Shootings in Seattle Prompt Amazon to Relocate Workers

Amazon is relocating staff at its downtown Seattle office due to the city’s spike in violent crime, Newsweek and Geekwire report.

In the first week of March, a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed at the intersection of 3rd Avenue and Pine Street, where Amazon’s office is located, the Newsweek article says.

Geekwire notes an incident from early February when an Amazon engineer was hit in the head with a baseball bat while walking in the downtown area. That assault preceded a rash of shootings in the area when four people were shot in three days. The area is also known for its open-air drug use and drug dealing, according to Fox 13.

“Given recent incidents near 3rd and Pine, we’re providing employees currently at that location with alternative office space elsewhere. We are hopeful that conditions will improve and that we will be able to bring employees back to this location when it is safe to do so,” an Amazon spokesperson told the outlets.

Other businesses have cited the uptick in crime for closing operations in downtown Seattle, including cloud tech firm Qumulo, Russian bakery Piroshky Piroshky and McDonald’s.

Read more at Newsweek.