Matthew Lanske’s family says he struggled to find aid after being shot, while investigators later relied heavily on video to reconstruct the deadly encounter.
SEATTLE, Wash. — After Matthew Lanske was shot three times during a chaotic confrontation in Belltown, his family says the 21-year-old moved through the neighborhood searching for help, encountered people who recorded him, reached a locked convenience store and ultimately had to contact 911 himself while suffering life-threatening injuries.
That account turned the aftermath of the Sept. 6 shooting into a second story alongside the shooting itself. Lanske survived, but his friend, 20-year-old Isaac Rios, died after being wounded in the same confrontation near Third Avenue and Clay Street. Weeks later, investigators would say that video from several sources helped them reconstruct what had happened before the gunfire. The case therefore carries an unusual tension: Lanske’s relatives condemned people they say filmed a wounded man rather than aid him, while detectives later asked the public for recordings and used footage to clarify a disputed and initially confusing homicide investigation.
Lanske’s mother, Shanda Barney, said her son was losing a large amount of blood after two bullets struck his abdomen and a third shattered his pelvis and injured a major artery. She said he somehow continued moving away from the shooting scene and sought help. According to Barney, Lanske later told her that he reached a 7-Eleven and begged to be allowed inside, but the doors remained locked. His family said the experience left him believing he might die before anyone came to his aid. News reports based on the family’s interviews document the allegation, but the public sources reviewed for this article do not contain an independent statement from the store workers explaining what they saw or why the doors were not opened.
The family’s criticism extended beyond the store. Barney said people nearby stood with phones raised, taking pictures or recording instead of offering assistance. Lanske’s sister, Rebecca Garberding, said she understood that witnesses could have been frightened after hearing gunfire, but argued that someone still could have contacted emergency services or helped her brother reach safety. The family’s statements reflect what Lanske reported experiencing while wounded; police have not released findings establishing how many people encountered him, whether any of them had already called 911 or what individual bystanders knew about the continuing danger.
Lanske eventually sat down and contacted 911 and his girlfriend, according to his family. Police found him in the 300 block of Denny Way, and officers and medics provided emergency care before he was taken to Harborview Medical Center. His family said he required two days of life support and underwent at least two operations, with additional surgery expected. A fundraiser created for his recovery said two Seattle police officers remained with him until paramedics arrived. His relatives said his injuries would keep him from his construction work for months and that his survival depended on emergency treatment after substantial blood loss.
Several blocks away, the same eruption of gunfire had mortally wounded Rios. Officers found the 20-year-old in the 300 block of Clay Street with gunshot wounds and gave aid until Seattle Fire Department medics arrived. He was transported to Harborview but died there. Friends and relatives later gathered at a memorial for him. His mother, Jeannie Colony, told FOX 13 that her son loved people and was deeply loved by those around him. An obituary said Rios was born in Everett and grew up around Seattle, remembering him for his humor, generosity and close relationships with relatives and friends.
The first public version of the confrontation came largely from police’s initial response and interviews with the families. Lanske’s relatives said he and his friends had finished dinner and encountered an illegal street takeover before a man and two women tried to rob one of his friends at gunpoint. Garberding said her brother tried to take the gun from the armed man and was shot. Rios’ family also publicly described the encounter as a robbery. That account circulated widely in the days after the shooting, alongside the family’s allegations about how Lanske was treated as he sought help.
Police later described a more detailed sequence without confirming the robbery allegation. In a Sept. 23 update, detectives said a 20-year-old man first had a hostile interaction with a 20-year-old woman at about 12:29 a.m. The woman was with a 22-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman. The groups separated, police said, but approximately nine minutes later the 20-year-old man and a 21-year-old companion approached again. Detectives said the encounter became a physical fight with the 22-year-old man, who possessed a firearm legally. According to police, the gun discharged repeatedly during the struggle and struck three people.
The department said the armed man was at one point able to break away but was caught and the fight continued. Police said the firearm eventually became separated from the struggle and was picked up by the 20-year-old man, who walked away with it. The 22-year-old man and 26-year-old woman later went to Harborview for treatment, police said. Detectives interviewed them and another woman about their roles in the incident. Seattle police said every person directly involved in the events surrounding the shooting had been identified. They did not publicly identify the shooter by name or announce an arrest in the Sept. 23 update.
That later reconstruction was built in part from the same basic technology at the center of the family’s anger. Investigators said they reviewed footage from the Seattle Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center, nearby businesses and community members, together with statements from people involved. Earlier, police had opened an online evidence portal and asked anyone with relevant photos or video to upload material, including recordings from the minutes before the shooting. What a witness records can help establish a timeline after a crime, but the evidentiary value of a recording is separate from the family’s question about whether someone witnessing an injured person could also have summoned help.
The shooting occurred amid an illegal street takeover that had drawn a crowd into Belltown after midnight. Nearby surveillance footage reported by KIRO 7 showed vehicles moving through an intersection, people gathering and fireworks being set off. A fight became visible before shots were fired and the crowd dispersed. The episode was not isolated from a broader burst of violence in the neighborhood. Over roughly a day, three separate shootings in Belltown killed three people and injured several others. The first was the shooting that killed Rios. A woman was killed in a separate shooting less than two hours later, and a 17-year-old was killed in another shooting that night.
The violent weekend led Seattle officials to promise a broader response. Mayor Katie Wilson said the deaths and injuries were unacceptable and announced plans for a city gun-violence prevention strategy. Her statement referred to community violence interruption, focused deterrence, public safety and public-health approaches while also saying Seattle had seen longer-term reductions in shootings and homicides. For Lanske’s family, however, the citywide statistics were secondary to a specific question about what happened on the sidewalk after he was wounded and why, in their account, help seemed so difficult to find.
There is still no public finding that resolves every part of that account. Police have not accused the convenience-store employees or the people Lanske’s family says were recording him of a crime, and the available reporting does not establish that they understood the severity of his injuries or the threat around them. At the same time, nothing in the later police reconstruction negates the fact that Lanske was found critically injured away from the main shooting location after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds. His family’s description of his effort to seek assistance remains an attributed survivor account, not a police conclusion.
For Lanske, the case continues beyond the criminal investigation. His family has described a long recovery from the wounds he suffered and has continued to focus attention on what happened after he left the fight seeking assistance. Police confirmed that he withdrew after being shot and sought help from bystanders before first responders reached him on Denny Way. No public finding has established wrongdoing by the bystanders or convenience-store workers his family criticized.
Author note: Last updated October 20, 2026.