Managers, Police Say Northgate Mall Is Safe -- But Lawsuit Says Violence, Security Are Ongoing Problem

Northgate Mall, the scene of two apparently unrelated shootings during the weekend, is safe, police and mall managers say. But a Seattle attorney disagrees.

Ed Harper, an attorney with the Seattle law firm of Olmstead, Gibbs and Harper, says Northgate has had problems with violence and lax security for some time.

One of his clients, Jeffrey Scott Oertle, is suing the mall for failing to provide adequate security in August 1997, when Oertle was assaulted at the mall's north entrance. Oertle was beaten with a pipe and was in a coma for several weeks.

He said that between 1993 and Oertle's assault, the Seattle Police Department received more than 150 reports of violent or potentially violent incidents - from shoplifting to assault.

"We're alleging that they knew, or should have known, that violent incidents could have occurred if they didn't provide better security," Harper said.

Seattle police and mall management say the shopping center does not have a huge crime problem, and that the shootings during the weekend certainly are not normal.

On Friday night, a teenage girl was grazed by a bullet during a fight between two gangs, and late Sunday night, a young man was shot and killed during an apparent drug buy near the Red Robin restaurant. The two incidents involved different people and motives, police said, adding that there was no evidence the Sunday killing involved gang members.

Yesterday, the King County Medical Examiner's Office identified

the victim of Sunday's shooting as Emanuel Johnson III, 21, of Seattle.

Two men are being sought in connection with Johnson's slaying. Police said they were driving a white 1991 Cadillac four-door sedan with tinted windows. They said the vehicle is from the White Center area.

Another man involved in the shooting has been jailed on a narcotics charge, police spokeswoman Carmen Best said last night.

Shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday, a mall employee found Johnson's body. About the same time, someone called police to report that a man had offered him money to drive him from the mall area, Best said. Police found a man fitting that description, questioned him and booked him on the narcotics charge. Best said the man was involved in the shooting, but police aren't sure how.

`Could have happened anywhere'

Billie Washington, Northgate spokeswoman, said: "This could have happened anywhere. We are just another public place where anything could happen."

Washington said the mall would increase the visibility of its security officers, but she declined to give specifics.

No new security officers would be hired, Washington said. Washington has said she was not aware of any shootings in the 50-year history of the mall, although she said she has worked there for only three months. She was unavailable for comment about the lawsuit this morning.

In the lawsuit, Harper claims that the defendant, Simon-DeBartolo Group - the company that operates Northgate Mall - did not, among other things, "provide an adequate number of security personnel . . . or have in place adequate security devices to prevent and respond in a timely and appropriate manner to the attack."

Court papers, which call mall-security personnel incompetent and unqualified, claim that Simon-DeBartolo was aware that numerous crimes, including violent crimes, had occurred at Northgate Mall, in the parking lots and other areas.

The mall "had, and has, a duty to warn . . . all Northgate Mall customers, patrons and invitees of all dangerous conditions they knew, or should have known, existed," the lawsuit claims.

Harper did not want to comment specifically on the case, which is to go to trial in November. He said he did not want to speculate on what mall security should have done.

Vanessa Lee, attorney for the mall, sent Harper's firm a letter this morning, telling him that they were aware that he was going to publicize his case and that they would "not hesitate to initiate a separate lawsuit against you individually, and your firm" for any false, slanderous or libelous comments about Northgate.

`Two blips on the screen'

Police Detective Ed Harris described the shootings as "two blips on the screen" that happened to occur close together, but said they don't amount to a trend or a serious public-safety problem. At least not yet.

The problem, Harris says, is not a "mall problem" but a societal one of young people carrying and shooting guns.

"Historically, Northgate has been a quiet mall, and I don't think that's changed," Harris said. "I don't think anybody should be alarmed to go shopping there, but let's also face the fact that there are gangs in this city, and gangs will be violent and commit crimes."

Harris said the conflict Friday was most likely a result of a random meeting between two rival groups that both happened to be armed.

"That's the real problem," he said.

Information from Seattle Times staff reporter Janet Burkitt and The Associated Press is included in this report.