Washington state gun law could be rewritten after Seattle Center shooting, remembering shooting victim Carlos Sanchez Villabla, hikers are getting creative as wildfire shuts down parts of the Pacific Coast Trail, and Mosier, OR explores a proactive approach to fire

The fatal shooting of a teenager at a protest in Seattle has gone unsolved for six years. This is open in your face. How are there no answers? Our investigation has uncovered new evidence and witnesses who say they've never talked to police. Did police ever call you? Not once. Listen to We Keep Us Safe, a new true crime series on the Embedded podcast from NPR. Hey, good morning. Patricia Murphy here. It's Saturday. This is Seattle now. Today we're bringing you the best from the KUOW Newsroom. First, does Washington State go too easy on young people caught carrying guns? Some officials say yes. This, after two teens were involved in a shootout at the bite of Seattle in July, state government reporter Sarah Mises Tan has more. Gunshots fired during the festival sent large crowds of people running and screaming through Seattle Center. Details about the teens involved in the shooting are still scarce, but we do know that one of them died at the scene along with two bystanders. We also know that this teen was arrested two years ago. for illegal gun possession. A 19-year-old junior Niko Samo had previously been involved in a shooting in South Seattle. In that 2024 case, police say he was illegally in possession of a handgun that had a modified Glock switch. That audio is from Como News. A judge dismissed Niko Samo's old gun case in 2025. A year later, he was dead. And his story has drawn attention to how the state handles young people caught with guns. Washington has a five-strike law for people under 18. Each time they're caught with a gun, up to five times a judge could put them in a detention center for under a month or recommend community service or impose a fine or do nothing at all. After the fifth time, more serious consequences kick in like months behind bars. And that five-strike law is aimed at addressing root causes of gun violence instead of locking kids up for long periods of time. So we really need to take seriously gun possession in this country, but the idea that we can solve this problem by coming down hard on youth is a misguided approach. Josh Rovner is a senior research analyst at the Sentencing Project. It's a criminal justice reform group based in D.C. Rovner says that nationwide, penalties for juvenile gun possession tend to be not as harsh as adult sentences. That's because research shows that more time spent in detention centers can be harmful to young people. You know, sending a kid away from home interrupts their education, it interrupts their employment, any number of things in their lives that offer some stability. He says the longer a child spends in a detention center, the more likely they are to repeat crimes and return to jail. They're also more likely to experience mental health problems later on. But some lawmakers and prosecutors think Washington's five-strike law is too lenient on kids. By the time they got to five, they would already have committed a serious offense. Or they were shot and killed themselves. That's Renton Democrat David Hackney. He tried to reform the five-strike law last year. He thought three strikes would be better. But his bill didn't go anywhere. It didn't even get a hearing.

My colleagues in the legislature, they call juvenile justice reform, basically making it harder and harder to incarcerate juveniles, since it traumatizes them. So does violent crime traumatize the community. Hackney worked with King County prosecutor Lisa Mannion to try and change the law. She also wants fewer strikes before a judge can send a kid to jail for longer periods of time. longer than a month. I am not trying to incarcerate more youth, but I do think that waiting until the fifth conviction of a young person carrying a firearm. It sends maybe the unintended message to young people that carrying a firearm is not a big deal. She believes that if youth can be put in jail sooner and for longer than 30 days, officials might have a better chance to connect them with programming that can change their lives, get them out of dangerous situations, and get them to stop carrying guns. What I really want to do is to offer young people. interventions at an earlier point in time because I really want us to try to change juvenile thinking and behavior as it comes to possessing firearms. And she hopes that might stop them from committing more serious crimes that could get them sentenced as adults, like homicide. Mannion plans to work with Representative Hackney again next year to try and change the five-strike law. In Olympia, I'm Sarah Mises Tan. Next, more on the Seattle Center shooting. The wife of Carlos Sanchez Viabha says every day is harder since losing her husband. Casey Martin has this remembrance. There's a photo of Carlos Sanchez Viabba at Disney World in Florida with his family. They're posing with Star Wars villain Darth Vader. His young kids wrapped around their dad's legs. The tall, broad-shouldered dad is almost protecting them from this force of evil. His pride and joy was his children. His wife of 18 years, Sandra Frost O' Raina. She spoke to KOWW at Carlos' memorial service about two weeks after the July 26th shooting. Devastated. Every day is harder. Just to think about the future without him is hard, especially for my children. They had three kids, two daughters, ages 16 and 7. and their son, who was 11. Carlos framed houses for a living, working long, hard days on construction sites. But after work, Sandra says he always had time for his kids. My son would meet him at the door, and dad, let's kick the ball. And Carlos would say, yeah, let me take off my shoes. He would change his boots into his tennis shoes, and he would go outside and kick the ball with his son. You know, never said no, never said later, never said I'm tired. It was always a yes. Carlos was from Mexico and moved to Washington about 20 years ago. Sandra says he loved to travel, taking the family on one big trip every year, showing them the world beyond Yelm where they live. We like to go to Lake Tahoe a lot. He would take his boat in Mexico to visit his family, Colorado. He liked to see new places. He fished, hunted, and was a big foodie, loved all kinds of food.

That's what took them to the bite of Seattle last month. Sandra says they've gone to the festival before. And this year, they decided to go on a whim, a Sunday trip for the five of them to be together. Like, okay, yeah, let's take the trip to Seattle. You know, there's going to be a lot of food. It's a family thing, so, you know, why not? Carlos, always looking for new foods to try, had some vendors in mind. Mexican-style seafood, cocktails and shrimp and... octopus and a whole bunch stuff, and that was kind of his main reason of going because he wanted seafood. The family was standing in line to order food when they first heard gunshots. Sandra says they all turned and ran. Carlos grabbed their older daughter, who was in a wheelchair because of a disability. Carlos was standing with our daughter and her wheelchair. At the time of the shooting, he was trying to get away with his daughter. Carlos was shot in the chest and died at Seattle Center. Seattle police say the shooting may have been gang-related, and it left several innocent bystanders among the victims. Two other people were also killed, and at least four others injured. We were just standbys. You know, we were just at the wrong place, wrong time. Now, she says she's trying to raise her children without her husband. At the memorial service, she was surrounded by friends, family, and Carlos' coworkers. They held a rosary service by his open casket. and a Catholic priest gave a prayer with Sandra by his side. During the prayer, she looked down at Carlos, the dad that took his kids on adventures out to ice cream and kicked the ball in the yard. I stay strong for my kids. It was just amazing. I don't know why all the people that are amazing are the ones that go first. The family buried Carlos Sanchez Fialba last weekend. He was 44. Casey Martin, KUOW News. Next, wildfires have shut down two big segments of the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington. The National Scenic Trail spans more than 2,600 miles from Mexico to Canada. Long-distance hikers unable to reach the Canadian border have responded with creativity to preserve the PCT experience. John Ryan reports. For the past five months, Derek Hu has been walking the mountainous spine of the west coast, from the Mexican border up to Washington's North Cascades. He took videos along the way. North of Stevens Pass, the engineer from Taiwan started to encounter wildfire smoke. He looks at the camera and says, wow, North Cascades really beautiful, although there's some smoke a bit foggy due to the wildfire. It's quite moving. The Tarmigan fire just to the east had blown up, and the Forest Service announced that the last 43 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail were closed. It was just one of the big fires giving hikers problems in this exceptionally bad year for Northwest Fire.

The Stephen Pass is very smoky. Some of the hikers, they just get into the Stephen Pass and then they turn back because of the smoky air. But Hu continued on. He had started in the California desert in March. Like most Pacific Crest Trail through hikers, he had a big goal in mind, reaching the Canadian border. A monument there marks the end of the PCT. Completing the whole trail is a big accomplishment. It takes about five months if you're able to backpack 25 or 30 miles a day. Oh, 20 miles is a piece of cake. Through hiker Ian Irwin of Portland was a few days ahead of who. Irwin started extra early in March. We knew that even being a month or two early on the PCT that we were racing in the fire season and we still didn't make it. Erwin and his hiking partners had to stop at the trail closure, blocked from reaching the Canadian border. It's definitely disappointing. But it felt okay that it was something that was outside of our control. So it wasn't like we were quitting or giving up or anything. This year, this is where the end of the trail is going to be. Erwin and his fellow hikers decided not to let it end their long hike on a sour note. A friend drove to the trailhead with power tools and scrap lumber. Then they built a hand-lettered monument to mark the temporary end of the Pacific Crest Trail. with little U.S. and Canadian flags and a trail register for hikers to sign. Erwin says he feels lucky to have made it as far as he did before fire season kicked into high gear. Trail officials say it is getting harder to do the PCT. A warming climate is making fire season longer and more intense. Sam Webster is with the Pacific Crest Trail Association. It's becoming increasingly rare for someone to be able to accomplish that. because of these significant wildfire events that are becoming more and more common. Some hikers have found alternate ways to reach Canada, though fires are making alternates dangerous as well. When Taiwanese hiker Derek Hu reaches the scrap lumber monument, hikers from three continents have already signed its trail register. Who gets choked up as he reads the message Ian Irwin and friends left for fellow hikers. For all the hardworking friends. We see your strength, it says. Who sniffles then repeats its recognition of the hiker's hard work in Mandarin. Who says he doesn't plan to pursue an alternate route for now. Mostly he's grateful for the effort to build this new monument where hikers can celebrate coming all the way from Mexico. Who says reaching the actual border is not a big deal. For him, all the people he met on the journey were his most precious gifts. John Ryan, KUOW News. And finally, Washington isn't the only state experiencing wildfires. As millions of acres burn across Oregon, one small community in the Columbia River Gorge may adopt a proactive defense. Mosier residents are deciding whether to work together to conduct controlled burns on private land. OPB's Katie Porter Levinson has that story. Drew Friedrich Merz lives in the countryside just outside of Mosier, and he has come face to face with wildfire before. In 2020, the Mosier Creek fire made a run toward his property when he and his wife were away. We had spent a couple nights camping up in the Gifford Pinchot. On their way home, their phones lit up.

Just as we got reception is right when we received the reverse 911 call from the county saying there was a fire in the area. Mayor and his wife raced back to their home above the small plant nursery they run. The air was already smoky. They grabbed their cat, some essentials, and quickly evacuated to Hood River. From there, they watched the fire spread. We could see it moving up the canyon and trees torching, and it was definitely panic-inducing at that point because it was certainly looking pretty thrift. He says the fire burned within 300 yards of his property, and he never wants that to happen again. So last month, Friedrich Merz went to a meeting in town where dozens of people gathered to talk about forming what's called a prescribed burn association. You've probably heard of prescribed burns on public land. These burns can slow down wildfires by destroying fuels on the forest floor. A prescribed burn association, or PBA, is a community-led effort. Landowners and local agencies work together to conduct controlled burns on private land. They pool knowledge, equipment, and labor. I think it's important that landowners are able to learn the tools to make their land safer. Kathy Sleven is a community activist who organized the meeting about starting a PBA in Mosier. I might be able to help my neighbors. If the fire got to my property and was able to drop down in intensity, it might give the wildland firefighters a chance. It might give my neighbors a chance. Connor McKibben is the fire captain at the Mojure Fire District. At the meeting, he listened to residents' concerns, like, how could they protect endangered wildlife from burns? How much would this cost? But mostly, what would they do if a prescribed burn escaped? McKibben says that is people's number one concern, that an escape burn could turn into a new wildfire. But McKiven points to data from U.S. Forest Service burns, which shows that's unlikely. Fires escaping control line is not so rare, but fires getting completely out of control and causing damage is less than 1% of prescribed burns wind up having an escape fire to that degree. Andy says good planning can mitigate fire and smoke risks. He supports forming a prescribed burn association in Mosier. It's only a net positive by improving fire defensibility. If I can help do those things at cost and encourage more people to get involved, then it's going to make my job easier. Everybody's lives safer and property's safer. And that makes me feel good. McKibbon has already helped one guy in town conduct a prescribed burn on his land. Preston Cory Booker didn't even own a chainsaw before moving to Moser last year, but the property he bought was overgrown and thick with underbrush. Preparing for the burn was a ton of work. First steps were a lot of decluttering, just pulling out dead wood, limming as much as I could prior to the prescribed burn, and I did that nonstop for like two months. On the day of the burn, he helped a hired crew cut brush and fire lines. Yeah, I just got in and it was one of the hardest working days of my life. Cory Booker says the change after the burn was remarkable, with new grass growing where Underbrush had been, and he changed too. I went from not being a forester to kind of being a very okay amateur forester, I think, in about two months. There are nine prescribed burn associations in Oregon, and Cory Booker hopes Mosier will be next, so more landowners like him can connect to the tools and volunteers they need.

To conduct controlled burns at home. Porte Levinson, OPB. Appreciate you listening to Seattle Now, and thanks so much to our generous donors for your financial support. If you have a minute this weekend, rate and review the show. Our production team includes Caroline Chamberlain Gomez, Vaughn Jay Jones, Andy Hurst, Brooklyn Jamerson Flowers, and Paige Browning. Greg Kramer does our theme music. Seattle Now and KUOW Public Radio are members of the NPR Network. I'm Patricia Murphy. We're back tomorrow with an arts and culture episode. Are you the one that gets the plans out of the group chat and into an actual restaurant? Let me help you out. I'm Brandy Fullwood, host of Seattle Eats, and I got to say this podcast is for you. Every week I talk to chefs, critics, industry people about the best places to eat in Seattle. So you always know where to go next. Listen to Seattle Eats on the KUOW app or wherever you get your podcast.