Man critically injured after shot in face in Central Area

A young man was shot in the face Tuesday evening outside the Garfield Community Center in Seattle's Central Area after a confrontation between two small groups.

Seattle police spokeswoman Renee Witt said the unidentified victim was in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Within an hour of the shooting, community residents were holding glowing candles in subfreezing temperatures at the scene, near 23rd Avenue and East Cherry Street, to disavow street violence.

"What better place for us to be than right here?" said Liz Ali, co-founder of Mothers Outreach Movement (MOM), a group that includes mothers who have lost children this year to street violence.

According to Witt, a group of males were outside the community center on the east side of the grounds Tuesday when they were approached by another group of young males at about 7 p.m. Words were exchanged, and the victim was shot in the face.

The victim and two other males ran inside the community center, where the victim collapsed.

The second group — up to four males — ran in different directions, Witt said. The two who entered the community center with the victim left the scene, too, Witt said. "They didn't stick around."

More than three hours after the shooting, gang-unit detectives were still at the scene interviewing witnesses. No arrests had been made.

Ali, of MOM, said about 20 of her members and supporters were holding a candlelight vigil at Rainier Avenue South and South Alaska Street, less than five miles south of the shooting scene, when a passer-by in a vehicle told them about the shooting.

"We all jumped in our cars and came straight here," she said, standing in front of the Garfield center.

"This is part of our strategy," said another member of the MOM group, Dione Tyson, also of Seattle. "Being at the scene of the crime to support the family."

Police spokeswoman Witt said it was too early to call the shooting gang-related.

There have been a number of shootings of young people in the Seattle-area this year, including one Halloween night, when 15-year-old Quincy Coleman was wounded by gunfire outside Garfield Community Center. He, too, sought aid at the community center. Police found him shot in the stomach. Coleman later died.

Charles E. Brown: 206-464-2206 or cbrown@seattletimes.com