Fatal Shooting at Seattle Hookah Lounge
A shooting at a Seattle hookah lounge early Sunday morning left one security guard dead and injured two other people. Seattle police are currently investigating the incident and are asking for public information.
The security guard killed in the shooting at the Capri Hookah Lounge in Rainier Beach has been identified as 29-year-old Julius Rodriguez. Rodriguez was a father to two boys and was working as armed security at the lounge when the incident occurred. The shooting also resulted in the death of a second victim, 23-year-old Ozie Whitfield. The incident took place around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 30th. According to court documents and surveillance footage, a suspect shot Whitfield near the entrance and then shot Rodriguez multiple times as the security guard pursued him through the parking lot. Rodriguez was transported to Harborview Medical Center, where he died from his wounds. A suspect, 25-year-old Leontai D. Berry, was arrested later the same morning after arriving at a Renton hospital with a gunshot wound. At the time of the shooting, Berry was on federal probation for a prior gun possession case. The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office has since charged him with two counts of first-degree murder. This particular hookah lounge had been the site of a previous shooting just a month prior to this fatal incident. Following the double homicide, Seattle's police chief declared the Capri Hookah Lounge a "nuisance property," citing at least six incidents involving shootings and weapons violations at the location since the previous June.
