Woman, 2 men killed in Seattle hookah lounge shooting identified
SEATTLE (AP) — Authorities have released the names of three people who were shot to death over the weekend outside a hookah lounge in Seattle.
Nadia Kassa, 30, Jonathan Bishu, 22, and Trevis Bellard, 32, all died from multiple gunshot wounds on Sunday, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The Medical Examiner’s Office listed Bellard’s first name as Truvis, but public records indicate the correct spelling is Trevis, The Seattle Times reported. Bishu and Bellard died at the scene outside Rainier Hookah Lounge early Sunday, according to Seattle police, and Kassa died later that morning at Harborview Medical Center.
Six other people — one woman and five men — were also hurt by gunfire during the shooting.
All went to Harborview Medical Center and at least two of the injured had been discharged from the hospital as of Monday afternoon. But a Harborview spokesperson told the newspaper they were unable to provide condition updates on the other patients.
Seattle police Chief Adrian Diaz said on Sunday that investigators interviewed the injured victims at the hospital, were talking to business owners and were looking for video footage of the shooting.
Police have not announced any arrests or suspect information.
Diaz did not say what led to the shooting. He confirmed that police recovered at least five guns and said he believed the shooting was “an isolated incident.”
A family member described Nadia Kassa, who worked as a talent acquisition associate at Blue Origin in Kent, as caring and generous, KING-TV reported.
“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,” Samia Kassa, one of Nadia’s six sisters, told the news outlet. “I don’t know how we’re gonna piece our family together after this, she literally is the glue that held us together.”
The sisters all grew up in Seattle, according to Samia Kassa, after their parents moved from the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
The shooting reflects a “disturbing trend of gun violence” in Seattle since the beginning of the summer, Diaz said. The number of shootings is down, Diaz said, but there has been a significant increase in the number of rounds fired per shooting, with 18 shootings in July in which 20 or more rounds were fired.
