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Charges have been filed against the suspect in Sunday morning鈥檚 double homicide at a Rainier Beach hookah lounge.

On Wednesday, the King County Prosecuting Attorney鈥檚 Office charged聽Leontai D. Berry with two counts of first-degree murder with firearm enhancements and one count of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

A 成人X站 Newsradio investigation revealed Berry was already on probation. In fact, he had been celebrated by community anti-violence organizations for turning his life around.

Federal charges: running a ‘straw man’ scheme as a teen

Five years’ probation is not the typical sentencing for federal gun charges. Prosecutors acknowledged that, claiming the young man recognized the harm he caused and was making remarkable efforts to turn his life around through 鈥渧erified work as a credible messenger to young people at risk of engaging in gun violence.鈥�

鈥淭his sentence recommendation does not reflect the seriousness of [REDACTED] offense, but we believe that, in this particular case, it does further the paramount goal of enhancing public safety and reducing gun violence in our communities,鈥� the U.S. Attorney鈥檚 Office wrote.

鈥淗e chose to participate in our programs because he wanted to change his life,鈥� Davis wrote. 鈥淚 immediately saw how ambitious this young man was for some positive influences.鈥�

Davis recommended him for a job as a case manager with homeless outreach organization . He went on to work for Community Passageways in a similar role. He was celebrated for referring others to anti-violence programs, planning a series of 鈥淧eace Camps,鈥� and acting as a violence intervention consultant.

Anti-violence activism

Berry also 聽against violence and police brutality.

鈥淲hen young men make a decision to change their lives and move in a positive direction from the streets, other people that haven鈥檛 made that change can still become a threat to their positive momentum,” Davis wrote. “I am hoping that there is an opportunity for him to be released from his probation period early, so that he can relocate in order to align his physical surroundings with his internal goals, and he won鈥檛 have to worry about threats from his past.”

Berry also started a cleaning business and wrote to the court that he wanted to make a better life for himself and his daughter but struggled because of the limits probation placed on his movements.

鈥淪o, I ask that you release me early from probation so I can use the momentum I have gained and start a new life,鈥� he wrote in February.

CoLEAD confirmed he worked there at the beginning of the pandemic for eight months, but left the organization more than four years ago.

2025 murder arrest

In the early morning hours on Sunday, a security guard and another man聽were shot to death聽outside the Capri Hookah Lounge in the Rainier Beach area of Seattle.

According to police, surveillance video showed a tall, heavy-set man with light skin, a beard, and 鈥渓onger鈥� hair in a ponytail or top knot walk up to the first victim, Ozie Whitfield. He shot him in the head before running away, but he fell as he hit a beam at the entrance. Police said he jumped and ran through the parking lot with a limp while being pursued by the second victim, security guard Julius Rodriguez. The suspect got into the back of a waiting sedan and left.

Rodriguez was shot and found north of the hookah lounge, along with shell casings and a trail of blood. He was taken to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Berry was arrested several hours after the shooting. According to police, he was dropped off at Valley Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the leg and matched the description from witnesses and the video.

At Berry鈥檚 first appearance hearing, a defense attorney argued that there were no witnesses to the shooting itself, and that no one could positively identify the suspect firsthand.

The judge acknowledged that the ID could prove problematic at trial, but still granted prosecutors probable cause to hold the suspect and set bail at $5 million.

鈥淒OJ is aware of the arrest. Any defendant who is found to have violated the terms of his probation faces potential revocation and resentencing up to the statutory maximum of the underlying crime, which in this instance would be ten years,鈥� wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas M. Woods in a statement.

Community Passageways weighs in

In a statement to 成人X站 Newsradio, Community Passageways CEO Dominique Davis wrote:

Community Passageways is mourning the tragic loss of life in our community. Many of our staff knew the victims and their families personally and we are all grieving.

Community Passageways’ mission is to reduce the violence on our streets by serving youth and supporting them in taking accountability for their actions.

In 2020, [the suspect] was a participant in our Deep Dive program, which works with the highest-risk youth in our legal system to disrupt cycles of violence and prevent a lifetime of harm in our community. After leaving our program he found employment providing homelessness and substance abuse outreach and services for CoLead in 2020 for a short period. To our knowledge he engaged in no criminal activity in the four years following our program.

Every year, our programs help hundreds of youth exit the legal system, and very few ever reoffend again. Every child’s life is sacred to us, and we are devastated by these actions.

We will never stop working to keep our communities safe. Our commitment to take on the hardest and most difficult juvenile, and young adult cases, and succeed in preventing future offenses for the vast majority of participants, is critical to that mission.

成人X站 Newsradio has reached out to the defense attorneys on both the federal gun case and the King County murder case, but has yet to receive a response.