He died Saturday in Seattle as a result of gunshot wounds. Justin Grant Unin Schwartz was born April 28, 1983, in Bethel, Alaska. She may be reached by e-mail at or by telephoning 807-8235. Decker covers law enforcement, local fire departments and the courts for The Chronicle. "I think I'd like people to know he was a well-loved child who found a place for himself dancing, and with his music, and with his computer skills," she said."He had a charismatic way about him, and we miss him dearly." "What I've learned since he died is he really flourished … he was quite a success story in the environment he was in," Debra said. The days continue to offer her new insight, from others who knew her son, she said. "I was like, my God, who knew?" Debra said. This week, as she slipped among the mourners keeping vigil at the blue house on Seattle's Capitol Hill, Debra came across a woman in her 50s, who mentioned Justin had been tutoring her in math. He studied Japanese, and was trying to find a way to go back and live in Japan for awhile, his mother said. Justin attended South Seattle Community College, and was active in student government. "He said he'd kept Justin's picture on his refrigerator for many years, he was so impressed," Ken said. Rabbi Ted Falcan, who oversaw Justin's funeral on Tuesday at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation's chapel in a north Seattle cemetery, recalled Justin's bar mitzvah speech as one he admired, Ken said. "At the end of the ceremony … he was a little absent-minded, he was 13," the grandfather said. At his bar mitzvah, Justin's ability to ad lib under pressure showed when he gave his speech, Ken said. His grandfather recalled that in high school, at about 112 pounds, Justin was tops in his division in wrestling, solid as a bull, Ken said. He loved music and dancing, and playing the piano. Justin's short life took him traveling to places such as Japan (while in the U.S. They'd parade him around their respective friends and whatever," she said. "When my mother was alive, she and my grandmother would take him like a week at a time. "That's also what attracted me to him then. "He just had the goofy smile as a kid, the twinkly eyes and charisma even as an infant," Debra said in a telephone interview on Thursday. Justin was proud of his Alaskan native heritage as a member of the small Cup'ik Tribe from Chevak, Alaska, according to his mother.Īs an infant, his photo was chosen as the cover page for the annual Seattle Children's Hospital calendar to raise money for sick children, his mother said. Among his extended family members with Lewis County links are his great-uncle Harold Schwartz, now in Palm Springs, Calif., and great-aunt Joanne Schwartz, a past county commissioner and current director of community services in Chehalis. He noted on his Web site if he had to die, he would like to be run over by the Batmobile.īut on Thursday, his family spoke mostly of the younger Justin. Justin was a small young man who friends recall wearing ear muffs on the dance floor. It's sort of like a fraternity or a lodge, he added. Rave participants' motto is peace, love, unity and respect, Ken said. The proprietor of downtown Chehalis Schwartz Men's Wear likened it to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury and flower children from the 1960s. The rave culture is all new to him, Ken said. His family is just now learning, from news reports and in other ways, that Justin was known well and admired more greatly than they recognized for his love of music and dancing in the Seattle "rave" scene. It was there he took on the nickname "Sushi," according to his family. Justin grew up in West Seattle, and graduated from a private school, the Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Mo. He was a "preemie," as was his twin brother, who was adopted by another family. Debra, a nurse, adopted Justin when he was 1, while she was working in Alaska. Justin's mother, Debra Schwartz, and her brother and sister all grew up in Chehalis, graduating from W.F. "It's a case of him being at the wrong place at the wrong time," he said. On Thursday afternoon, the 73-year-old Ken Schwartz sat in his downtown Chehalis office, smoking a cigarette, and spoke of his 22-year-old grandson. While young members of the rave community have mourned the deaths from Saturday morning, families of those killed, too, have been trying to make sense of the losses. Within 10 minutes, a telephone call from his daughter told him that her son, his grandson, Justin Grant Unin Schwartz, was among the dead. He read a small item about six young partygoers gunned down at a Seattle house the day before, and said out loud, "the bastard." Chehalis resident Ken Schwartz had just gotten off a cruise ship and picked up the Sunday newspaper over breakfast in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
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