The sorry truth of homicides

Did you hear about the latest homicide in Seattle?

I don't mean the man fatally attacked three weeks back in the Rainier Beach traffic circle. That's been all over the news. There were vigils, memorials, public outrage. It's what we expect — what a community needs — in the face of senseless death.

But at the scene of the city's newest slaying, there have been no vigils. Nobody left flowers or lit a candle. A man was shot dead in the chest nine days ago, yet his name has not made the news.

"It's like the murder that never happened," said a neighbor who lives so close the gunfire rattled a window.

On July 21, near midnight, someone fired three shots in an alley in the 2500 block of East Columbia Street, two blocks north of Garfield High School. The next day police said a 56-year-old had been killed.

And that was about all that's been said, by anyone, so far.

"It doesn't set right with me," says Paul Johnson, 51. "He gets shot and nobody barely notices. Why does nobody give a damn?"

Johnson was a friend of the victim, Troy Lee Peters. They met when they crashed into each other on their bicycles 10 years ago. The two took to riding bikes all over the Central Area. They'd do odd jobs, landscaping or plumbing, then drink beer after.

"Man, he loved riding those bikes," Johnson says. "I don't care if it was a tricycle — if it had wheels and you could pedal it, he'd ride it."

He rode it down that alley where he was shot. A bicycle was found next to Peters' body.

His rap sheet shows he was a chronic petty criminal. Not violent, but always in trouble. Sixty-two times in the past 20 years Peters was cited for misdemeanors — multiple thefts, car prowling, shoplifting, burglary, public drinking.

He also had a drug problem, serving stints in state prison for drug possession or dealing.

Recent addresses include a drug-rehab facility in Fremont and a homeless shelter. So far the county morgue can't find kin to notify about the death.

Saviour Knowledge, who works at 23rd and East Union and who knew Peters, says the sorry truth is society judges some lives to be worth more than others.

"It's another troubled black man dead in the CD," he said. "That's why there's no ripples. First, he was no saint. Second, when you're on drugs you got no community. So the powers-that-be don't deem it all that notable when you get killed."

A friend of mine, Los Angeles Times reporter and Seattle native Jill Leovy, last year chronicled every homicide in L.A. — all 845 of them. She found that only the most unusual murders get much attention. While many killings at the "eye of the storm" of urban violence don't rate much focus. By the press. By most people. Sometimes even by cops.

"The people and places most affected by homicides are least likely to be seen, while the safest people are inundated with information about crimes unlikely to ever touch their lives," she wrote.

So it goes with Troy Peters. You ask around about him, where he hung out along East Union or on the block where he died, and you get back a sense of detachment. A civic shrug.

He was part of the urban landscape. There's a feeling his killing was, too.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.

Information in this article, originally published July 30, was corrected July 30. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the name of the man who works at 23rd and E. Union and who knew homicide victim Troy Peters was Serious Knowledge. His name is Saviour Knowledge.