A gunshot rang out at Roxhill Park on Wednesday afternoon, scattering people across the West Seattle green space and sending a victim to the hospital while the shooter remained unaccounted for. Seattle police and fire crews converged on the park after the report came in, and officers said they had recovered two shell casings so far as the investigation continued into the evening.
According to West Seattle Blog, Seattle Police Department and Seattle Fire Department units converged on Roxhill Park after a person was reported shot, and the victim was taken to the hospital. Police reported that several people scattered after a gunshot was heard or seen, and investigators said they had found two shell casings at the scene as of Wednesday evening. In the immediate aftermath, according to KOMO News, police asked members of the public to avoid the area around the park while officers investigated, noting that the suspect remained at large.
A Park With a Troubled Recent History
Wednesday's shooting is not an isolated incident at the 12.8-acre park, which sits across SW Roxbury Street from the Westwood Village shopping center and features playfields, a playground, a skatepark, and trails winding through wetlands that form the headwaters of Longfellow Creek, per Seattle Parks and Recreation. Roxhill Park has repeatedly turned up in police records tied to gun violence and other crime over the past two years. In March 2025, a shootout involving four males near the park's play structure left a 17-year-old shot three times and hospitalized in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center, according to the SPD Blotter, and two people involved were later booked for investigation of assault and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Months later, in September 2025, a 31-year-old man was critically injured after being shot multiple times in the arm and leg along 27th Avenue SW, just east of the park, where officers recovered upwards of 20 spent shell casings, FOX 13 Seattle reported. Responding officers at that scene noted that multiple weapon calibers had been fired and that bystander vehicles were struck.
Drugs, Warrants and Encampment Complaints
The park's wooded trail network has also drawn scrutiny for reasons beyond shootings. In October 2025, narcotics detectives and SWAT officers arrested a 51-year-old drug trafficker who was allegedly using Roxhill Park as a distribution site while his family shopped across the street at Westwood Village, the SPD Blotter noted, adding that the park's trails gave sellers cover from public view. The month before that, in August 2025, officers responding to a disturbance at a park encampment recovered a holstered, stolen firearm from a suspect who was also wanted on multiple felony warrants; that person was taken into custody without further incident, per the same account.
Neighborhood frustration over encampments has only grown since. In mid-August, West Seattle residents reported filing nearly 20 city service complaints about unauthorized encampments in the park, citing safety concerns over posted “No Trespassing” signs and unleashed guard dogs, according to West Seattle Blog. Those complaints came just days before Wednesday's shooting.
Community Pressed for More Patrols
Residents have been raising alarms about the area for months. At a March “Our City, Our Safety” community meeting, West Seattle residents urged Southwest Precinct leadership to increase officer presence around Roxhill Park and Westwood Village because of recurring gunfire calls, with precinct leadership acknowledging ongoing efforts to deploy targeted enforcement resources, per the West Seattle Blog. The park's location near schools has also made safety a long-running concern; Denny International Middle School and Chief Sealth International High School sit less than a mile away, and student representatives have previously met with police leadership to request targeted patrols along student routes, according to Charter for Compassion.
The shooting adds to a string of gun violence reported across West Seattle in recent weeks. Hoodline reported gunfire south of The Junction on Tuesday that sent police searching for a tinted-window sedan, and a High Point shooting victim rushed to SODO earlier this month before police arrived. Westwood Village itself, directly across the street from the park, has also seen significant police activity in 2026, including an 11-person retail theft sting in June and an armed late-night carjacking in July.
No further details on the victim's condition or the identity of the shooter have been released. Police have not said whether the two shell casings recovered Wednesday are linked to any of the earlier incidents at or near the park.
