Community seeks safer place to play

South Seattle residents and community activists yesterday called for a stronger police presence at a park where a 22-year-old man was fatally shot March 12.

"It's very offensive that this can take place right down the street from a police station," said John Jones, state chairman of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, noting that the killing happened less than a mile from the Seattle Police Department's South Precinct station.

Jason Lee Jennings, 22, died of a gunshot wound to the head at Othello Playground, a block east of Martin Luther King Jr. Way, between 7 and 7:30 p.m. March 12. A police spokesman would not comment on the progress of the investigation or on reports that the shooting may have been gang-related.

Some neighbors say police ignored 911 calls in the early stages of the altercation that led to Jennings' death, a charge denied Friday by Assistant Police Chief Harry Bailey, although Bailey said 12 minutes passed between the time officers were dispatched and when they reported their arrival at the park.

Bailey said a patrol officer had walked through the park less than an hour before the shooting. "The only thing they saw was a lot of people playing basketball," he said.

At yesterday's rally, attended by about 60 people who huddled under umbrellas or in the shelter of a park-maintenance building, the Rev. R.J. Rivers of Bethel Christian Church said he's heard indications the shooting involved members of a gang from outside Seattle.

"What we're trying to head off is a territorial war here in Seattle," said Rivers, who co-chairs an African-American advisory board to Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske.

"Once we start to lose our young ones and our loved ones, it doesn't have to be gang members. It could be your mother or father going to the store. ... Bullets have no names on them and they have no sense of who they will hit."

Vanessa Walker, who lives near the park, said she saw young men fighting and that her boyfriend had called 911 "at least half an hour before anyone responded."

Walker said she often avoids the park these days "because there are so many bad elements in the park a lot of the time."

Others who spoke asked for more police patrols through the park on bike or on foot and the installation of surveillance cameras.

Jordan Royer, a public-safety adviser to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, told the group the mayor shares their concerns and has proposed to hire an additional 25 police officers, at least five of whom would work in the South Precinct, which includes Othello Playground.

Royer, son of former Mayor Charles Royer, also said the neighborhood's crime-prevention officer would begin going door to door to revive the area's Block Watch program. And he said patrols have increased in the park by teams of police and state corrections officers, who are familiar with prison parolees in the area.

"We know we have a problem. We have to pull together," Royer said.

Royer's remarks failed to satisfy Edward Lee, who lives across the street from the park. He said the mayor or police chief should have attended the rally in person if they're serious about helping the neighborhood.

"I feel like its going to be another set of promises," Lee said. "There's always somebody getting hurt ... a guy laying down in the grass dead ... bullets coming through the houses."

ACORN, the group that organized yesterday's event, is a coalition of low- and moderate-income families, founded in Arkansas in 1970 and now active in 75 cities in the U.S. and several other countries.

Jack Broom: 206-464-2222