SCC student loses her life to gun violence
Tiana Montgomery, who was taking classes at SCC through the Running Start program, died recently after she and her cousin were shot during what was reportedly a dispute over a cell phone.
Her cousin, Darrold Edwards, was shot seven times and is still recovering in the hospital. Edwards also had taken classes at SCC, through Learning Center North. Joseph Cooley, a suspect, has turned himself in.
Former SCC student Chris Hanson lived near Montgomery, and knew her well. "I met her in high school," Hanson said. "she was going out with one of my best friends.
"She was as really good dancer … she was the first one to take me to a club, I'd never been dancing, and she taught me to do the robot and stuff like that. She was really witty, she would always have a comeback, and she stood up for her friends."
Friends and family remembered Montgomery at a memorial service at Richmond Beach a few days after the shooting. "Everyone was super sad,"
Hanson said, "standing around smoking a lot of cigarettes and crying. We stood in a circle, and talked about our favorite memories of Tiana."
Montgomery was taking Intro to Photography from instructor Mateo Zachai. He and some other members of the class went to the memorial service held at Richmond Beach. "We were in no place to have class that day."
The Seattle Times reported that there has been as many as 16 homicides in Seattle this year alone, compared with 21 in the city in all of last year.
Montgomery's death, though in Shoreline and not part of these Seattle statistics, still appears to be part of a troubling trend of this increasing violence. Check the next issue of The Ebbtide for a more in-depth look at Tiana Montgomery's life.
