As the Emerald City prepares to host the World Cup, North Seattle residents say they are living through conditions that resemble a war zone after another weekend of gun violence rocked the Aurora Avenue corridor, leaving dozens of shell casings scattered across the street and terrified neighbors barricading their own roads.
The latest shootout erupted around 4 am Saturday near the Burgermaster at North 101st Street and Aurora Avenue North. According to Seattle police, officers responding to reports of gunfire recovered roughly 40 shell casings from both sides of Aurora Avenue. Bullets have struck multiple buildings, homes, and at least one vehicle.
Surveillance footage obtained by KOMO News captured approximately 15 seconds of rapid gunfire as groups exchanged shots from behind parked cars near a nearby nightclub.
NEW: Video obtained by @komonews shows people engaged in a shootout just after 4am on Saturday, near the Burgermaster across Aurora Avenue.
Police collected 40 shell casings from both sides of the ave. Check video #2 to hear the gunfire, lasts 12 sec straight. @komonews pic.twitter.com/ylSGwfBI93
— Tyler Cunnington KOMO (@TyCunningtonTV) May 24, 2026
The violence came just days after another terrifying incident in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood, where bullets blasted through a home near North 98th Street and Linden Avenue North, narrowly missing a six-week-old baby sleeping in a bassinet beside a window.
For longtime resident and military veteran David Patton, that incident was the final straw.
“There are nights here that there is more gunfire going on in Aurora than I heard in Iraq when I was over there,” Patton told The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI.
Patton, who served in both Gulf War conflicts, said he never imagined an American city would become this dangerous.
“Never did I think I was going to live in a city where it was like that,” he said.
Later Saturday morning, frustrated neighbors took matters into their own hands. Residents installed massive industrial steel planters across residential side streets at North 97th, 98th, and 102nd Streets, where they connect to Aurora Avenue North.
The barriers were intended to prevent pimps, gang members, prostitutes, and fleeing shooters from cutting through residential neighborhoods.
Neighbors said representatives from the mayor’s office and the Seattle Department of Transportation objected to the closures, but residents refused to remove them.
Attached to the planters was a letter explaining the neighborhood’s actions. “For more than three years, many of us have been engaging almost daily with city officials, law enforcement, SDOT, and other local agencies to find both immediate and long-term solutions,” the letter stated. “Homes have been hit by gunfire, narrowly missing children. Our military veterans, thinking they’d found a peaceful neighborhood, are now suffering from PTSD.”
Patton said the violence has escalated dramatically since the COVID era, when prostitution activity expanded beyond Aurora’s motels and into nearby residential streets. “There’s always been prostitution here,” Patton explained. “But since COVID, it has moved out into the streets. And along with it has come violence.”
Residents blame years of weak enforcement policies, declining police staffing, and political inaction for allowing the situation to spiral out of control. Seattle’s deployable police force has fallen sharply since 2020 amid anti-police protests and the Seattle City Council’s defund movement. SPD staffing has dropped from roughly 1,200 deployable officers in 2020 to around 860 today.
Patton said residents repeatedly contacted city leaders and law enforcement while documenting shootings and criminal activity, only to receive little response.
“We have done everything they have asked of us,” Patton said. “Call 911, keep records, record shots fired. The city never answered.”
According to residents, SDOT had previously discussed plans to close several side streets near Aurora after earlier shootings, but the closures were never implemented. After the near-fatal shooting involving the infant, neighbors decided to move forward on their own.
Patton said residents have already noticed changes since the barriers went up. “I did not see a single prostitute on the street,” he said while describing a drive through the corridor Sunday afternoon.
While a handful of critics complained about traffic disruptions caused by the barricades, residents dismissed those concerns. “Our response has been the bullets are a little more inconvenient than you having to go an extra block on your commute,” Patton said.
Patton also warned that Seattle’s upcoming World Cup events could make the problem worse by bringing more demand for prostitution, while already strained police resources are concentrated downtown near the stadiums.
“With that money is going to be an uptick in prostitution,” Patton said. “With that uptick in prostitution, there will be an uptick in violence.”
For many residents living along Aurora, the steel barricades now blocking neighborhood streets are no longer simply traffic barriers. They are a sign that many Seattle homeowners no longer believe City Hall is capable of protecting them.
