Seattle teen killed while breaking up fight outside school

A 17-year-old was shot and killed while trying to break up a fight outside his Seattle high school, police said.

Officers with the Seattle Police Department were called to Garfield High School on Thursday to investigate reports of a shooting. When first responders arrived on scene around 12:30 p.m., they discovered a teenager suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

Police Chief Eric Barden told reporters that gunfire broke out during the lunch hour in the school parking lot near 23rd Avenue and Jefferson Street. He said the victim tried to “intervene” and break up “an altercation” between two men, but his efforts made them even more “angry”.

“One of the first fighters approached the victim and another altercation broke out,” and the suspect fired several shots, Barden said.

The shooter then fled. Police said he was on foot at the time.

A parent at the scene, Christle Young – who was also a police officer – meanwhile took action. She was waiting for her son to pick up gift cards for the annual athletics banquet when she heard gunshots, she told KUOW.

“I saw a kid on the ground,” Young recalled.

“He had a gunshot wound to the upper left chest and another to the left side of the abdomen. I started doing CPR,” she continued. “I asked the school nurse to help me by putting some pressure on the wound in his abdomen. She was hesitant but I put her hands on them and told her to keep your hands there while I continued CPR.

Young said first responders arrived fairly quickly and took over rescue efforts before taking the teen to Harborview Medical Center, where he died a short time later.

As of Friday, no arrests had been made. The shooter has not been identified, but police believe he is “school age.”