Man Beaten to Death After Kenny Chesney Concert, Suspect At Large
A father of two is dead, and Seattle police are looking for the killer in an altercation that occurred right after the Kenny Chesney concert in Seattle at CenturyLink Field Saturday (6-27) night.
According to witnesses, two men were seen fighting at around 9 p.m. near 5th Avenue and S. Weller Street in Seattle, and 31-year-old Benito “Benny” Enriquez suffered a head injury during the fight, later dying from his injuries at Harborview Medical Center. Seattle police are looking for the suspect in the death, and have release a photo to the public, describing him as a Hispanic, Middle-Eastern or Pacific Islander in his 20’s who is 5 feet 11 inches-to-6 feet 1 inch tall and a medium-to-stocky build. He was wearing a black and white trucker-style cap, and a white V-neck T-shirt and black shorts.
A friend of Benny Enriquez named Joey Smith was at the Kenny Chesney concert with the victim on Saturday. He says Benny went to purchase T-shirts for his daughter, and was planning to meet back up with him. “He went to go meet us at the car,” Smith told King 5 in Seattle. “So we made our way back and we saw the police activity and the road shut down and I said ‘This isn’t good,’ because he wasn’t there waiting for us. He didn’t even have a pulse on the sidewalk when the medics showed up.”
The suspect was also with a white woman at the time of the killing who is said to be in her 20’s, 5 feet 8 inches tall with a medium build and possibly pregnant. She has long, straight blonde hair, and was wearing a red, pink and white-patterned dress, carrying a shoulder bag. They were last seen walking eastbound on South Weller Street after the assault.
“At first I didn’t want to go on myself because we’re that tight but now I realize I need to be strong for my granddaughters,” says Christina Enriquez, the mother of the victim Benny Enriquez. “He was an immovable rock and he was a rock to me . . . I just can’t understand it, because all we’ve ever been raised in is love and compassion and supporting one another. Who could do that to another person?”
Benny Enriquez was the father two girls, Mia, 6, and Ava, 8, and worked as a nurse for the disabled. Individuals with information on the identity of the suspect or the woman he is with are asked to call the Seattle Police homicide tip-line at (206) 233-5000.
June 29, 2015 @ 2:09 pm
couldn’t you at least have a less sensational headline? One that says OUTISDE of the concert. This happened not AT the concert but AFTER the concert. I know that’ll induce clicks but I thought you were better than TMZ and Gawkr.
June 29, 2015 @ 2:56 pm
Just changed “at” to “after.” But the fact still remains, the Kenny Chesney concert is where this occurred. That doesn’t mean it’s Kenny Chesney’s fault, and I would caution folks from drawing those conclusions. But it is yet another piece of evidence at the growing amount of violence at (or near) mainstream country concerts. Two deaths already, both from violent acts, and counting.
June 29, 2015 @ 6:00 pm
Of course not. It was just misleading. Its just gotta be a coincidence that this happened. After all similar stuff (at least violent assaults) happened at baseball stadiums a few years back.
The victim’s family will likely sue the city of Seattle, the Seahawks, Kenny Chesney and whomever else they can because of this.
June 29, 2015 @ 2:34 pm
Sick, just sick. You know we can bitch about Sam Hunt, and FGL, and Thomas Rhett and all of them all day long, but for me THIS shit is the reason I’m fed up with country (well, the mainstream). Every fucking year there’s multiple concerts in where someone is either assaulted, raped, killed or hell, all of the above. I remember last year when Trigger had headlines, it seemed every week on tragedies that happened at these concerts. I don’t fault Kenny Chesney for this incident, and in general I don’t fault any of the artists (well, some, but that’s another story). I just so frustrated when I hear about stuff like this. Sure it may have been AFTER the concert, but what does that matter? From the looks of things we don’t know the specifics of the event. The suspect could have fought the father because he was drunk. Who knows? That’s what all of these concerts have turned into drunken free-for-alls. I don’t know what the fuck happened to the genre I love, but I hate that it’s turned into a haven for assholes like this who harm innocent people.
The saddest part? It doesn’t end here, this is only the beginning of the many unfortunate stories I’ll read this year, and what’s even worse is that this might not even be the sickest one. My thoughts and prayers go out to the victim’s family.
June 29, 2015 @ 7:54 pm
Oh for crissakes pipe down with the hysterics. The victim was sober and the assault happened down the street from the concert and there’s no evidence that the suspect was even said concert to being with.
Every year hundreds of thousands of people go to country shows.. so it stands to reason that a few incidents will happen.. and THIS incident didn’t even happen at the show! Boo frikin whoo. Just ratchet down the feigned outrage that is more about crappy bro country than any pervasive violence/alcohol problem at country shows.
June 29, 2015 @ 8:14 pm
I never said the victim was or wasn’t sober, I was just giving my guess as to what might have happened, since we still don’t know for sure. And what the hell does it matter when this incident occurred? Point is it did, and I’m not blaming Chesney for any of this at all, this unfortunately would’ve happened with any artist I believe. The point is is that these types of incidents didn’t used to be prevalent at country shows, and the increase in them over the years is getting be a scary and serious concern. Again, we don’t know how or why it happened, but excuse me if I find it heartbreaking when a man whose only intent was to bring his daughter back a souvenir from the show ends up dead instead. You can mock me and say “boohoo” all you want. These incidents are serious, and I don’t know how or why we got here to where you had to watch out for yourself at a country show.
June 29, 2015 @ 3:23 pm
; __ ;
June 29, 2015 @ 3:48 pm
At some point, they’re gonna have to start banning alcohol on these shows (not that I’m blaming this incident on it mostly because I think he looks perfectly sober). I understand people look at concerts as a chance to unwind and have a good time and think having a Miller Light or some shit will enhance that good time. But I’m sorry if we got people being raped, robbed, and now MURDERED it’s time to take a fucking stand and not have alcohol whatsoever for the safety of the concert-goers who go there for the music.
I know that there might be backlashes if that were to happen, but I’ll tell you this, if I were a big star like Chesney, Brooks, or Strait or hell even Aldean, not only would I ban alcohol in my shows I would tell the pissed off crowd “You don’t like it, don’t come to my show.”
June 29, 2015 @ 5:57 pm
To be fair, we don’t know if alcohol played a factor is this case. It could have been someone high on drugs or even as simple, sadly as the killer thought this guy looked at him or someone around him wrong and is a total psycho.
To your point though, I do agree that alcohol needs to be addressed at these shows. To me, banning it at concerts takes it a step beyond what I would like to see. Plenty of people probably have a couple beers and that’s it and everything turns out fine.
To me, what needs to be cut down is the “pre-party” at the parking lots of these venues. Just ban alcohol in the parking lot. That way people could still drink, inside the venue, but they would “only” have a 2-3 hour window to drink rather than the all day window they currently have when they tailgate at these shows.
June 30, 2015 @ 4:36 am
Gillette Stadium has a time limit in the parking lots. Several years ago, two underage girls were drinking in the parking lots all day, and didnt have tickets to the show. Well after the show started, police came through and sent everyone who wasnt going into the show on their way. Three girls who were kicked out hit a tree about a mile down the road and died. Now the lots open only 3-4 hours before a show, you need to show your tickets (well, theyre supposed to ask for them – but I’ve never been asked) when pulling into the lots, and now the police come around after the show has started and tell you to pack it up and go inside. There are state police everywhere – and even state police helicopters frequently flying low over the parking lots. And somehow, even with the heavy police presence, you still see people stumbling around, vomiting, falling down, eyes half closed (and many looking underaged!)
June 30, 2015 @ 4:57 am
A large part of this is people sneak stuff in, but also a lot of the security and stadium personnel really dont give a crap about their jobs and just want the event to be over with so they can get paid. Chances are most of them don’t make much money, so I cant blame them for not wanting to confront drunken idiots in the parking lot.
I think the overlying theme with all of these incidents is that a ton of factors are at work here. The content of modern Country music attracts a certain kind of fan now, probably more than ever in the genre’s history, that fan being young people who want to party hard. Combine this with the high cost of tickets which leads to people wanting to party even harder to “get their dollars worth” along with our society as a whole just accepting this behavior as the new normal.
I thought the beating of Bryan Stow would change things at venues, I also thought the falls and serious injuries/deaths by drunken fans at NFL games would change things. It hasnt, so sadly I doubt anything will happen spinning out of this.
At this point I am convinced it will take a European Soccer stadium incident where a mass of people is injured or sadly worse, to force any changes.
June 30, 2015 @ 6:38 am
Beer sales a re a huge part of a mainstream country concert’s revenue. It’s like the popcorn and Twizzlers at a movie. The only time any of the promoters, venues, or artists will do anything about behavior at concerts is if it starts to affect their bottom line. In the meantime, the incentive is to NOT do anything about it, because right now they’re all getting rich.
June 30, 2015 @ 11:49 am
That’s because, for one thing, 3-4 hours is plenty of time to tie a good one on, especially in this era where binge drinking is the rule rather than the exception.
Plus you’ve got to understand how it works in this day and age. First you meet at someone’s house to get a buzz on. Then you head to a bar to build that buzz a little so that you’re well on your way to a good time before you even get to the parking lot party. And once there you have to make the rounds so that you can sample some of everyone’s homemade concoction.
So, yeah, it doesn’t surprise me that people are stumbling around and throwing up by the time the cops clear the lot.
June 29, 2015 @ 6:20 pm
I don’t really want to go anymore concerts.
June 30, 2015 @ 8:17 am
In the summer, we have these festivals with 4 or 5 acts, so even without the tailgating, people are in the venue for 5 to 7 hours. That’s a long time to drink! You’d think that having to pay 8 to 10 bucks for a crappy Bud Light would slow people down a bit, but that’s not always the case. There is no way the beer companies or the venues are going to ban alcohol at shows, and it wouldn’t be fair anyway to people who can drink safely. Maybe a better idea would be: 1)cut down on the tailgating and 2)limit the number of drinks.
June 30, 2015 @ 8:35 am
For many venues, not just mainstream, alcohol sales are the only profit.
June 30, 2015 @ 9:06 am
The glorification of alcohol in modern country does bother me sometimes, especially when it seems like it’s coming from a thoughtless or inauthentic (unauthentic?) place. Like Brantley Gilbert, who released Bottoms Up two years after he allegedly quit drinking. And Brad Paisley, whom I love and whose guitar playing I will listen to any day of the week. I don’t understand what a non-drinker is doing singing all of these songs about getting wasted. Let alone having a full bar on stage? It’s not just inauthentic – it feels condescending.
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June 30, 2015 @ 10:00 am
[…] Man beaten to death after Kenny Chesney show in Seattle. Unidentified suspect still at large. […]
June 30, 2015 @ 10:28 am
This is certainly sad.
I don’t go to these types of shows or listen to musicians like Kenny Chesney, who is from my hometown of Knoxville.
It sure does seem like these big shows foster an atmosphere of hell-raising to the point of violence.
I go to quite a few NASCAR races and almost never even see a fight.
And it is interesting that these same types of incidents don’t seem to happen much at Bonnaroo, about a 100 miles from me.
I think that some of these musicians try to sell an “anything goes” mindset.
July 29, 2015 @ 11:23 am
Not saying alcohol deserves no blame here, but banning booze or limiting drinks? Cmon. Punishing everyone for the actions of a few rarely works and the bottom line the real issue here is personal responsibility. Lets quit blaming beer and blame it on the idiots who commit these actions.