NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Saturday, July 16th, 2022

Democratic State House hopeful Pastor Carey Anderson shot while out campaigning

On the evening of Thurs­day, July 14th, Pas­tor Carey Ander­son — a senior pas­tor at First AME Church of Seat­tle and Auburn and one of two Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates for State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive (Posi­tion #2) in the 30th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict — was shot close range — twice — by a vio­lent indi­vid­ual armed with a BB gun.

In a press release, Ander­son­’s cam­paign explained that Ander­son and a vol­un­teer were plac­ing yard signs in unin­cor­po­rat­ed Auburn when a black sedan dri­ven by a young white male approached, low­ered his win­dow, and fired twice at the pas­tor. Ander­son suf­fered minor wounds to his upper thigh. King Coun­ty Sheriff’s deputies were called to the scene and a crime report filed regard­ing the incident.

“I have to believe that this is a crime dri­ven by hate,” said Anderson.

“I have a hard time believ­ing that a white man post­ing sig­nage would have been tar­get­ed in this way… If any­one has any infor­ma­tion regard­ing the dri­ver please noti­fy the Sheriff’s Depart­ment. I am one who believes in sec­ond chances, just as I have received sec­ond chances in my life as a can­cer survivor.”

“I believe this young man can have a sec­ond chance as well.”

Ander­son is deter­mined to con­tin­ue his cam­paign. “I am undaunted…I have nev­er been one to back down from chal­lenge or threat – in fact it’s moti­va­tion­al to me. I will con­tin­ue to share my sto­ry and my vision of pos­i­tive change and sec­ond chances with vot­ers – day and night – through the upcom­ing election.”

For­mer state rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kris­tine Reeves, who is hop­ing to return to the House this year, com­ment­ed on the inci­dent. “Our fam­i­ly’s sin­cere thoughts and per­son­al prayers go out to Pas­tor Ander­son at this time. There is absolute­ly no place in our com­mu­ni­ty or our pol­i­tics for sense­less, ran­dom acts of violence.”

Ander­son showed KING5 where the inci­dent hap­pened in a seg­ment last night.

Repub­li­cans C. Mark Greene and Ash­li Tagoai are also run­ning for this posi­tion. Only the top two can­di­dates will advance to the Novem­ber gen­er­al election.

Ander­son had recent­ly earned the sole endorse­ment of the Alliance for Gun Respon­si­bil­i­ty, which advo­cates for laws to pre­vent and reduce gun violence.

The assault on Ander­son came just days after Unit­ed States Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Prami­la Jaya­pal was threat­ened at her home:

A forty-eight-year-old man alleged­ly drove past Jayapal’s West Seat­tle home three times, yelling obscen­i­ties, accord­ing to neighbors.

One neigh­bor told police she heard the man yell “Go back to India, I’m going to kill you,” accord­ing to documents.

The same neigh­bor said she’d seen the sus­pec­t’s vehi­cle dri­ve by Jaya­pal’s house three times that night.

Jaya­pal called 911 at 11:25 pm and report­ed: “[Unknown] peo­ple are out­side [my] house in their [vehi­cle] who have been [using] very obscene lan­guage. [My] hus­band thinks they may have shot a pel­let gun, but unsure.”

The sus­pect, who may suf­fer from a men­tal ill­ness, was sub­se­quent­ly released; how­ev­er, his firearms were con­fis­cat­ed. Police “obtained a tem­po­rary Extreme Risk Pro­tec­tion Order — com­mon­ly known as an ERPO — to require the man to sur­ren­der his firearms and con­cealed pis­tol license, cit­ing con­cerns about his esca­lat­ing behav­ior toward Jaya­pal and increas­ing strug­gles with his men­tal health,” The Seat­tle Times report­ed, hav­ing reviewed court records.

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