(Headline USA) A Seattle business owner said the city’s drug problem has become a “criminal and humanitarian emergency” that is so out of control that she had to close her business due to safety concerns.
Olga Sagan told Fox News this week that she was forced to permanently shutter one of her three bakeries in February because of a surge in shootings and drug use outside the store.
“As COVID came in and downtown emptied out, I feel like the criminal activity has really taken over the streets,” she said.
She said that when her bakery, Piroshky Prioshky, reopened after the COVID-19 lockdowns, “we ended up dealing with people selling drugs, buying drugs.”
In a video she shared with Fox News, a group of dozens of individuals can be seen outside her store smoking and injecting drugs on the sidewalk.
“It was to the point where it’s an open drug market,” she said.
The final straw for Sagan was a fatal shooting on March 5, when 15-year-old Michael Delbianco was killed in the 1500 block of Third Avenue in downtown Seattle.
“There is a kid who got killed there and a couple more people in the last months who lost their lives,” Sagan said.
“This is not a good business environment,” she said. “That was my message for the last six months, but I honestly have run out of messages to send.”
Sagan’s business isn’t the only one fleeing downtown Seattle. Amazon recently announced that it would be relocating its employees who work downtown due to the safety threats they were facing every day.
“Given recent incidents near 3rd (Ave) and Pine (St), we’re providing employees currently at that location with alternative office space elsewhere,” an Amazon spokesman said, according to KOMO News.
“We are hopeful that conditions will improve and that we will be able to bring employees back to this location when it is safe to do so.”
