SE Network SafetyNet Responds to the Recent Shooting at Rainier Beach Safeway

The team behind the Safe Passage program responds with the same love and leadership that drives their community service.

by Luna Reyna

Music, laughter, the aroma of good food, and a generally cheerful and familial lightheartedness usually emanate from the parking lot when Marty Jackson, executive director of SE Network SafetyNet Program, and her team at Boys & Girls Clubs of King County are in the Rainier Beach Safeway parking lot. "We want people to come in, we want people to come here and be able to decompress. We want you to feel loved in this space," Jackson said.

Jackson and her team are at the Rainier Beach Safeway every Friday from 6 to 10 p.m. On Friday, July 29, two suspects fired shots toward the community outreach program, including two of the SafetyNet Program employees, wounding five people. On Thursday, Aug. 10, Jackson and her team addressed the public about the incident. While the mood was understandably solemn, Jackson and her team were full of the same love and care for each other and the community that has created a safer environment for everyone who lives in South Seattle and frequents this Safeway.

"I wish for whatever it is that you're hurting from, that we could have intervened, that we could have hugged you, that we could have loved you," Jackson said speaking to the shooters who haven't been arrested. "I wish we could have known whatever it is you're going through that caused you to spray this whole parking lot and not have any regard for the 14 people behind me and other people in the space. I hope that you hear me today and know that we love you and we care about you; we need you to be healed."

The SE Network SafetyNet Program has set up a Community Healing Space every Friday evening since 2021 in response to two young Black men, Christopher Wilson Jr., 35, and De'Andre Roberts, 23, who were shot and killed as a result of gun violence in this parking lot in 2020. Safeway informed them that from January 2021 until the Friday shooting there had been no incidents of gun violence.

There is still no information about who the shooters are or why they chose to target the group, but Jackson seems less focused on that information and more focused on the continued work of healing and connection within the Rainier Beach community. Jackson calls the Safeway parking lot a "sacred space" for the community, and residents of the area know it well.

Every week the team loads and unloads a U-Haul full of supplies to maintain a consistent supportive presence in the community. "It's grunt work, but it's been that grunt work that has prevented a number of critical incidents from happening. It's that grunt work, and it's that care, and it's that love … and the community has taken that on for themselves and they've made this space their own," Jackson said. "So this doesn't belong to us. Although we started this, this belongs to this community. This is our space of refuge, this is our space to heal and it will continue to be."

Jackson called for a larger community response, asking those who are newer to the neighborhood to make it a priority to know what is happening and get involved. "We need you to have some, not just empathy, but join in and show some love," Jackson said. "Don't be scared when you see people lined up or in the parking lot laughing and hanging out. Don't be scared when you see a bunch of People of Color in the parking lot having fun. Come and join in."

Jackson addressed the community and asked that people show up and contribute but to be wary of responding to Friday's shooting with fear and creating a harmful situation and criminalizing people for congregating near the Safeway. "Anything you do by fear isn't gonna end well."

"We didn't start this because we were motivated by fear," Jackson said. "Although we were fearful at times. We didn't start this motivated by fear, we started motivated by love. I love this place."

And that's what she hopes to see from the community — love. "We don't have to be from the same background," Jackson said. "You don't have to grow up here. Love is universal. So show some love whatever that looks like, show some love and don't make assumptions out of fears that would cause unintended consequences in this space."

But it's going to take more than community members to impact lasting change. People's basic needs, such as housing and food, aren't being met in the community. Many of the people Jackson and her team support are homeless and hungry. "I can't talk to you about change if you're homeless, and you have nowhere to stay," Jackson said. "I can't talk to you about change if you have no food and you're going home with an empty stomach. I'm gonna feed you first. That's what we do."

Jackson believes it will take the support of everyone from law enforcement and public officials, to the youth and the schools, and to the media to start sharing narratives that are positive so South Seattle kids can be proud of where they come from, to create the necessary change.

"You hear all this negative media out here," Jackson said. "Bet you didn't know we were here for the last three years, did you? Until 10 o'clock that night. Just as we have to take the negative things that happened in this parking lot, we also have to celebrate the lives that were saved and the lives that have been saved as a result of what these folks do."

Midway through the press conference, Goldie Crain, who happened to be going to Safeway, spoke up and told Jackson she was grateful for the work like the Safe Passage program. Tearful, she said she lost her grandson to gun violence several years ago when he was shot in the Skyway area.

"I just want to thank you all for being here," she said looking at Jackson and members of her team, her voice breaking. "We need this everywhere. We can talk to young people and let them know God loves them, we love you. We can forgive. We might not forget, but we can forgive."

Jackson acknowledged that the healing process will be more than physical — the team will have a trauma therapist coming in — but also that we all have a responsibility to the people who care enough to stand in the trenches to ensure that everybody else is safe.

After the press conference, Jackson said that the healing spaces and community pop-up tents will return to the Safeway parking lot at a date to be determined. The team is getting ready and they want to look at possible logistics and design changes to keep the team safe.

"We're coming back," she said.

Editors' Note: This article was updated on 08/12/2023 to correct the fact that Dectective Denise "Cookie" Bouldin's is from Seattle, not Salem.

📸 Featured Image: Members of the Safe Passage team huddle for prayer before starting Thursday's press conference at Rainier Beach Safeway parking lot. (Photo: Susan Fried)