In Remembrance: The Capitol Hill Massacre, 10 Years Later

It seems like only yesterday I was waking up to hear the news on King 5 that there had been a mass shooting in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. I thought “it must have been church or some sort of daycare.” I never thought it would be a group of ravers I was closely connected to. They weren’t my friends or people I knew, but people from the same rave I had attended the night before. We were all at the “Better Off Undead” zombie-themed rave on Capitol Hill. I never thought that our rave scene of peace, love, unity, respect and responsibility would be the foundation of such an evil act.

We will never forget when, 10 years ago today, Kyle Aaron Huff was attending that very rave. While there, in true raver spirit, some attendees saw Aaron and noticed that he didn’t know anyone. He was a loner, and they took him in. They made friends with him and welcomed him back to their home for an after party. What they didn’t know is that Aaron had a plan. It was a plan to slaughter innocent people for what he felt was a travesty to society: Rave culture. In doing that, he took seven lives including his own, and injured others. This is still marked as one of the worst mass shootings in Seattle’s history. To better understand his motives, watch this AC360 video on the tragedy.

At some point in the early hours of the morning of March 25, Huff left the party and headed to his truck. In that truck awaited a pistol grip shot gun and a ruger handgun, along with 5,000 rounds of ammunition. When he returned to the front porch he took his first victim, then entered the home and began stalking room to room taking innocent life after innocent life. Someone managed to call the police, and when they arrived, Huff was standing on the front porch, put the shotgun in his mouth, and took his own life.

The people that passed away in this senseless tragedy will not be forgotten soon. Jeremy Martin, 26. Christopher Williamson, 21. Justin Schwarts, 22. Melissa Moore, 14. Suzanne Thorne, 15. Jason Travers, 32. These are the people who lost their lives doing the one thing that ravers hold most dear: Accepting people for who they are. In their honor, we should continue to behave in that manner. Events like this are exceedingly rare.

We don’t forgive Huff for his actions, but we do remember our fallen rave brothers and sisters. Just remember to live every ounce of your life with peace, love, unity, respect, and responsibility.