Elijah Lewis was devoted to Seattle’s Central District and the South End.
He was keenly aware of how the neighborhoods he had grown up in were no longer around, and how as millions of dollars went into new buildings, the people who had lived in the area for decades were forced out. He wanted to do something about it.
“His sight and thought process was: ‘I am right here in the struggle and I see my people struggling, and I want to help,’” his brother Mario Dunham said. “His last moments are indicative of who he was as a person.”
In his final two minutes of life, his family believes, he was protecting his nephew from gunfire in a shooting Saturday afternoon on Capitol Hill. Both Lewis and the boy were wounded.
Lewis, an entrepreneur and a community activist described as a pillar in the Black community, died at Harborview Medical Center from his injuries. He was 23.
The 9-year-old boy was treated for a gunshot wound at the hospital and discharged Sunday, a Harborview spokesperson said. Lewis was taking him to a monster truck rally at Lumen Field to celebrate his birthday when they were shot, Dunham said.
Dunham said the boy is doing well at home and is still a bit disoriented.
The shooting suspect, 35, was arrested and booked into the King County Jail Saturday on investigation of homicide and assault. The suspect remained in custody Sunday.
As of Sunday, police had not publicly released details about the shooting or what might have motivated it.
A Rainier Beach High School graduate, Lewis was heavily involved with Africatown Community Land Trust, an organization focused on preserving the city’s Black community. He did community outreach with Black vendors, artists, poets and singers for events in the Central District and Rainier Valley, Dunham said, calling his brother a serial entrepreneur who owned a cleaning business and a financial group. He was involved with several community groups and activist movements.
Around 100 community members, friends and family of Lewis gathered at East Pine Street and Broadway in Capitol Hill for a vigil Sunday afternoon, moving into the intersection as speakers shared memories of his activism, passion and drive.
“We’re gonna get through this with love and power,” said Lewis’ mother, Jenine Lewis. “That’s (Elijah). The full of it. Fierce, fierce, fierce. Fierce power and fierceness. That’s who he was.”
TraeAnna Holiday, who also worked with Africatown, said Lewis was a “protector” of his community.
“He had lived from one death of a friend and a brother to another to another to another,” Holiday said. “We are tired of it y’all.”
Vigil-goers placed signs outside Seattle Central College, near where Lewis was killed, with messages like “community is Elijah Lewis” and “say his name.” At the site of the shooting, people laid out candles and bouquets of flowers.
Speakers reminisced and joked about Lewis’ nonstop attitude. Africatown CEO K. Wyking Garrett said, “he probably was a part of every organization doing something in the community.”
Arivozhi Adiaman, an entrepreneur who worked with Africatown, said he and Lewis were planning an event this week focused on financial literacy in lower-socioeconomic communities.
“Him only being 23-years-old, he was just miles ahead in terms of his knowledge on how to get funding and how to just bring people together,” Adiaman said. “ … It’s just sad that someone with that much passion and drive was just taken away.”
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell met Lewis at community events and called him a “young, effective and authentic advocate” who was part of a new generation of community leaders and who knew the power of mentorship.
“The answer to disagreement and trauma is not violence,” Harrell said in a statement. “Instead, we need to support our neighbors and build our communities together, as Elijah proved in his words and in his actions. In his honor, we must continue that work and march toward progress, together.”
At 18, Lewis spoke in front of thousands of people at Seattle’s student-led March For Our Lives to demand stricter gun laws. Onstage, he urged his fellow “’90s babies” — he was among the last because he was born in 1999 — to vote for the next generation.
“I have nieces and nephews, and if it’s this crazy now, how crazy is it going to be when they turn 18?” Lewis said at the 2018 event.
On Sunday, Harrell too called for an end to gun violence.
“We need to better support our youth, but we also need fewer guns on the street — Elijah recognized the importance of both,” Harrell said. “I won’t stop repeating this truth until things change: There are too many guns in our city, too many guns in this country, and too many guns in hands where they do not belong.”
In 2020, Lewis took part in Seattle protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He captivated the crowd, talking to more than 500 people about his experience as a young Black male, Dunham recalled.
“He inspired me, even though he’s my little brother,” Dunham said. “I was just in awe of who he had become.”
As of Sunday evening, a GoFundMe to support Lewis’ mother, Jenine Lewis, had raised more than $18,000.