On March 17, 2021, a 19-year-old Black/African American male named Omari Wallace was fatally shot in Seattle, Washington. The incident occurred inside the Emerald City Bible Fellowship church, where Wallace was attending an orientation for Community Passageways, a diversion program for young offenders. He had been released from King County jail about two weeks prior on the condition that he join the program, a step his mother, Katrina Ness, hoped would set him on a new path.
Wallace was reportedly excited about the program and was motivated by the fact that he had a child on the way.
The shooting happened during a second-floor meeting with over a dozen other young adults and staff present. A man entered the room, saw Wallace, pulled out a handgun, and shot him multiple times in what police described as a targeted attack. The shooter then fled the scene in an older model Toyota Corolla station wagon. Wallace's mother had just arrived in the parking lot to pick him up when a person ran out and alerted her to the shooting. She rushed into the building and was by her son's side as he took his last breath.
In the months following the shooting, the Seattle Police Department identified Isaiah Thomas Hinds as the suspect in Omari Wallace's murder. Law enforcement believed Hinds remained in the Seattle and Tacoma areas and warned that he should be considered armed and dangerous. Subsequently, the suspect was shot and killed by police while they were attempting to serve the homicide arrest warrant.
In March 2024, it was reported that Omari Wallace's family had filed a lawsuit against the violence prevention group, Community Passageways, as well as the church. The lawsuit alleged that the organization failed to provide adequate security and take reasonable measures to ensure the safety of the program's participants. The family's legal action also claimed that the organization's staff were uncooperative with the police investigation immediately following the shooting.
