Renton police are investigating after two people were injured in a shooting at a gas station Monday night. Police said Tuesday it does not appear to be a random shooting.
Officers responded to the scene in the 200 block of Rainier Ave. North just before 9 p.m. Police said at least two adult men were found with gunshot wounds.
Witnesses told KOMO News the shooting happened in the middle of all the gas pumps, with customers in the other bays pumping gas. The gas station manager said there were customers in the store too and that employees quickly hurried the customers into a backroom and stayed put until police arrived.
Two men were hit according to police. Witnesses say one man was pumping gas at the time, the other was sitting in the passenger seat when a volley of shots came from a corner of the gas station near a neighboring business.
One victim was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with life-threatening injuries, and the second victim was treated at the scene before being taken to the hospital. As of Tuesday afternoon, a 28-year-old man is in ICU, upgraded from critical condition to serious. A second victim, a 29-year-old man is in stable condition.
Police said the victims were at the AM/PM on Rainier Ave. North when a suspect vehicle pulled up and shots were fired, then the suspects left the scene.
One of the victims left the original scene and was able to make it across the street to the McDonalds, where he flagged down a King County Sheriff's deputy who was in the area, according to sheriff officials.
A nearby business let KOMO News watch video captured on their surveillance camera, but declined to share a copy. It doesn't show the shooting, but you do see four masked people race up in a vehicle, jump out and run towards the gas station. The timing matches up with when police say the incident happened. Within minutes they were back in their vehicle and gone.
A number of people who live and work in the area told KOMO News, they're fed up. So is their mayor, one of eight South Sound mayors who penned a letter in early August calling for stricter laws - and improved and timely juvenile and adult felony criminal accountability.
"I don't know if it's having stricter laws I know they are trying but it just needs to be better something needs to happen all this senseless violence it's for what," said Geraldine a lifelong resident of the Rainier Valley. The AM/PM is on the Renton-Skyway border.
"They need to do something about the gun violence," said Geraldine.
She does her laundry next door to the gas station and said as a parent of two kids, she never lets her guard down.
"It's really sad I think it's gotten really worse I’ve lived here all my life I noticed every year it keeps getting worse and worse, the violence," she said.
Eric, a regular AM/PM customer said he arrived at the gas station Monday night just after the shooting. He came back today to find out what happened and to make sure the employees were okay and worried that an innocent bystander got shot.
"All the shell casing out there, it made me concerned I just live two blocks down the road even a stray bullet could have made it to my house," said Eric.
Police are continuing to investigate what led up to the shooting.