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.