RENTON, Wash. — A 15-year-old Renton boy was shot and killed during a shootout this weekend.
A grandmother describes the terror of being caught in the crossfire with her grandson.
The shooting happened just after 5 p.m. Sunday. Two teenagers were shot, and the driver sped off, with one of the teens dying in the back seat.
The driver ended up in a Les Schwab parking lot, trying to get that wounded teenager to the hospital.
Sadly, he died right there.
KIRO 7 talked to a woman who thought she and her grandson might be hit, too.
“And bullets... just going,” said Jolandia Thomas. “They just drove up ‘pow, pow, pow, pow, pow’ — and then they went down, ‘pow, pow, pow, pow!’”
That is how Thomas describes what happened right before her eyes on Sunday. She and her 5-year-old grandson were returning to their home near Bronson Way Northeast, caught in the crossfire between two vehicles.
“And so, I took my grandson and I dove on him,” she said.
Renton police say two 15-year-old passengers in the back seat of this gold 2000 Dodge Intrepid were shot. The driver sped down the hill, racing to the hospital, but they couldn’t get there in time.
“Unfortunately, a 15-year-old died at the scene,” said Meeghan Black, a spokeswoman for Renton Police. “There was another 15-year-old that was struck. He was rendered aid, rushed to Harborview Medical Center, where, thankfully, he was in stable condition last night.”
Black says the shooting was not random.
“Officers believe this was a targeted shooting,” she said. “And we do not feel there is any more danger to the public.”
Still, they do not know who the shooter is.
Jolandia Thomas was asked how she was faring after the incident.
“I’m not doing well,” she replied. “I feel real unsafe. I am scared, and I am trying to keep it together.”
Thomas was so frightened that she had to be taken to the hospital because of a heart condition, but she says her greatest fear was not for herself, but for her grandson.
“All I could think in my mind was cover him,” Thomas said, “so a bullet won’t hit him.”
Renton police tell us one person in the vehicle was the victim’s brother.
KIRO 7 determined the Dodge Intrepid is registered to an 18-year-old woman who lives in Puyallup. A relative said by telephone that the woman was spending time in Renton with her boyfriend. Someone who watched surveillance video said a woman was in the parking lot, but no one knows whether she is the vehicle’s owner.
Renton police have asked that anyone with information email crimetips@rentonwa.gov.
©2025 Cox Media Group
