SEATTLE — Three young people were killed and six others injured during a shootout at a hookah lounge on Rainier Avenue South early on a Sunday morning in August 2023. Seattle police recovered five guns at the scene but more than two years later, there have been no arrests.
Almost a year after that shooting, 22-year-old David Escatell was shot twice in the abdomen inside a warehouse in the Sodo neighborhood, where operators were believed to be illegally selling liquor while operating under the guise of a hookah lounge. Escatell died in the operating room at Harborview Medical Center.
Then in March, two more men — 23-year-old Ozie Whitfield and 29-year-old security guard Julius Rodriguez — were gunned down in the courtyard of the Capri Bar & Restaurant, which was also known as Capri Hookah Lounge, in Rainier Beach…