King County’s 100 Days of Action to combat rise in gun violence
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is encouraged to see that agencies and leaders across King County are coming together and looking at data-driven and thoughtful solutions to address gun violence.
“I am grateful to King County Executive Dow Constantine and City of Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell for their leadership on the 100 Days of Action Initiative, which helped shine a spotlight on gun violence in King County,” King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion said. “The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office continues to work closely with law enforcement partners to hold perpetrators of gun violence accountable and keep the community safe. I am committed to identifying avenues of sustained collaboration and partnership with public health, law enforcement, community organizations, victims and survivors, and city and county leaders to stop gun violence in our community.”
Throughout these efforts, King County prosecutors continue to do the daily work of pursuing justice for victims of gun violence and, after a careful independent evidentiary review and analysis of each individual case, filing charges referred to our office. These cases include homicides, armed robberies, carjackings, assaults, drive-by-shootings, unlawful gun possession cases, felony harassment and more. Law enforcement agencies across King County are working each day to investigate and refer incidents happening in our community to prosecutors. This includes complex investigations involving individuals engaged in repeated high-impact gun violence offenses.
Just in the last two months (August and September), the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged 136 cases involving guns. That’s 136 separate cases over 43 business days. Also, between August 1 and today (October 30), King County senior deputy prosecutors have attended 24 autopsies for gunshot victims.
The monthly reports of gun cases charged by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for August and September are available on our blog. The cases included in these reports are cases in which firearms were involved. There are also additional cases of gun violence that are being investigated by law enforcement or that have recently been referred to prosecutors for review. These monthly reports were created with the help of our Director of Data and Analytics and shared with local leaders in early October.
This body of work is done by King County Prosecutors to address gun violence each and every day.
Prosecutors in nearly all KCPAO criminal divisions continue to handle cases involving gun violence and prosecutors have been working on building stronger collaborative relationships across King County including relationships with law enforcement, school leaders, Public Health, community, and non-profit leaders. This work is complex and resource intensive and success relies on continued investment in multi-disciplinary approaches.
