A 29-year-old man fatally shot June 29 inside a West Hill apartment in Kent has been identified as Jack Rainford.
Rainford died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to a July 5 media report by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, which ruled the death a homicide. Rainford died June 30, according to the medical examiner.
Officers were dispatched at about 6:20 a.m. June 29 to the 2100 block of South 272nd Street in response to a 911 call of a shooting at that location, according to a Kent Police statement. The initial 911 caller said that a man had been shot in the head inside an apartment. The complex is just east of Pacific Highway South near the city border with Federal Way.
Officers and medical aid arrived within minutes and were directed to an apartment. Inside they located Rainford with a gunshot wound to his head, according to police. Officers searched the apartment and located a second victim, a 30-year-old Kent woman, who had a gunshot wound to her torso.
The reporting party said that he saw someone that might be a suspect leaving the area just after he heard what he thought were gunshots. Patrol officers set a perimeter around the area and requested a K-9 unit and air support. The person was not located, and it was later determined through witness interviews that there was evidence the person seen had left in a vehicle.
Kent Violent Crimes detectives took over the investigation. Evidence collected indicates this was not a random incident, according to police.
11th homicide this year
Rainford’s death is the 11th homicide in Kent in 2023, according to numbers compiled by the Kent Reporter from the Kent Police Department and King County Medical Examiner’s Office. Kent had 11 homicides in 2022, 14 in 2021, eight in 2020, four in 2019 and seven in 2018.
Four of the homicides were in June, including three during a 10-day period:
• Miles Clark, 30, of Bothell, died of a gunshot wound to the head June 16 after a June 15 shooting behind the Kent YMCA.
• Abubakar Ahmed, 19, died of a gunshot wound to the torso June 13 inside the AMC Theatre at Kent Station.
• Baba Jawara, 18, of Kent, died June 5 from a gunshot wound of the chest. Officers responded at about 11:15 p.m. June 4 to the area of 11300 SE Kent-Kangley Road in response to a 911 call of a shooting.
As of July 5, police have not reported an arrest in any of the four cases.
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