The lasting harm of Washington's deadliest mass shooting

The shooting at the Wah Mee Club 40 years ago left 13 people dead. The way the story showed up in the news inflicted long term harm to Seattle's CID and Chinese American communities.

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the deadliest mass shooting in Washington state history. It started with a robbery at the Wha Mee Club in Seattle's Chinatown International District. It ended with 13 people murdered.

Two men were ultimately convicted for those murders and a third served 28 years in prison for robbery and assault.

Longtime Seattleites remember the Wha Mee shootings as a tragedy. Maleeha Syed, a communities reporter at Crosscut, says the CID community endured a second blow. The way the story was portrayed on the 5 o'clock news and in newspapers hurt Chinese Americans and the CID neighborhood for years to come.