Sunnyside Teen Fatally Shot

There is a reason that soldiers refer to killing the enemy as “wasting” them.  When a human life is ended prematurely it is just that, a waste.  Over the weekend bullets were flying in the 15th St area of Sunnyside.  As the bullets sprayed the neighborhood, somehow a 16-year-old-boy was fatally shot.  While details are sketchy at the time of this post, it appears the boy who was shot may have been the one shooting up peoples’ houses.  See the article in today’s Yakima Herald

Wake up Sunnyside!  Since the beginning of 2008, we have seen shootings in front of Ace Hardware (directly across the street from the high school), City Hall itself has been fired upon, a young girl was found shot and dumped in an irrigation canal, and now this most recent ‘waste’ of a teenager’s life.

Some of my co-workers are high school students.  One described how scared he and his Dad were when they heard the gunshots.  He said he had never been more scared in his life.  Is this the way we want our kids to grow up? 

It is time for the Sunnyside Police to step up to the plate and patrol the community.  Rarely do I see a police cruiser in town, and never have I seen an officer actually walking a beat.  In this most recent example, the shooter was apparently walking down the street, shooting at houses.  Here’s a wake up call.  It will not cost the City of Sunnyside any more to have officers walk.  The high price of gas should not keep officers from occasionally walking down the sidewalk.  This is especially true downtown, where crowds can be seen at night milling around the U.S. Post Office (which now has to lock its doors night due to vandalism), and close to the before-mentioned City Hall, which Sunnyside Police failed to notice, had been fired upon one weekend.

The Sunnyside Police Department needs to engage with the community, not just waiting for emergency calls to react to.  The Sunnyside City Council needs to do more than just pass an ordinance to ban gangs.  They need to prompt the Police Chief into action.  The new City Manager seems to be trying to hint at that, when he recently said they should staff more officers on shifts that receive the most calls for police attention.  Duh.

How many more of these incidents do we need before we change the way we are conducting ourselves?  Let’s get proactive, not reactive.  This is incredibly important for teens, like my young co-worker who is scared for his life.  This is incredibly important for my own children who are nearing school age.  This is important to business owners who are trying to attract customers downtown.  This is important for many reasons which are too numerous to list here. 

We need more than just a statement that: “Police said they were continuing to investigate and asked anyone with information about the case to call them at 509-836-6200.”