Belltown shooting early Sunday leaves one dead, one injured

An early morning shooting Sunday in Belltown left a 21-year-old dead and a 44-year-old man with life-threatening injuries, Seattle police said.

Police officers were monitoring bars around 2:45 a.m. when they heard shots fired in the 2100 block of Second Avenue, police said. Officers found two adult males with gunshot wounds lying on the sidewalk.

Update, 8:33 a.m., June 7: One man, identified as 21-year-old Steven Sok, was killed, and the other man was transported to Harborview Medical Center.

As of Sunday, Seattle police did not have suspects or anyone in custody, said police spokesman Mark Jamieson.

Noah Zavatsky was inside Under the Needle Tattoo on Second Avenue on Sunday when he heard the shots. The first one sounded like someone was banging on the door; then he heard a quick "buh-buh-buh-buh," he said. Around eight or 10 shots were fired, another witness said.

People scattered, running north past the tattoo parlor and V-Bar Noodle Bar & Lounge next door. Zavatsky said that after the shooting he saw one person on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound to his stomach and another who appeared to have been shot in the back of the head.

"It's upsetting for a lot of reasons," said Zavatsky, an apprentice at the tattoo shop. "The fact people feel they can shoot a gun on Second Avenue at 3 in the afternoon or 3 at night, that is not a good thing."

Around 2 p.m. Sunday, about 20 friends of the 21-year-old appeared in front of V-Bar, where they set up an impromptu shrine on a low ledge outside the bar, adding bouquets of flowers and lighting candles. Incense perfumed the air.

One girl sobbed while someone wrote "R.I.P." in black marker on a white piece of cardboard, and people signed it with messages including "We love and miss you."

One man poured a bottle of Hennessy cognac around the flowers, took a gulp from the bottle, then passed it on to others.

Friend Vuthy Mell said the 21-year-old was fun-loving, always cracking jokes. He grew up in South Seattle in a Cambodian family and had a job at a Target retail store, Mell said. Friends said he worked hard. He loved football and the Seahawks.

"He's the last person you'd think would go like that," Mell said.

Another friend who declined to be identified said the 21-year-old victim was a "good person."

Casey Billett lives on the same block where the shooting happened. He was awake at home when he heard the shots. He ducked for cover, then looked out his window and saw a person lying on the sidewalk.

"It was crazy," he said. "It's just bad to happen [here]."

Jeff Chang worked at V-Bar on Saturday night. He didn't know if the victims had been inside the bar that night, but it was a calm night at the bar before the shooting, he said.

"That's why it's kind of baffling," he said. "Normally, something like this happened, there's things that lead to it, you kind of see it. ... There was nothing out of the ordinary."

Zavatsky said he's noticed an increased police presence in the neighborhood but was concerned about how the shooting would affect business at Under the Needle.

"The last thing we want is our clientele to be scared to come down here," he said.

Seattle Times reporter Emily Heffter contributed to this report.

Nicole Tsong: 206-464-2150 or ntsong@seattletimes.com