No arrests yet after 16-year-old girl killed in Seattle Teen killed outside landmark bakery identified

Photo: Kara Kostanich / KOMO News A teen girl shot dead outside a Seattle bakery has been identified...

A teen girl shot dead outside a Seattle bakery has been identified as 16-year-old Kahlani Shabazz.

Seattle police have yet to release much information about the death of Shabazz, who appears to have also been known as Kahlani “Doobie” Sye. She was killed on the evening on May 3, shot several times by parties unknown.

The shooting, which occurred during the evening rush hour in a busy block of Rainier Avenue South, remained unsolved Wednesday evening. A King County Medical Examiner’s Office spokesman said Shabazz died of multiple gunshot wounds in an apparent homicide.

Shabazz died amidst a rash of shootings in the Seattle area. It’s not clear whether any of the shootings were related, and there do not appear to have been any arrests.

Seattle police have stepped up patrols in response to the shootings. A police department spokesman said detectives from various units are working in concert to solve the shootings, and that investigators in Seattle are coordinating their efforts with their counterparts in other jurisdictions and agencies.

The shooting that claimed Shabazz’s life occurred just after 6 p.m. in a commercial strip a few blocks south of Interstate 90. She died in a car parked outside Borracchini’s Bakery, a South Seattle landmark.

Police were called to the intersection of Rainier Avenue South and South College Way, located near the northern boundary of North Beacon Hill, following reports of multiple gunshots there.

Officers found Shabazz in the car. Police believe Shabazz’s car was targeted in the shooting. It was not clear from police statements whether she was alone in the car when the shooting occurred.

An injured man was found in a nearby business and rushed to Harborview Medical Center-UW Medicine with non-life-threatening injuries. He didn’t appear to be associated with the vehicle.

The incident in which Shabazz was killed was one of at least seven injurious shootings in Seattle so far this May. Additional shootings, including a deadly bar fight in White Center, have occurred outside the city limits.

So far, Shabazz is the only person to lose their life in the recent string of shootings.

“We offer our deepest sympathy to the family of the young woman who died ...” Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole said in a statement. “We are outraged by the gun violence, and neither our department nor our community will tolerate it. We have been working consistently with our federal, state, and county partners, and convened a meeting ... to redouble our efforts.”

In part because it occurred during that string, the girl’s death passed with little notice. Those who knew her took to social media to express their grief and raise money for her family through a GoFundMe request.

Anyone with information about Shabazz’s death has been asked to call the Seattle Police Department violent crimes tip line at (206) 233-5000, or 911. Efforts to reach Shabazz’s family were not successful Wednesday.

Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.