February 19, 1983: The Wah Mee Massacre

February 19, 1983: A mass shooting occurs in Seattle’s Chinatown. It becomes known as the Wah Mee Massacre, and it remains the biggest mass murder in the history of the State of Washington.

The Louisa Hotel was home to illegal nightclubs and gambling since the 1920s. By the 1950s, it carried the Chinese name Wah Mee, meaning "Beautiful China." Chinese gangs, or "tongs," fought for control. Shortly after midnight on February 19, 1983, Kwan Fai "Willie" Mak, Wai Chiu "Tony" Ng, and Keung Kin "Benjamin" Ng (no relation to Tony) bound, robbed, and shot 14 people in the club.

One of their victims, Wai Chin, a card dealer, survived to testify against the three in the separate high-profile trials held in 1983 and 1985. He lived until 1993, at age 71, dying of natural causes.

The building continued to host street-level businesses until a fire on Christmas Eve 2013 destroyed the top floor and the interior of the building. The Woo family, who still owned the building, decided to demolish the fire-damaged portion, which included all of the former Wah Mee space, while retaining as much of the building as possible to preserve its contribution to the Chinatown Historic District. The Louisa Hotel building reopened June 2019, with 85 rental apartments, plus street-level retail and restaurant space.

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February 19, 1983 was a Saturday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Denver Nuggets, 124-115 at Madison Square Garden. Alex English scored 39 points in defeat for the Nuggets.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Phoenix Suns, 112-101 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan. Kelly Tripucka, a native of my original hometown of Bloomfield, New Jersey, scored 33 to lead the Pistons.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 122-100 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the Boston Celtics, 115-109 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

And there were 8 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 8-5 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The New York Islanders beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-0 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-2 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Calgary Flames, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 10-7 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 6-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The St. Louis Blues and the Quebec Nordiques played to a tie, 4-4 at the St. Louis Arena, then known as the Checkerdome.

* The Los Angeles Kings and the Washington Capitals played to a tie, 3-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the New Jersey Devils, the Detroit Red Wings, the Buffalo Sabres, the Vancouver Canucks and the Winnipeg Jets were not scheduled.