Family of student murdered at Seattle school files lawsuit against district
The Brief
The family of Amarr Murphy-Paine, a student murdered in front of Garfield High School last year, has filed a lawsuit against Seattle Public Schools.
The lawsuit accuses the school district of failing to provide a secure campus, blaming policies and inadequate security.
SEATTLE - The family of Amarr Murphy-Paine, a Garfield High School student who was murdered on campus last year, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Seattle Public Schools.
The backstory
Murphy-Paine, a 17-year-old, was trying to stop a fight he saw in the parking lot when he was shot and killed in June 2024.
The suspect in the shooting has still not been caught.
The lawsuit accuses Seattle Public Schools of failing to provide a secure campus for students, and blames open campus policies and inadequate security.
Video surveillance captured the whole incident. As Amarr walked past Garfield's Performing Arts Center, he turned around and tried to break up a fight between a former student and current student. Then, one of them fatally shoots Murphy-Paine.
Amarr's father says the school and Seattle police initially treated the it like a gang shooting when it wasn't.
"They didn't say it was a school shooting. They let Amarr look like somebody, if you ask me, who deserved something brought to him that way. He was a kid that came out of that school. That could have happened to anybody," said Arron Muphy-Paine, Amarr's father.
The lawsuit says Seattle Public Schools ignored obvious warning signs about gun violence on and around campus.
It details an incident earlier that same day in which a student in a ski-mask entered a classroom and shot a teacher multiple times with an airsoft rifle, then escaped.
It says no staff called 911 to report it, as mandated by policy.
The suit also states Seattle police responded to at least nine reports of dangerous weapons from 2020 to 2024, when they banned school resource officers on campus.
"Just another thing that's happening in and around Garfield. Do you think that if that happened at O'Dea High School…I'm not even going to say the rest," Arron Murphy-Paine said.
The lawsuit says the school had a duty to protect Amarr from an armed intruder entering campus.
Meanwhile, Seattle police are continuing to ask for the public's help to identify Amarr's killer.
You can submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound by texting the info through the P3 Tips App on your cell phone. There is a $5,000 cash reward offered for information that leads to an arrest.
The Source
Information in this story came from the family of Amarr Murphy-Paine, Seattle police, and original FOX 13 Seattle reporting and interviews.
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