Youth violence has been an ongoing struggle in Burien. The city's mayor says gangs and gunfire are big concerns, too.
While crime statistics don't show a spike in the numbers, they do highlight the problems that persist.
When it comes to police patrols, Burien breaks its city into six districts. For the first half of 2018, there were more than 10,000 calls for service. By far the busiest is District 5 which stretches from 8th Avenue SW to beyond 1st Avenue South, and between SW 144th Street and SW 160th Street. District 5 had three times as many calls than District 4, with more than 3,100 calls for help in the first half of the year.
District 5 is also where Gabriella Reyes Dominguez was killed by a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting on Wednesday.
"We all should be able to go to work and not worry about somebody doing a drive by and missing and hitting us," said Lorena Murphy, who owns ATA Martial Arts. Murphy's business is located around the corning from the shooting scene.
Two 17-year-olds are now in custody in connection with the shooting. Police say a verbal argument between rival gang members led to Wednesday's deadly shooting.
Numbers from the police department show in 2017, 100 juveniles were arrested in Burien. The first half of this year, brought 45 more arrests.
There were also 152 reported gang incidents in 2017, and 61 more in the first part of 2018.
Monty Penney owns Blissful Knead, a business that was so close to the gunfire Wednesday, that he decided to have employees and clients stay inside and lock the doors during the chaos.
"I would like to see more patrols. I would like to see police officers out more," said Penney.
Burien Mayor Jimmy Matta says the violence needs to stop.
"Young men and women who are involved in gangs, there is more to life," said Matta.
As far as Burien's police resources, in 2017, the city had one commissioned police officer for every thousand residents, and operated on an annual budget of more than $12 million.
