Gang war may be escalating in and around Seattle. With as many as 200 gangs now operating in Seattle and King County, and shootings happening with alarming frequency, it's hard for police to keep track of all the rivalries. Seattle Police are aware there's a fierce ongoing feud between South End gangs and Central District gangs in Seattle. "It's been a war, not a new war, an ongoing war," he said. "Police are very aware of who the players are." Police suspect the shooting at Southcenter may have happened because members or associates of Central District gangs ran into their bitter rivals, the South End 74 Hoovers. one gang member threw out an insult about a rival gang member who'd been shot previously. "People don't even have to say anything. If they don't like each other, if they've been beefing, fighting before, at war... just a look can set it off," he said. Morales says the Southcenter victims reportedly had ties to the 74 Hoovers, and so did the two people shot the next day at Rainier & Cloverdale in Seattle, which is likely to provoke retaliation.
"There may be a payback soon, may be two or three months from now, maybe a year from now," said Morales. Seattle doubled its gang unit earlier this year in response to increased violence. By summer, six Seattle teens and one young man had died in gang-related shootings, with only one arrest. Then on Halloween, a 15-year-old was gunned down behind Garfield High School and now, this weekend, two more deaths occurred, with possible Seattle gang ties. "Gangs aren't organized the way they once were. It's no longer Bloods versus Crips, red against blue. There are deadly internal feuds and gangs who claim orange, green. But they share a code: They settle their fights with guns and they don't snitch to police
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