SEATTLE — This month marks one year since a mass shooting at a hookah lounge on Seattle’s Rainier Avenue took the lives of three people and injured six others.
However, no known suspects or arrests have been announced, nor have there been any changes announced to hookah lounge oversight. Grieving families told KING 5 this week that they are not getting the closure they need.
"I want something to happen. I don't feel like nothing's happening. And for me, that is the most frustrating thing," said Lorna Bellard, the mother of one of the victims.
It was 4:30 a.m. on Sun., Aug. 20. Dozens of people in their 20s and 30s were gathered inside the Rainier Hookah Lounge. When shots rang out, surveillance video shows people running out of the lounge in different directions.
In the hours after the mass shooting, former Police Chief Adrian Diaz had this to say: "I have not seen this to this-- to this magnitude-- in my 26 years of policing.”
Among those killed were 22-year-old Jonathan Bishu, 30-year-old Nadia Kassa and 32-year-old Trevis Bellard. Bellard had been visiting Seattle when he was killed.
His parents, Lorna and Patrick Bellard, describe their late son as a creative, free spirit.
"He's always full of life," said his father.
The Bellards live in Texas and continue to mourn the precious memory of their son each day.
"I really wish that we have some more progress in why it happened," said Lorna Bellard. "And that's the frustrating part, because, I mean, I want to know something. I want to know somebody got-- you know, was responsible. Like, you know? It's not fair.”
Fedilla Kassa, a sister of Nadia Kassa, asked for added oversight over the safety and security of hookah establishments at a community meeting led by the city.
We spoke with her other sister, Samia Kassa, last summer. She described her late sister as, "The furthest person from any type of like negativity, any drama, any pain, any fighting."
The two sisters told KING 5 this week that they have yet to hear of any regulatory or enforcement changes.
The Bellards echoed that statement.
"I don't feel like nothing's happening," said Lorna Bellard.
KING 5 has reached out to Seattle Police Department for an update on their homicide investigation, but as of this publishing date, they have yet to provide a statement.
The Bellards said detectives have not yet updated them on who they think might have done this. So far, police have only said they were able to recover five guns at the scene.
"Any place that's, like, after hours, you should already have, like, the top security in that place, right? Metal detectors," said Patrick Bellard.
Calls for safety at these lounges are not a new occurrence: nine years ago, after a man was shot dead outside King's Hookah Lounge in the Chinatown-International District, former Seattle Mayor Ed Murray took steps to shut all of the city’s hookah lounges down. However, he lightened his stance on the issue after business owners and supporters pushed back.
KING 5's More Than a Number series seeks to give a face to those killed and a voice to their family and closest friends. If you would like to honor a loved one you lost, you can use the form below or email us at MoreThanANumber@king5.com to tell us about them, and we will add them to our memorial page.
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