Federal Way resident J. Cooper was watching TV in bed early Tuesday morning when gunshots rang out.
He dove onto the bedroom floor as sounds of bullets and breaking glass surrounded him. His 15-year-old daughter was asleep in the next room of their unit at the Uptown Square Apartments.
“The bullet came through my wall … across my bedroom and into my dresser,” said Cooper, 46.
Two weeks ago, Cooper said, he luckily rearranged his furniture and moved his bed to the other side of the bedroom.
“I would’ve been shot in the bed,” he said. “And my dresser really stopped [the bullet] from going into my daughter’s bedroom.”
Several Federal Way apartments were damaged by gunfire on Feb. 1, according to Federal Way Police.
Shortly before 1:30 a.m., officers responded to multiple 911 calls reporting a shooting at the Uptown Square Apartments on South 320th Street, said Cmdr. Kurt Schwan of Federal Way Police.
Numerous spent cartridge cases were found on 11th Avenue South, between South 320th Street and the entrance to the Celebration Park Apartments, Schwan said. Police reported several apartments were struck by gunfire.
Cooper said his next door neighbor’s unit was also struck by bullets — one traveled through her living room window into the pantry in her kitchen. Walls and windows on three apartment stories were hit by gunfire.
“There’s just a lot of trauma that comes with stuff like this,” Cooper said on a Feb. 2 phone call with the Mirror. “I got tears in my eyes right now.”
An Early Childhood Education Assistance Program (ECEAP) school for children ages 3-5 is located on the Uptown Square Apartment complex’s first floor. Two bullets struck the school windows.
Cooper has lived at the Uptown Square Apartments for four years and said the safety of the neighborhood is changing.
Nearby at the Celebration Park Apartments, a stray bullet struck a woman’s sliding glass backdoor and shattered it while she and her children were inside.
No injuries were reported, Schwan said. Police did not develop any viable suspect information. Detectives are investigating to identify the circumstances leading up to the shooting and the involved individuals.
Hours later around 5 a.m., officers responded to reports of a shooting in the 30900 block of 16th Place SW.
The man stated his girlfriend came into his apartment and that she, or someone with her, had shot into his apartment, Schwan said. There were no reported injuries as a result of the shooting, he added.
The suspects fled the area before police arrived and were not located, Schwan said. Multiple bullet holes were found in the wall of the apartment. Detectives are investigating.
Bullet holes were found on the fifth and sixth stories of the apartment complex. Photo courtesy of Bob Drake
