hours after the shooting, Castillo finally saw her son. "I said hello. He was normal," she says.

Castillo says her son has been in trouble before—I wrote about his weapons charges here and Castillo also alluded to a domestic violence case, which does not appear in King County court records—and dropped out of Rainier Beach High School last year. "I always try to warn him about trouble," Castillo says. "I do what a mother’s supposed to do. He doesn’t listen."

As Eli wrote earlier, a convocation of Seattle’s hiphop leaders—about 25 artists, promoters, and producers—squeezed into the back booths of Moe Bar last night to hash out a response to the shooting at Chop Suey. After an hour and a half of off-the-record deliberation, the group elected to hold off on any public statements for now. “Essentially, we decided to be prepared for a backlash, but also be ready to intelligently respond,” says Wyking, founder of the Seattle Hip-Hop Summit Youth Council.

Although the press coverage has been largely neutral—many reports have omitted the loaded words “hiphop” and "rap"—the backlash already exists in blog comments. “People who write blogs reach conclusions” that hiphop is the cause of violence, says George Yasataki.

But hiphop leaders argue that the shootings stem not from the music, but from conflicts that exist outside the venues as part of a rising trend in urban youth violence. People with disputes can conflict anywhere—in homes, on the street, or at crowded events where people congregate. Blaming hiphop shows, they say, is scapegoating. “The worst thing that could happen is what happened to the Las Vegas hiphop scene,” says Logics, a producer for Street Academy. “The mayor said no more hiphop shows in Vegas. That would just be terrible here.” When violence occurs at Bite of Seattle, the Torchlight Parade, and shopping malls, he says, nobody suggests shutting them down.

The discussion after the meeting bore mostly on the hiphop community’s potential role in making events safer. Jennifer Petersen—a producer for Sportn’ Life Records, which produced one of the acts at Chop Suey that night, Fatal Lucciauno—was at Chop Suey during the shooting. “Something in our community needs to change,” she told me. "It is our responsibility completely.”

After the meeting, six guys huddled around a long stand-up table next door at Pike Street Fish Fry. In somber tones, they described steps that the city, media and local hiphop community could take to make showes shows safer. G-Prez, president of Sea-Sick Records and the Black Teamsters Union, suggested modifying a gang task force. He suggests street officers could help kids stay out of trouble, in part, by resolving disputes. “We might know who has a beef with whom, but we’re not going to go talk to them,” he says. The men suggested that an SPD training for nightclub workers be free for music promoters, placing squad cars in front of clubs, and increasing security in venues.

Others people suggested creating community safety standards and identifying safe shows with some sort of seal on the poster. “Promoters need to be held accountable to protect these hiphop goers,” says Sonny Bonoho.

There's an interesting discussion underway at Seattle Transit Blog about Sound Transit's proposed fare structure for Link Light Rail, which would require people who take longer trips to pay more. The proposal is aimed at getting 52 percent "farebox recovery"— the amount of operating costs that are paid for by fares alone.

Fifty-two percent is an ambitious goal; current farebox recovery for Metro hovers around 21 percent, which is pretty typical. The base fare would be either $2.00 or $1.75, depending on whether Sound Transit participated in the downtown ride-free zone, plus five cents a mile (rounded to the nearest quarter, for fares of $2.00, $2.25, etc.) The most expensive fares would be $2.75 under the higher fare schedule, or $2.50 for the lower base rate. The only way to transfer from Metro to Sound Transit or vice versa will be to use the ORCA smart card, a long-delayed regionwide payment system that has been plagued by technological and implementation kinks. Everyone else will have to pay twice.

The comments at STB are mostly along four lines: 1) The ORCA system is incredibly confusing, and forcing people to use it seems unfair; 2) Requiring to pay more for longer trips is fair because they chose to live far from where they work; 3) Forcing people to pay more for longer trips is unfair because if they weren't riding light rail they'd be driving on roads that cost more to maintain, and light rail is supposed to serve the working class; 4) Park-and-ride drivers should pay more; and 5) The proposed fares are too high and should be cheaper or free.

A few additional thoughts:

1) Penalizing riders for not using ORCA seems a bit premature. Drivers seem unclear on how to use the system, and initial rollout isn't expected until later this year. In the meantime, it's completely unfamiliar to all but a handful of riders who participated in a test run two years ago (and nearly impossible to find anything out about online).

2) Making longer trips more expensive is fair, up to a point. Transit systems do this already, through zone-based pricing. But broad-brush, by-the-mile fare increases do disproportionately impact people who live in places like Rainier Beach, Othello and Columbia City—all of which are, or are becoming, fairly dense, urban areas despite their distance from downtown.

For example, folks who live in Rainier Beach can access only one stop—the Othello station, one stop away—for the lowest fare. All other trips cost a quarter to fifty cents more. Similarly, people who live at the Othello stop can go to Columbia City or Rainier Beach for the lowest fare, but must pay more to go any further away. Those who live closer to downtown can go several more stops before their fares go up. Given that most people aren't commuting from Rainier Beach to Othello, the vast majority of South Enders will probably end up paying more than those closer in. Is that fair? Maybe; but I would hardly call Columbia City the suburbs, and development around the Othello Station will eventually be as dense as anywhere in the city.

3) Sound Transit's downtown conundrum could be solved once and for all if Metro would simply eliminate the Ride Free Zone. Currently, the city subsidizes Ride Free for Metro only; if Sound Transit decides to participate, it will have to increase fares elsewhere to pay for it. Getting rid of Ride Free across the board would solve that problem; and it would improve trip reliability by making fare payment consistent across the city (no more confusion, fumbling for transfers after you've already paid once, or waiting for passengers to fight their way to the front of the bus in "pay as you leave" zones.)

Earlier this year, King County prosecutors made a concerted effort to keep guns out of the hands of one of the suspects in Sunday's shooting at Chop Suey.

In 2007, Carlos Bernardez—the 18-year-old man arrested by Seattle police last night in connection with the shooting at Chop Suey over the weekend—was charged with illegally possessing a .45 caliber pistol.

On September 18th, 2007, a gang unit on patrol in the Yesler Terrace neighborhood spotted Bernardez and a group of other teens hanging out in Pratt Park. According to a police report, officers approached the group for a "social contact" and talked with Hernandez. The teens left the park and soon after, officers found a blue backpack in a garbage can. Inside the backpack, police found the pistol—which was apparently stolen—wrapped in a t-shirt, along with Bernardez's school registration forms. Officers arrested Bernardez later that night.

Bernardez, then 17, was found guilty of unlawful possession of a firearm and given a deferred disposition—essentially a "stay out of trouble" order—by Judge Carol Schapira.

Bernardez managed to keep clean for a year and had the original guilty verdict wiped from his record. Judge Schapira issued a ruling restoring Bernardez's right to possess a gun, much to the dismay of King County prosecutors.

"We opposed him having his right to have a gun," says King County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Dan Donahoe.

Generally, when someone is convicted of a firearms violation, they lose their right to own a gun and must wait some time—depending on the crime—to petition the court to reinstate their right to possess a weapon.

Being legally prohibited from owning a firearm wouldn't necessarily have prevented this weekend's shooting—the gun used to kill 29-E and wound two others was a .45 caliber but doesn't appear to bethe same one taken from Bernardez in 2007 and, for that matter, we don't know that Bernardez was involved in the shooting—but the prosecutor's office sure seemed to think Bernardez and guns were a bad mix.

Judge Schapira declined to comment on the case.

Bail for Bernardez and Roger Labranche, also arrested in connection with Sunday's shooting, has been set at $2 million each.

A (noncomprehensive) list of shootings inside and directly outside bars and nightclubs in Seattle in the last two years:

January 3, 2009. Venue: Chop Suey, 1325 East Madison St. Victims: Two men injured, one seriously; one man killed.

November 23, 2008. Venue: Vito's Madison Grill, 927 9th Ave. Victim: One man killed.

November 23, 2008. Venue: Venom, 2218 Western Ave. Victims: Two wounded.

July 12, 2008. Venue: Outside Waid's Haitian Lounge, 1212 East Jefferson St. Victim: One woman shot and injured.

January 26, 2008. Venue: Baltic Room, 1207 Pine Street. Victim: One man killed.

November 19, 2007. Venue: Sugar Nightclub, 916 East Pike St. (since closed). Victims: Three people wounded.

October 6, 2007. Venue: Level 5,, 332 5th Ave. North. Victims: Four men shot and injured.

July 25, 2007. Venue: Outside the Satellite Lounge, 1118 East Pine St. Victim: One wounded.

July 2, 2007. Venue: Tabella, 2333 Western Ave. (since closed). Victim: One man, 18, shot and injured.

June 23, 2007. Venue: Tommy's Nightclub, 4552 University Way NE. Victim: One man wounded.