EVERETT — The defendants were brought in one at a time to face the judge.
Their skin was smooth. Their faces, boyish.
A mother cried when her son’s name was called from the Snohomish County Juvenile Court arraignment calendar. He’s 16 and had never been in trouble before.
He’d left their south Everett apartment the night before. She thought he’d stepped out for just a few minutes.
Instead, he and a friend were arrested. The high school students were accused of spray-painting gang scrawls on businesses along Evergreen Way in Everett, causing an estimated $12,000 in damage.
A few minutes later, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Janice Ellis called another name. The Snohomish boy, 15, was believed to be a get-away driver in a March 16 shooting along W Casino Road. A month before, the same boy had been shot outside a Seattle nightclub.
On April 2, his alleged accomplice was arrested after fleeing to Portland, Oregon. The Everett boy, who turned 16 three days before, is accused of shooting an Everett man, 22, in both legs. The suspect stands 5 feet tall and weighs 105 pounds, according to court records.
Authorities believe all four teens could have gang ties.
The judge released the two boys in the graffiti case pending trial. She warned them that tagging in their south Everett neighborhood could incite trouble. They also were ordered to stay away from gangs.
“There is a lot of gang tension, a lot of gang violence,” Ellis told one of the boys.
Recent police reports support the judge’s observation. It has been a violent three months among local gangs. Gang activity has occurred inside and outside of Everett city limits for years. There is an ebb and flow, just as there is with grant money to combat it.
“It’s not a brand-new problem, but there is just an uptick in the violent crimes and we are addressing those,” Everett police officer Aaron Snell said.
Everett police have investigated five shootings since January that appear to be related to gangs, often with teens involved:
On Jan. 6, a 17-year-old Lynnwood boy was shot in the leg at Lombard Avenue and Everett Avenue. He told police he tried to run away during a robbery. Detectives believe he was shot after a marijuana deal went bad.
On Jan. 17, an Everett man, 20, was shot in the stomach while walking in the 7800 block of Beverly Boulevard. He told police a grey vehicle pulled alongside him and someone shot him. He has gang ties. He told police a rival gang was responsible, but he doesn’t know who fired at him.
On Feb. 28, there was a collision involving a Honda Accord and a blue Ford pickup truck in the 510 block of W Casino Road. A man inside the Honda got out of the car and shot at the pickup with a rifle. No one was injured. People in both vehicles were believed to be connected to gangs.
On March 2, a home in the 700 block of 84th Street SE was riddled with bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle. A 17-year-old boy with alleged gang connections lived there, police said. He was not at home at the time, but his family was. No one was injured.
That same night, within the same hour, two other homes were hit by drive-by shootings outside of Everett city limits.
On March 16, the Everett man, 22, was struck by bullets in both legs during the drive-by shooting in the 500 block of W Casino Road. The man was standing in front of a business when he was shot. He told police he did not know who shot him or why. The victim, along with the two suspects who are now locked up at the Denney Juvenile Justice Center in north Everett, have gang ties, police said.
Police collected several .40-caliber shell casings for evidence. They documented the shattered door to a nearby deli and the bullet holes in two of its windows. They were told by one witness that the shooting might have been an act of retaliation.
Police chief Dan Templeman said his department is focusing on the gang problem.
“This activity will not be tolerated,” he said. “As a police department, we will pro-actively deploy our resources and respond to any criminal acts by identifying and arresting those involved.”
Local gangs pose a unique set of challenges.
Unlike stereotypical big city street gangs that can be defined by blocks and neighborhoods, Snell said gang membership in Snohomish County can be fluid and mobile. That makes it difficult to know how many gangs there are, how active they are and to identify their members.
It often depends on how a gang is defined. By some estimates, the number of gangs in Snohomish County hovers between one and two dozen. “We see a morphing of gangs, an expansion and contraction depending on what the circumstances are,” Snell said.
Many gang members adhere to a code of silence and are reluctant to provide information to police.
Such was the case March 2 when the three homes were hit in less than an hour.
Bullets pierced a home in the 1000 block of 22nd Drive SE. A 16-year-old boy believed to have gang connections lived there. Three rounds went through his younger sister’s bedroom, one through her mattress.
“I described to him what happened and he appeared to have some idea of who may have been behind the shooting,” a sheriff’s deputy wrote in a report. “I asked him to help me figure out who shot up his little sister’s bedroom.”
He told the deputy he wasn’t “going to be no snitch.”
The recent shooting sprees offer a contrast to many of the gangs encountered by the Snohomish Drug and Gang Task Force. Those groups often try to keep a low profile as they move millions of dollars of drugs through the county and across the country.
“Pretty much everybody we go after in the drug task force is tied into some kind of gang or drug trafficking organization,” the agency’s Cmdr. Pat Slack said. “We are dealing with them on a regular basis.”
Police know they can’t solve the gang issue alone.
“Gangs are not just a law enforcement issue. The only thing you can do is get the community involved and try to break the cycle of violence,” Slack said. “It’s offering the activities and trying to cut this stuff off.”
Several groups, including the Casino Road Stakeholders, have worked for many years to steer young people away from gangs by offering different activities. The efforts have brought together churches, schools social agencies, businesses, charitable organizations, police and people living in the area.
The Mukilteo YMCA and United Way provide an after-school study program at Horizon Elementary School for fourth and fifth graders. The Boys and Girls Club also plays an important role.
“There has never been a season with so many organizations working together to serve kids in the area,” said Tyrone McMorris, founder and director of Casino Road Kids Ministries. “There is a lot of mentorship going on.”
Among other things, his organization provides a two-day-a-week homework club at Horizon.
Principal Leslie Clauson has worked 14 years at Horizon, which is on Casino Road. It is a school with high poverty and where many students are learning English as a second language.
She draws inspiration from her students who take the Horizon Husky motto of “Be safe, be respectful, be responsible” to heart.
There have been instances when the elementary school students have expressed concern about their older siblings flirting with gangs. That has allowed counselors and others at middle and high schools to intervene, Clauson said.
“There are a lot of systems in place that are really helping,” she said.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com
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