SEATTLE — New security camera footage from the back entrance of the hookah lounge reveals the chaos that erupted after a mass shooting in Seattle's Mount Baker neighborhood Sunday.
At 4:21 a.m. Sunday morning, a crowd gathered in the parking lot of Rainier Hookah Lounge. Shortly after security camera footage shows people begin running and trying to drive away. The footage shows three men dragging another person out of the hookah lounge as others continue to run away.
TJ, who asked KING 5 not to show his face, said he was less than a block away when the shooting happened.
“It was a minute delay of no one saying nothing," TJ said. "Then after a minute, you hear people screaming and it was pure panic. I thought it was going to be a massacre because it was jam-packed."
He said he went to see if everyone was OK.
“I saw this girl who came outside with two other girls and a dude and they’re all bloody,” TJ said.
Who were the victims?
The three victims killed in the shooting were identified Monday as 22-year-old Jonathan Bishu, 32-year-old Trevis Bellard and 30-year-old Nadia Kassa.
Six other people were injured. One person remains in critical condition while five others are satisfactory, according to Harborview. The victims are all between 21 and 38 years old.
Family described Nadia Kassa as caring and generous, someone who devoted her life to helping others.
"She's the furthest person from any type of negativity, any drama, any pain, any fighting. I mean, she's just not associated with anything of the sort," said Samia Kassa, one of Nadia's six sisters, who spoke with KING 5 over the phone Monday.
"I don't know how we're gonna piece our family together after this, she literally is the glue that held us together," said Samia Kassa.
The sisters all grew up in Seattle, according to Samia Kassa, after their parents emigrated from the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Nadia Kassa worked as a talent acquisition associate at Blue Origin in Kent.
She valued family tremendously.
"She gets my nieces together at least once a month for ya know sleep overs, and movie night, and makeup and hair and playtime, like... the kids are so devastated. They're like, 'Literally what are we going to do without Auntie Nadia?'" said Samia Kassa.
As her sisters and mother prepare for her funeral, her family just has one ask from the community: "Honestly just pray. Just truly, truly we really need prayer right now."
Concerning trend in shootings
Five guns were recovered.
"That's why we're seeing more victims. More bullets are being fired. This year we've recovered over 4,000 shell casings," said Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz.
In 2022, Seattle had 52 homicides for the entire year. So far this year, there have been 35.
“It used to be a different community, and now Mount Baker is a vastly different community,” said Pastor Gary Hay, who has been in the Mount Baker area for over three decades.
He holds community barbecues to try and curb some of the crime and violence.
“To help people change their lives; to get them to take a look at their lives and to offer them hope,” said Hay.
Many in the community expressed this mass shooting isn’t surprising, but it is upsetting, especially for those that were there.
“That right there was sad," TJ said. "It was sad. There’s really no way else to say it. It was just sad."
The Seattle Police Department is currently searching for the shooter. When asked, the department said there was no new information to share.