The King County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting of a 17-year-old male in the chest early Thursday morning (May 19) near an apartment complex in Burien.

The victim was rushed to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle by medics for emergency surgery.

Police say that at around 12:13 a.m. Thursday morning, they received 911 calls about the sounds of gunfire in the area of SW 116 Street and Ambaum Blvd SW. Very shortly thereafter, they received updates that a man had been shot in the chest and was laying in a parking lot of an apartment complex about one block north of that area.

Deputies from Burien arrived within minutes and found the victim, later learned to be 17-year old male, lying near an apartment complex in the 11400 block of 16th Ave SW (map below). The victim had a single gunshot wound to his chest. Deputies as well as medics from North Highline Fire and King County Medic-1 provided aid to the victim at the scene before he was rushed to Harborview for emergency surgery.
Because of the nature of his injuries, Deputies were only able to get a very limited description of the suspects from the victim. At the time, they were described as two Hispanic males wearing dark clothing. It is believed that they fled on foot and then possibly in a silver or gray 2000’s era sedan. A K-9 track was attempted but no suspects were located.

The exact number of shots fired is unknown, but multiple gunshots were heard by witnesses.

The victim had surgery, and was in intensive care.

King County Sheriff Major Crimes Detectives are investigating the events that lead up to the shooting and the possibility that drugs or gangs may have had any involvement in it. The investigation is on-going at this time.

Detectives are attempting to locate as many witnesses as possible to the event. Anyone with information is asked to call 206-296-3311

EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ve received a few emails and messages questioning whether this tragic incident took place within the city limits, and sadly – it did – here’s a map showing the city’s northern boundary (changed due to the 2009 annexation) on 16th Ave SW, along with the location of the shooting:

Since 2007, The B-Town Blog is Burien’s multiple award-winning hyperlocal news/events website dedicated to independent journalism.

4 replies on “17-year-old boy shot in chest in Burien early Thursday morning”

  1. Drugs and gangs have been around a long time but it appears the violence is getting dramatically worse in Burien. Is it the type of drugs causing violence as a “side effect”? Is society becoming more sociopathic? Or is it all of the above?

    1. All of the above….
      Don’t forget that people with lower IQ’s are still having lot’s of kids compared with people with higher IQ’s.
      This is dumbing down the population at a rapid pace all over the World.

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