14-year-old hit, killed by Seattle Monorail while spray-painting graffiti

KIRO 7 (Seattle) ^ | 07/31/2023 | KIRO 7 News Staff

[DFG]

A 14-year-old male who was spray-painting a building was hit and killed by the Seattle Center Monorail Sunday night.

Seattle Police said it happened shortly before 9 p.m. near Fifth Avenue and Denny Way. The man had climbed onto the roof of a building.

Surveillance video reviewed by the Seattle Police Department shows the man was spray-painting graffiti on a building next to the tracks before he was hit.

We believe this is the first time anyone has been hit and killed by the train, although there have been at least a few other high-profile incidents involving the Monorail in the past.

The Monorail opened on Mar. 24, 1962, and the only death we could find was when a maintenance worker was killed while making repairs in the 1970s.

In 1971, 27 people were hurt after the train slammed into a steel girder. More recently in 2004, a train caught fire after an electrical wire in the motor reportedly shorted.

[Fresh Wind]

I’m surprised they didn’t announce that he was a budding artist who someday might have been the next Rembrandt.

[Ed Condon]

The law firm of Dewey,Cheetam,and Howe are working on it as of now.

[SkyDancer]

To be sure.

[Lurker]

Good.

L

[SharpenedEdge]

Yes. Personally, I hate being surrounded by urban ugliness. I think tagging should be a capital offense, and anyone caught in the act should be shot on sight, by anyone who sees them. But that’s just me.

[Colt1851Navy]

Did the victim still have both ears?

[JBW1949]

I’m not Jewish, Muslim, or Catholic and I say 14 year old is still a kid...

[SgtHooper]

to...SPLASH!

[whitney69]

“...while attempting to paint a Michelangelo, he himself became a Picaso.”

You are very correct. It seems no name artist is recognized by the public until they are dead. But he might have tried to finish it before it finished him. Seattle will have to build a plaque and name the work. Idiot was here, for a second.

wy69

[Jim Noble]

FAFO

[dfwgator]

Yes. Personally, I hate being surrounded by urban ugliness. I think tagging should be a capital offense, and anyone caught in the act should be shot on sight, by anyone who sees them. But that’s just me.

Me, too.

[steve86]

This monorail doesn’t go very fast but fast enough, I guess.

[TheDon]

Yes, it’s not exactly standard practice.

[matt04]

Don’t forget, they had just turned their life around, probably heading towards Church they when they were shot by the police were just standing on the sidewalk.

[BraveMan]

Outstanding!

(Another stupid song stuck in my head . . .)

[Deplorable American1776]

I guess his mom will sue Seattle for putting the monorail to close to the building that he was painting. He was an artist, not a criminal. He was going to paint a mural of whites, blacks and Asians meeting with Chief Seattle, to unite all people of Seattle. 🤓

[Schatze]

Yep. Karma’s a bitch.

[Deplorable American1776]

Did I read that right? Since when is a 14 y-old called a “ man”?

When it is a career thug who is vandalizing buildings!

[Deplorable American1776]

I read that a Darwin award winner tried doing a stunt he saw in a movie. The movie had a car driving off a parking garage and the car drove away, the idiot thought he could do it, he was killed trying it!

One of my favorite YOU TUBE channel is Virtual Railfan and it is amazing when I'm watching the Grabbag of Virtual Railfan videos. A few days ago, a Darwin Award candidate decided to walk between two railcars while the train was stopped. Yesterday, 3 bicyclists decide to bike across the tracks while the gates were down.

[Deplorable American1776]

In New York you have to be 18 to buy it...