Detectives now say the shooting outside a Mariner High School football game in south Everett last Friday was gang-related. Witnesses involved in the incident are not cooperating with investigators.
Officials with the Mukilteo School District paid for an additional deputy to patrol Friday night's Mariner football game against Monroe, although they say there have been no known threats of violence or retaliation.
Police say a fight in a parking lot at Goddard Stadium last Friday escalated into a drive-by shooting nearby. No one was hurt, but the stadium was evacuated, rattling students and families.
It was the latest in an ongoing gang problem in south Everett.
Since January of 2015, there have been 82 gang-related shootings in south Snohomish County. Twenty-six of those resulted in gunshot wounds, five of which turned fatal, according to Courtney O'Keefe of the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.
Everett's police chief has dedicated more cops to patrol problem areas and Mayor Cassie Franklin launched a city-wide initiative to look at the gang problem holistically.
That means more outreach to youth at risk of slipping into gang life, including programs like a summer soccer camp run by Everett police to make connections with kids.
One program actually pays kids to correct bad behaviors, get good grades, and stay in school.
Workers are also targeting troubled kids with interventions that redirect them toward a better path.
"They have to have hope," says Andre Graham who runs the South Everett/Mukilteo Boys and Girls Club's Passport to Manhood program.
That effort identifies at-risk middle school students before they slip through the cracks. They are taught how to make better decisions and can be paired with a mentor who helps set them on a career track.
"Something really is being done. It's not just talk," says Graham. "We're out at the schools getting to know the kids. We're getting things in motion now to where we can start making positive change."
It's change that can't some soon enough for the kids in south Everett.
