At about 6 p.m. April 29, 12-year-old Alajawan Brown got off the bus in front of the 7-Eleven on Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Skyway for the walk home.
He had just bought some cleats at Walmart to get ready to play football.
Just minutes later he ran back, bleeding from a gunshot wound, near death. He made it just to the front of the store, where he collapsed and died, despite the efforts of two passersby to help him.
A half block away, a 27-year-old man lay bleeding, in critical condition. His condition is not available under privacy rules.
Both were hit by gunfire as violent group argued and opened fire in the parking lot of the Cedar Village Apartments on South 129th Street.
More than 20 rounds were fired. A stray bullet hit Alajawan as he walked up South 129th Street toward home.
Wednesday night, the Skyway community came together in a prayer vigil where Alajawan died to remember him.
Alajawan’s murder – his death was ruled a homicide by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office – has saddened and angered those who knew him well and even strangers, who all wonder why a young child could die so violently in a residential neighborhood.
Alajawan was buying the cleats with the $20 his 16-year-old brother Louis had paid him to clean the kitchen.
“He was coming home. He got caught in the crossfire,” said Louis. “He didn’t know he was hit.”…more
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