Twelve people were shot when gunfire broke out at a lowrider car show in Kent on the afternoon of July 23 at La Plaza shopping center on Pacific Highway S. Amazingly, everyone survived.

While the investigation continues into who and how many were involved in the shooting, King County law enforcement agencies have publically vowed to work together in focusing in on gang violence in the area, while elected officials are asking the county for more funding for prosecutors and police.

Kent Police are busy interviewing witnesses and analyzing surveillance footage from the shooting, and in the meantime Kent Police Chief Ken Thomas brought together over 60 law enforcement officials from King and Pierce County on July 27 to discuss local and regional gang violence.

According to a City of Kent press release, the meeting resulted in two initiatives: “a commitment to effectively collect, analyze, and share criminal intelligence about violent street gangs to all law enforcement agencies throughout the area,” and the assembly of “a contingent of investigators to work collaboratively to target the most violent gangs and gang members in the area for aggressive enforcement action.”

While the initiatives set forth in Chief Thomas’s summit illustrate a renewed commitment to combating gang activity, King County Councilmembers Reagan Dunn and Larry Phillips recognized a lack of funding will hamper that commitment and, on August 2, sent a letter to King County Executive Dow Constantine asking him to create a funding package from the County’s criminal justice reserve and send it to the Council for approval.

“There are over 5,000 known gang members in King County and we have averaged more than 200 gang shootings over the last few years,” the letter states. “This level of violence is unacceptable and should not be tolerated by our elected officials.”

A related press release stated King County has average 29 gang-related homicides over the past two years.

Dunn and Phillips wrote “there have already been retaliatory shootings” in the aftermath of the Kent shooting, “that have escalated to what can accurately be described as a gang war.”

“Prosecutor Satterberg and Sheriff Rahr need the resources to prosecute gang related crimes to the fullest,” Dunn said in a related King Count press release. “A message must be sent that we will not tolerate this kind of violence in our community.”

The letter said the King County’s Prosecuting Attorney’s Office lost a federal grant on June 30 that was used to fund three prosecutors dedicated to prosecuting gang-related crime. While the Prosecutor’s Office attempts to shuffle resources to cover the loss, the letter said Satterberg “has told us that he cannot sustain these activities into 2012 without additional resources.”

Satterberg has asked for $700,000 from the criminal justice reserve in 2012 and 2013 “to continue the federal gang violence grant.”

“Without additional resources soon, the gang violence in King County could spiral out of control,” the letter concluded.