BELLEVUE, Wash. — Preventing mass shootings before they happen is the goal of one free, public community gathering that took place in Bellevue's Meydenbauer Center Theatre Thursday night. It's part of the city's efforts to "promote a resilient community."
Kristina Anderson Froling, a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting joined a Bellevue police detective and others to share their perspectives on violence prevention, and inform guests on how to assess when there's a threat of targeted violence and about tactics for de-escalation.
It was the second event in a two-prong series held by the city Thursday. Earlier in the day, Bellevue hosted a summit with school districts and business community partners to teach them about preparation and threat assessment. That included Bellevue School District's security group, according to Michelle DeGrand, deputy communications officer for the City of Bellevue.
"In all of these cases of targeted violence, they are pre-planned, there are signs ahead of time, there are ways that we can use research to understand whether or not someone poses a risk," said DeGrand.
Regionally, violence prevention has been top of mind for residents recently, after a string of summer shootings-- not in Bellevue-- but in nearby Seattle.
"You see it on the news all the time, like the mass shooting of someone else, you see always another face, another family," said Patrick Bellard, who lost his son in a mass shooting at a hookah lounge this August in South Seattle. "When it happens to you, I mean, it's like, it shatters your world."
Less than three months ago, a shooting at an illegal street racing event in Capitol Hill took the life of one woman and injured three others. Days later, five people were shot and injured at a Rainier Beach Safeway grocery store parking lot. Three weeks after that, the aforementioned shooting at Rainier Hookah Lounge rattled the community as it left three people dead, including 32-year-old Trevis Bellard, and six others injured.
Bellard's parents and younger sister live in Texas. They said he was visiting Seattle for the weekend to visit some friends.
"He had so much to offer society that was stripped away from him just being there, not even involved in nothing," said Patrick Bellard.
Seattle Police Department Chief Adrian Diaz recently told KING 5 they are seeing more victims in the shootings that are occurring in the city.
"In some of those cases you're talking about dozens and dozens of rounds," said Diaz.
Gun violence across the nation has left countless families in a state of mourning ahead of a new holiday season, including mothers like Lorna Bellard.
"I'm not looking forward to the holidays," she said.
For these reasons and more, about 30 Bellevue community members made it out to the event Thursday, in hopes of never having to experience gun violence in the first place.