West Seattle, Washington
18 Thursday
Two West Seattle Crime Watch notes:
GREEN CR-V STOLEN AGAIN: Last April, we published Sukie‘s report of a stolen green 2000 Honda CR-V, plate AHH9110. It was found. But now, less than three months later, it’s been stolen again – near 35th/Austin. Police report # is 23-195341.
SHOOTING VICTIM SHOWS UP: Early Saturday, we reported on confirmed gunfire in the 1900 block of Harbor Avenue SW. No victims or property damage were found at the scene – but an incident summary made available today notes, “While [police were] processing the scene, a victim with a non-life threatening (gunshot wound) to his hip arrived at a nearby hospital. Officers responded to the hospital to interview the victim.”
The report and photo were sent by Carlos:
My 2016 Kia Soul was stolen from West Seattle. WHITE KIA SOUL, plate number CFY 8219 It was stolen July 9th, 2023 [today]. Case number 23-193036. This car is used to drive special kids.
Carlos didn’t include a location but the police-call log indicates this was reported stolen in the 3000 block of Harbor SW. Thanks again to everyone whose sighting reports have helped find West Seattle neighbors’ stolen vehicles.
This time it’s the ampm store at 7301 Delridge Way SW – police are investigating a report of an armed robbery there. Early description of the robber is male, Black, late teens, covered face, all-black clothing, armed with a gun, got into a black SUV and left northbound. This is the fourth convenience-store robbery in West Seattle in the past nine days; the other three were at 7-11s.
Nicole reports her 2020 midnight blue Kia Forte was stolen last night or early today by Lowman Beach – “near the intersection of Lincoln Park Way and Beach Drive. Was parked out on the street there and window was broken with remnants of glass on the street. This has been reported to SPD but just wanted people to be careful if parking there while visiting the beach/Lincoln Park!” License plate is Illinois CT60292; SPD report #23-192134.
MONDAY UPDATE: Found, and Nicole says a suspect was arrested.
12:26 AM: Police are blocking Harbor Avenue SW by Salty’s on Alki (1936 Harbor SW; WSB sponsor) right now for a gunfire investigation. A 911 caller reported seeing someone who appeared to be shooting at cars in the area; police arrived and have reported finding both casings and “unfired rounds.”
12:52 AM: Harbor has reopened. Officers told dispatch they “recovered about 20 fired and unfired 9-millimeter casings.”
1:12 AM: Out on a separate gunfire call in North Delridge, officers told dispatch they’ve found “four shell (casings) in the 2600 block of SW Brandon.”
Two more reader reports in West Seattle Crime Watch:
STOLEN CAR TRASHED, PUSHED DOWN SLOPE: Lorelai‘s 2018 white Hyundai Elantra was stolen Wednesday night or early Thursday near Fauntleroy/Edmunds. This morning it was found about 25 feet down a slope by the Pee Wee baseball fields at Riverview Playfield. Here’s her photo of the car after it was towed out.
She knows how it got there because she found a social-media video showing her car being damaged by a burnout, then shoved down the slope. She adds, “There were also Texas license plates in my car (NSJ-7764)” when found. Any info? Police report number is 23-190153
PLATE AND LOCK LEFT BEHIND: Another incident involving discovery of an out-of-state plate – the photo is from T in Westwood:
T found those in the street after two sets of vehicles sped through their neighborhood – 27th SW between Thistle and Kenyon – this morning around 6:30 am. The first round, T says, involved a black SUV and silver sedan; after that, a dark sedan and white SUV. They called 911; the plate and lock were found later: “I am posting this in case the car descriptions ring a bell or license belongs to someone. Racing on 27th is very common but we have noticed an increase lately.”
For the third time in a week, a West Seattle 7-11 store has been held up. The 35th/Avalon 7-11 was robbed early this morning; last Friday morning, robbers hit the Harbor Avenue and Highland Park 7-11s. In this case, the 911 call came in around 5:20 am today. Archived audio shows officers reported that the robbers were described as Black men in their early 20s, wearing black clothing; a gun was “implied” but not seen. The robbers got away with cash, according to an SPD summary filed later. The dispatcher noted a similar description for the robbers in a holdup in the King County Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction an hour earlier.
Hyundai Elantras remain a popular target for car thieves, and Aimeé is looking for hers after it was stolen from an apartment-complex parking lot in the 6900 block of Delridge Way SW overnight. It’s a 2017 black Hyundai Elantra, license plate CCL2178, police report # 23-189708.
(WSB photos)
9:11 AM: Thanks for the tips. Police have closed 18th SW near the 7100 block [vicinity map] as they attempt to arrest someone who we are told is a suspect in a carjacking. The suspect is believed to be armed and at a particular residence. SWAT has been called in. Avoid the area.
9:47 AM: Going back through archived police-radio audio, the original incident was reported around 8:10 am as an attempted armed carjacking, nearby on 18th SW, with the would-be carjacker leaving the scene on foot.
10:25 AM: Not resolved yet. We’re continuing to monitor and will add updates when we have them.
10:54 AM: Just received video from an anonymous resident who says it shows the attempted carjacking – a grocery-delivery driver was dropping off the items when in the background, you see the person run up and get in the car. Though the video cuts off, the resident says the driver subsequently pulled the would-be carjacker out to keep him from stealing the car. (Video removed for now per request of the resident.)
11:10 AM: Police are closing off Dumar as well between 16th/Delridge.
12:43 PM: Still not resolved. Also of note, the road closures are rerouting Metro 128.
2:04 PM: Not resolved yet.
3:09 PM: Seventh hour.
4:14 PM: Eighth hour.
5:22 PM: They’ve declared the house “clear” – we’re going back over to verify. Meantime, what took all this time were the steps it took to get to that point. They had to get a view inside the house, which required breaking windows to get a drone inside. They also used various devices – from flashbangs to “pepper balls” and gas – with the aim of temporarily incapacitating anyone inside. The house has multiple levels, plus an attic/crawl space, so each of those levels took time to investigate. The SPD SWAT team was assisted by K-9s and by equipment from the King County Sheriff’s Office. Another time-consuming component is that a search warrant is required, so they have to get one drawn up and signed by a judge.
5:40 PM: Our crew has verified at the scene that no one was found in the house or its outbuildings. Streets in the area, including Dumar, have reopened.
(WSB/WCN photo from April 2021 crash scene)
Thanks for the tip. A South Delridge woman has pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide in the April 2021 crash that killed an Arbor Heights couple in North Burien. Court documents say Irene Plancarte-Bustos, now 28, was driving drunk, going over 60 mph, with her 3-yeqr-old son in her car, when she slammed into the car carrying 35-year-old Lauren Dupuis-Perez and 38-year-old Kamel Dupuis-Perez. The impact pushed their car into the path of a pickup truck whose driver couldn’t stop before also hitting it, and orphaned the Dupuis-Perezes’ two children. After the crash on the Ambaum Boulevard “S” curve, Plancarte-Bustos drove north a short distance to the Rainbow Mini-Mart, where officers found her. She’s been in jail ever since. In the agreement, in addition to the vehicular-homicide pleas, she pleaded guilty to one gross-misdemeanor count of hit-and-run, while two felony hit-run counts were dropped. She has no record and as part of the plea bargain, prosecutors are recommending the low end of the standard sentencing range, 8 1/2 years plus an extra year for the “enhancement” of having a child in the car. The final sentencing decision will be up to King County Superior Court Judge Averil Rothrock on July 14th. Family and friends have created this website as a tribute to the victims, their work, and their legacy.
(Photos sent by Jayson)
9:10 PM: Thanks for the tips and photos. Police are investigating gunfire at an apartment complex at Avalon/Genesee. 911 callers first reported hearing possible gunfire around 7:20 pm. Then they got reports of an apartment window ‘blown out” by someone firing from outside (above), and bullet damage to a car (below).
So far, we’re not hearing of any injuries, though there was an apparently unrelated assault call on SW Yancy nearby less than half an hour earlier. No word of a suspect description. Police did find casings on SW Genesee, in addition to the damage noted above.
9:50 PM: Police just got a call from someone reporting bullet damage to another apartment at the same complex and will be returning to the area.
WSB readers continue to spot stolen cars – maybe you’ll see this one. Erika‘s car was stolen on Friday:
I had my silver Kia Forte stolen between 4:15-5:30 pm on 6/30 right out of my driveway on 18th Ave SW.
License plate BZE3169. Incident report 23-183450. No witness saw the theft. This is the second time I had one of our Kias stolen in the afternoon in front of our house. If anyone sees it, please either text to 206-437-7521 or report to police.
Two West Seattle 7-11 stores were robbed early this morning, five miles and 21 minutes apart, likely by the same people. 911 first got a call around 4:29 am from a witness who said that from outside the Harbor Avenue 7-11 (2429 Harbor SW), he believed he saw the clerk being robbed. Police got there and confirmed that’s what happened. The incident summary says the three robbers held up the clerk at gunpoint and got away with cash, cigarettes, and beer. They were described as Black, male, wearing black and red masks, black hoodies, and one in sweatpants bearing a Chicago Bulls logo; the clerk said they left in a white car. Then at 4:50 am a 911 call came in reporting a robbery at gunpoint at the Highland Park 7-11 (1600 SW Holden), and police say the description was pretty much the same – with an added detail on the car: Nissan 4-door. Cash and cigarettes were taken in this holdup. If you have any information, the SPD incident numbers are 23-182672 for the Harbor Avenue robbery, 23-182682 for the one at 16th/Holden.
Sent by Mike:
Our truck was stolen last night from the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center parking lot [4408 Delridge Way SW] sometime between 10 pm last night and 8 am this morning. Plate C70273K. If anyone sees this truck, please let us know at thezombiemullins@ gmail.com or text to 513-313-0630.
ADDED: Further descriptive info from Mike, who says the truck belongs to his teenage son, who’s been working to restore it: “It’s a dark blue full size 2nd generation Dodge Ram 2500, with a rusty hood that also has a big dent in the front of the hood and a half-broken grill; it has an American flag sticker and a big Bass Pro Shops sticker on it.”
FRIDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Thanks to a reader tip, Mike and son got the truck back. It had been abandoned by the West Seattle Corporate Center in North Delridge.
Almost a year after Brett Forsell of Arbor Heights was arrested following an incident outside U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal‘s West Seattle home, Forsell pleaded guilty today to one count of a reduced charge, misdemeanor stalking. He was originally charged with felony stalking. We learned about today’s plea and sentencing hearing by finding newly filed court documents tonight. In a written statement, Forsell admits to harassing Rep. Jayapal “by repeatedly driving in front of her house, stopping my car, yelling at her house, and driving off late at night.” Prosecutors say that according to neighbors and security video, the yelling on the night of Forsell’s arrest included exhortations for her to “go back to India” and to kill herself. Forsell was armed with a semiautomatic handgun when arrested by police. The plea bargain documents say that after pleading guilty today, he was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Pro Tem Jennifer Atchison to 340 days in jail, all of which he was decreed to have already served (via a combination of jail and electronic home monitoring). Other conditions include an “anti-stalking order” protecting the victim that includes a prohibition on gun ownership for eight years, plus a requirement for mental health, alcohol, and drug evaluations. Forsell, 49, also will be on unsupervised probation for the next two years.
Two West Seattle Crime Watch notes:
STORAGE FACILITY BURGLARIES: A victim told us about break-ins reported at Life Storage in the Luna Park area last week and an apparent arrest. For details, we’ve obtained the police-report narrative. The call started as an employee reporting last Thursday that someone – not a customer – had been sleeping overnight at the facility for two nights, during which four separate units had been broken into and “rummaged through,” though it wasn’t clear what if anything had been taken. Video showed that the suspect had been coming and going via a valid code, though whose code or how the suspect got it wasn’t clear. Evidence was found of cut locks, including one in the suspect’s backpack. The 52-year-old suspect was arrested and booked into the King County Jail, and released one day later. He is not yet charged, but still could be at a later date.
ABANDONED-LIKELY-STOLEN BICYCLE: A texter found this abandoned bicycle in Highland Park:
If it might be yours, let us know and we’ll connect you with the finder.
(Added: Photo from Michael via comment upload)
9:21 AM: Police are investigating an early-morning shooting at an apartment in Highland Park. They were called just after 3:30 am for a report of a woman with gunshot wounds to the chest, back, and leg, in an apartment in the 8800 block of 9th SW. Officers’ early description of the shooter was “female, possibly known [to the victim]”; she reportedly entered the apartment and started shooting. We just checked with SPD; no arrest so far. The victim was taken to Harborview Medical Center. We’re following up with SFD on her condition – she was reported to be conscious.
10:36 AM: Further research indicates the victim is 32 years old and that the suspect was definitely someone known to her.
1:47 PM: SFD says the victim was in stable condition when taken to the hospital.
Thanks for the tips about a big police response around 8:30 pm at the Walgreens store in High Point. We were off-peninsula for tonight’s graduations so didn’t get there in time to talk with police, but according to archived audio, the store was robbed by a group described as teenagers in ski masks, at least one with a gun. They were reported to have gotten away with the register and “a lot of merchandise” including bottles of liquor. Given everything they got away with, police surmised they had a getaway vehicle somewhere nearby. If you have any information, the incident # is 23-180135.
From Miranda:
Our 1991 Isuzu Trooper was stolen yesterday in front of our house on Webster Street in Gatewood. We reported it to the police yesterday (report # 23-178845). But I’m hoping to get the word out on WSB to help find it. It’s dark blue and has a roof rack with white PVC pipe on the bars. Also has a peace-sign sticker in the back window. License plate # 812YNI
GUNFIRE INVESTIGATION: Police received several early-morning reports of possible gunfire in Puget Ridge and Highland Park. One was confirmed, reported around quarter till 4 am: At two locations in the 5400 block of 18th SW, officers found what they told dispatch totaled 10 shell casings. No injuries or property damage reported. They didn’t get a description of any person or vehicle involved, but if you have any video or other evidence, the case number is 23-179214.
SWAT ARREST FOLLOWUPS: On Sunday night, we reported on two SWAT standoffs that unfolded concurrently at two locations less than a mile apart, at residences on the 3600 block of Beach Drive SW and at Marine/Lander. Suspects were arrested in both and booked into King County Jail. Today, SPD released additional details on the Beach Drive incident, in which police say the 40-year-old suspect brandished a gun when harassing a neighbor over noise. (Police seized the gun and included a photo in their SPD Blotter post.) The suspect remains in jail in lieu of $1,000 bail. Meantime, the 44-year-old Marine/Lander suspect – accused of, per a police summary, “a domestic disturbance where the suspect threatened the victim with a handgun” – is out of jail after posting bond on $5,000 bail.
Thanks for the tips. We’re just back from Westcrest Park, where tow crews pulled a stolen Hyundai Elantra up from the park’s northeast slope.
Police told us the car was reported by a passerby. That happened to be Chris, who sent us this photo:
Chris reported spotting the car before 6 am: “Didn’t see any occupants but found it running and lots of windows broken. Looks like it came down from the top and crashed through the fence (and was) resting in a thicket of blackberries.” Chris also noted evidence of “donuts” in the big field on the park’s north end (atop the reservoir) – walking from the west parking lot, we noticed that too – a lot of it:
If you have any information, the SPD incident # is 23-179485.
9:42 PM: Thanks for the tips. Police, reportedly including SWAT, are at an apartment building in the 3600 block of Beach Drive SW. It all started with a report that a resident armed with a gun had threatened a neighbor around 7 pm. No injuries reported so far.
10:02 PM: Meantime, a separate incident at Alki has police blocking off an area near 59th/Lander. We’re not certain exactly what this is about, though there was a dispatch for a “fight with weapons” about half an hour ago.
10:14 PM: The Alki situation is also getting some SWAT officers. It reportedly involves domestic violence, and as with the other situation, a suspect reported to have a gun.
10:33 PM: Neither situation is resolved yet. The one near 59th/Lander is actually at a residence on Marine (east of 59th). SWAT remains at both scenes. If you’re near either, you may hear PA messages meant to encourage surrender, and possibly the “flashbang” type noise devices SWAT often uses.
10:50 PM: Officers have just told dispatch that the Beach Drive suspect is in custody, so some of the units that have been there are headed to the Marine/Lander standoff.
11:48 PM: The Marine/Lander situation is still ongoing. Officers have told dispatch they’re communicating with the suspect.
12:05 AM: Officers have told dispatch their suspect is in custody. They have a warrant to search the residence, which is what they’ll be doing next.
10:39 AM: Both suspects were booked into jail, we’ve confirmed. The Beach Drive suspect is a 49-year-old man held for investigation of felony harassment; the Marine/Lander suspect is a 44-year-old man held for investigation of assault and unlawful imprisonment.
TUESDAY: SPD has recapped the Beach Drive incident on SPD Blotter.
Three months after the West Seattle Bridge crash that ended two young lives, the driver charged with killing the two 18-year-old victims has been booked into jail. The King County Jail roster shows 36-year-old Delfino Lopez-Morales was booked Saturday, as was expected to happen as soon as he was released from the hospital. He is scheduled to appear in King County Superior Court tomorrow for arraignment on the charges filed against him three weeks ago – two counts of vehicular homicide and one count of reckless driving. Lopez-Morales’s bail is set at $250,000. Prosecutors say he was driving 100 mph, under the influence of alcohol and cannabis, going the wrong way on the westbound West Seattle Bridge, when he smashed into the car in which Khalea Thoeuk and Riley Danard, Snohomish County residents, were heading to Alki Beach in the early-morning hours of March 22nd. Before being booked into jail, Lopez-Morales was at Harborview Medical Center for more than a month and then, according to court documents, moved to rehab at UW Medical Center.
| Comments Off on WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Green CR-V stolen again; shooting victim shows up at hospital