SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state’s most populous county continues to see a sharp spike in gun violence, with fatal shootings in the first nine months of the year already exceeding 2020’s year-end totals. As of the end of September, 73 people had been killed and another 283 injured in shootings in King County this year, according to data from the King County Prosecutor’s Shots Fired Project. The Seattle Times reports that in all of 2020, there were 69 firearm-related homicides and 268 nonfatal shootings, numbers that represented a 36% increase in total gunshot victims above the three-year average between 2017 and 2020.
King County gun violence has already surpassed 2020
