Elijah-King Leven, a 17-year-old male from Seattle, was shot late on May 29, 2026, inside an apartment at the Willow Crossing Apartments in South Seattle’s Rainier Valley. The shooting happened in the 6000 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, where police were first sent shortly before 11:30 p.m. after reports that a teenager had shot himself while playing with a gun. When officers arrived, they found Elijah-King on the floor of a bedroom with a gunshot wound to the head.
Seattle Fire Department medics rushed him to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition, but he died from his injuries on May 31.
At first, the scene was described to authorities as a possible accidental or self-inflicted shooting. A 911 caller reportedly said the victim had been playing with a gun when it fired. Investigators recovered a Smith & Wesson. 45-caliber handgun and a spent cartridge casing from the bedroom, while teenage witnesses told police they had been in another room when they heard the gunshot. When they came out, they found Elijah-King in a separate bedroom, but his body was blocking the door from opening fully.
The investigation began to shift after the suspect’s mother contacted Seattle police from Harborview Medical Center on May 31. According to court records summarized by local reporting, she told investigators that her 13-year-old son had admitted the shooting was accidental. She said he initially claimed Elijah-King had shot himself, but after she pressed him, he allegedly said he had been playing with the gun and manipulating the slide when it fired. Instead of staying at the apartment or calling police, the boy allegedly ran from the scene.
Security footage from the apartment complex became another key part of the case. Investigators said cameras showed the 13-year-old arriving at the complex with Elijah-King before the shooting, then running from a stairwell connected to the apartment minutes afterward. He was reportedly seen leaving with his hood up and wearing a mask. The King County Medical Examiner later determined that Elijah-King’s death was a homicide caused by a gunshot wound of the head. Investigators said the wound location, bullet trajectory, and absence of stippling were inconsistent with a self-inflicted gunshot.
Seattle police identified the 13-year-old boy, described in reports as Elijah-King’s cousin, as the suspect. He turned himself in at the South Precinct on June 4, accompanied by a family member, and was taken to the Homicide Unit before being booked into the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center. Police initially booked him for investigation of manslaughter and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Prosecutors charged the 13-year-old in King County Juvenile Court on June 9 with first-degree manslaughter and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. Prosecutors alleged that he recklessly caused Elijah-King’s death while armed with a handgun and that he was unlawfully in possession of the firearm because he was under 18. Because of the suspect’s age, his identity was ordered withheld from publication.
At a later detention hearing, prosecutors and a probation officer asked that the boy remain in secure detention while the case moved forward. A judge granted that request. Family members were present in court, and the suspect’s father reportedly addressed the judge, acknowledging that the loss had devastated both sides of the family and saying Elijah-King had been almost like a son to him. The judge also noted that the suspect had prior juvenile court history, including a previous arrest connected to an assault and robbery at a McDonald’s and later guilty pleas to assault and theft. As of the latest available reporting, he remained in custody and was due back in court on July 10.
