Year in review: Kent’s top stories of 2024

A look at a couple of the top stories each month in the Kent Reporter print editions from 2024:

January

• Mayor and police chief push for sales tax bill in Olympia: Kent Mayor Dana Ralph and Police Chief Rafael Padilla announced their plan to lobby the Legislature to approve allowing the City Council (without a vote of the people) to enact a sales tax hike of 0.3% (3 cents on every $10 purchase) to raise an estimated $10 million per year to pay to hire more police officers. Update: The proposal died in committees in Olympia.

• Kent’s girls flag football teams make solid first impression: High schools formed club teams as part of an effort to get girls flag football to become a sanctioned sport by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. Club teams competed for the first time at Kentwood, Kentlake, Kentridge and Kent-Meridian.

February

• 220 unit affordable housing complex coming to West Hill: Plans were announced for an estimated $120 million project to go up in the next few years on the West Hill near Pacific Highway South and the new light rail station scheduled to open in 2026. Mercy Housing Northwest hopes to break ground in mid-2025 next to the Kent Des Moines light rail station with construction expected to take a couple of years.

• Man faces charges for shooting, injuring state trooper: King County prosecutors charged a 31-year-old Federal Way man for allegedly shooting and injuring a Washington State Patrol trooper in Kent during a Feb. 16 struggle in an apartment complex parking lot. Jason Joshua Posada faces charges of first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement and theft of a firearm (from the trooper). He reportedly fired at least nine shots at the trooper, who was hospitalized and later released on March 5. Posada remains in the county jail awaiting trial with bail set at $3 million. A trial date is set for Feb. 24, 2025.

March

• State trooper killed in I-5 crash was Kentlake High graduate: A Lynnwood man was accused of vehicular homicide after reportedly crashing into Washington State Patrol Trooper Chris Gadd and killing him on March 2 along Interstate 5 in Marysville. Gadd, 27, a Kentlake High School graduate, had stopped on the right shoulder of I-5 just before 3 a.m. while on routine patrol for DUI drivers. Raul Benitez Santana remains in custody at the Snohomish County jail with bail set at $100,000.

• Families forgive Kent suspect involved in fatal crash: King County prosecutors charged Chase Daniel Jones, 18, of Kent, with four counts of vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault in a March 19 crash at the intersection of SE 192nd Street and 140th Avenue SE in the Cascade-Fairwood area of unincorporated King County near Renton and Kent. Jones reportedly was driving 112 mph when he ran a red light. Update: Jones was released from the county jail April 2 on electronic home detention with bail set at $100,000. A trial date is set for April 21, 2025. Killed in the crash were Andrea Hudson, 38; Matilda Wilcoxson, 13; Eloise Wilcoxson, 12; and Boyd “Buster” Brown, 12.

April

• Riverbend Golf Complex turns profit for second consecutive year: After years of losing money, the city-owned Riverbend Golf Complex turned a profit in 2023 for a second year in a row. City Parks Director Julie Parascondola said the complex will make about $600,000, even higher than the $529,000 profit in 2022. The course had about 5,500 more rounds of golf in 2023 compared to 2022. The city continues to reap the benefits of selling its par 3 course for $10.5 million in 2017 to an apartment developer and using a portion of that money to improve the 18-hole course and upgrade and expand the driving range.

• Reith Road to get two new roundabouts this year: The Kent City Council approved a bid of $4.28 million for construction of two roundabouts along Reith Road. The roundabouts are going in at the intersections of Reith Road and Lake Fenwick Road and Reith Road and South 253rd Street. City Public Works Director Chad Bieren said the roundabouts are an effort to calm traffic and slow speeds down to make the road safer for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists. Update: The project is near completion.

May

• Sikh community celebrates opening of Gurudwara temple: More than 7,000 people participated in a three-day, grand-opening celebration of the Sikh community’s new temple along 132nd Avenue SE just south of South 240th Street. Kent City Councilmember Satwinder Kaur called the opening “a significant milestone for our community.” The Sikh community numbers around 50,000 in King County.

• Rape charges dismissed against former school bus driver: The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office dismissed rape and child molestation charges against a former Kent School District bus driver after it decided it couldn’t prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. The case was dropped just two weeks prior to trial. In charging documents, prosecutors claimed the driver raped an 11-year-old girl multiple times in a bus over a three-month period in 2021.

June

• Man charged in killing Kent teen outside store: Prosecutors charged a 51-year-old man with second-degree murder in the June 5 shooting of Hazrat Ali Rohard, 17, a Kent-Meridian High School student. Aaron Brown Myers is accused of shooting Rohard outside Big 5 Sporting Goods in Renton. Update: Myers, who pleaded not guilty, is on electronic home detention with bail set at $2 million, according to King County jail records. A trial date is set for March 5, 2025, but that date could be pushed out if attorneys need more time to prepare the case.

• Kent-Meridian student found fatally shot near campus: Cristopher Medina Zelaya, 18, was fatally shot June 3 in the city of Kent’s Campus Park parking lot just west of Kent-Meridian High School. Zelaya was a student at the school. Kent Police Chief Rafael Padilla said a few weeks after the shooting that it was not a random act and that detectives had strong leads. As of Dec. 30, Kent Police have not made any arrests in the case.

July

• Dancing, music and fun at the Kent Cornucopia Days Grand Parade: Several dance groups, bands, politicians, dancing horses, the Seafair Pirates and the Seafair Clowns were among those who participated in the July 14 Kent Cornucopia Days Grand Parade through downtown. It marked the 51st year of Cornucopia Days, presented by the Kent Lions Club.

• Kent man charged with attempted kidnapping of girl: Prosecutors charged a 40-year-old Kent man with second-degree attempted kidnapping for allegedly trying to take a 6-year-old girl July 16 from an apartment complex parking lot. Kent Police arrested Hayder Albu Mohammed at the Meridian Green Townhomes Apartments after the incident with the help of several teen girls who lived at the complex. Update: Mohammed pleaded guilty Dec. 17 to a lesser charge of attempted luring. He received a 364-day suspended sentence, ordered to 24 months probation and banned from living at the Meridian Green Townhomes.

August

• Four charged in fatal shooting of Kent boy at park: Four males, ages 20, 18, 17 and 16 were charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in the shooting of a 13-year-old Kent boy July 16 at a Kent park. Matthiew Stavkoviy died of a gunshot wound to his back near Turnkey Park, 23300 100th Ave. SE. A friend of Matthiew’s agreed to meet one of the males to sell him camera equipment and Matthiew went along. The four males then reportedly robbed the friend of the equipment and shots were fired at Matthiew as he fled the scene. Update: A trial date has been set for Feb. 24, 2025, but that could be pushed out if attorneys ask for more time to prepare the case. The four charged are Faysal Absullahi, brothers Diaviante and Marsais Dunmore, and Semarias Woods.

• Pilot suffers injuries as seaplane crashes into Lake Meridian: A seaplane crashed upside down Aug. 24 into Lake Meridian. The pilot was the only person on board. Alan L. Williams, 74, of Kent, died Aug. 29 from injuries suffered in the crash. The plane had its landing gear down when it should have been retracted for a water landing, according to a preliminary crash report issued Sept. 14 by the National Transportation Safety Board.

September

• DNA and forensics lead to arrest in 1980 cold case: Kent Police detectives used DNA, genealogy comparisons and a discarded cigarette to find the man who reportedly killed Dorothy “Dottie” Silzel 44 years ago at her Kent condo shortly after she ended her shift at a local pizza parlor. Prosecutors charged Kenneth Kundert, 65, with first-degree murder in the strangulation of Silzel, 30. Kundert has a trial date of April 4, 2025, although that could be continued.

• Mayor proposes higher B&O tax to pay for more police: During her 2025-2026 biennial city budget proposal, Mayor Dana Ralph asked the City Council for a higher B&O tax to pay for four police employees, two sergeants, a patrol officer and a corrections officer. The council in December approved the B&O tax hike to bring in about $1.7 million over two years to cover the staffing costs.

October

• Asylum seekers in Kent moved to housing, shelter: An encampment of nearly 200 people on property next to the former Econo Lodge hotel was emptied after King County and its partners found housing for everyone. Asylum seekers from Venezuela, Angola and Congo set up camp June 1. They wanted the now county-owned hotel opened for them to stay. But high renovation costs and land-use requirements by the city kept county officials from opening the hotel, set up as a quarantine facility during COVID-19. The county used a portion of the $5 million it recently received from the state Legislature to help fund the move of families to longer-term housing.

• Council approves $11.2 million purchase of new office space: The city of Kent will buy an office building in north Kent for $11.25 million to house many of the city services and move City Hall and the Police Department across the City Hall parking lot to the city-owned Centennial Building, where many city employees now work. They are scheduled to move to the new office location in 2026. The Centennial Building renovation is expected to be done in 2027. The city will fund the purchase of new offices and renovation of the Centennial Building through existing capital funds and the issuance of bonds, also from city funds.

November

• Kent School District measure passing after initially failing: The Kent School District’s $97.8 million three-year Capital Projects and Technology Replacement Levy passed after initially failing after the first ballot counts by King County Elections. About $73.3 million will go to capital projects and about $24.4 million to technology.

• Windstorm that struck region ‘comparable to a hurricane’: Power outages and school closures rocked Kent and other areas of east King County after a Nov. 19-20 bomb cyclone that Puget Sound Energy officials compared to a hurricane. The Kent School District closed all 44 of its schools for three days because of power outages at many of them. At one point, Puget Sound Energy had more than 500,000 customers without power across several counties.

December

• King County to build animal shelter at new site: King County officials are looking to close the current Kent Regional Animal Services of King County shelter to build a shelter at a new site. The current facility was built about 50 years ago and the site doesn’t have enough space to handle a new shelter. No sites have been selected yet, so a timeline of when a new shelter could open has yet to be determined.

• Awale Farah resigns from Kent School Board: Awale Farah announced his resignation from the Kent School Board just two days after its final meeting of 2024. Farah still had a year left on his term. Farah was often on the majority side of 3-2 votes among a divided board. He said he resigned due to family obligations that would take away too much time for him to fulfill his duties as a board member.