On the morning of December 1, 2025, Khalif Hussein, 34, was shot inside the Evangadi Hookah Lounge at 419 Rainier Avenue South in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District and later died at Harborview Medical Center. He was described as a friend of the lounge’s manager who sometimes helped at the business. Witnesses and police say a dispute began hours earlier when a patron who had stayed through the night refused to leave, and that the confrontation escalated into a physical fight outside the lounge. The suspect then fired multiple rounds into the building from the street just before 7:50 a.m., striking Hussein in the torso.

Investigators described the shooter as a man in his 30s who fled south on Rainier Avenue South after the attack. The King County Medical Examiner ruled Hussein’s death a homicide. The lounge’s owner, Firew Berjia, faced city enforcement actions and the business was closed later that week. No immediate arrest had been reported in the days after the shooting; police were actively searching and an arrest in a nearby shooting was announced on December 28 without confirmation it was tied to Hussein’s killing.

If anyone was at Evangadi Hookah Lounge that morning or has information about the man who fled south on Rainier Avenue South, please share what was seen or heard.