Four weeks after his August 6th arrest for allegedly stealing a truck on Alki and then using it to ram two cars – one a Seattle Police cruiser – 23-year-old Donald M. Plute is back in jail. (Thanks to commenter Tophat Topcat for the tip!) You might recall that Plute spent only one day in jail because, as reported here August 8th, a judge ruled there wasn’t enough probable cause to hold him. Compounding matters, a warrant for his arrest in another case was issued the day of that ruling – but it didn’t show up in the system until after Plute was released from jail.

On August 16th, prosecutors charged him in the truck theft/ramming case, and a $250,000 warrant was issued – but that was just a piece of paper until he could be taken into custody again, which happened sometime yesterday. We don’t have any information on circumstances of his arrest, but Plute is jailed in lieu of $260,000 bail – the quarter-million for the August 6th incident, and $10,000 for the other warrant. We’ve obtained court documents from that case, which involves an incident in White Center one year ago today, in which a King County Sheriff’s Office deputy tried to stop Plute after he allegedly ran a stop sign on his motorcycle at high speed, without a helmet. The documents say he ditched the bike and bolted; when the deputy caught up with him, he wrote, Plute advanced toward him with clenched fists, and was subdued with a Taser. The charges in that case are reckless driving and failure to obey a police officer. He’s due back in court on September 11th. (WSB photo above is from Plute’s arrest in Gatewood on August 6th)

Two stolen-vehicle reports to share – first, from Jacob:

I had my green 1995 Acura Integra stolen from in front of my house on 41st and Kenyon in Gatewood overnight. It is a four door vehicle with a baby seat in the back.

Second, Kristine is hoping you might be able to help her find her stolen truck:

It was stolen from the 2000 block of Alki. It is a forest-green Chevrolet Z71. The year is 1998. The front license plate has a Seahawks cover on it.

If you see either vehicle, or have any related information, call 911.

(Wednesday night photo by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
4:35 PM: Here’s the latest in the case of the three robbery suspects arrested in Arbor Heights late Wednesday night: Bail for each suspect is now set at $250,000, according to the King County Jail Register. We’re waiting for probable-cause documents from this afternoon’s bail hearing to come in from the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, and will add details when the info comes in. The three were arrested when police pulled over the car shown in our photo above, about half a mile north of 35th and 104th, where a woman had been held up on the street and robbed of her purse. Police then said yesterday they believe the three, ages 19, 21, and 22, were involved in two other crimes Wednesday night – an attack on a man by the Fauntleroy ferry dock, and one outside West Seattle – and that they may be responsible for some of the other recent street robberies around the city.

5:04 PM UPDATE: The documents are in. Here are some of the toplines as we read through:
-None of the suspects has a West Seattle address; the addresses listed for them are in Boulevard Park, the Central District, and First Hill
-What police found inside the car included a handgun, a purse (believed to belong to the Arbor Heights robbery victim), and “several cell phones”
-The three confessed to involvement in the three incidents Wednesday night

There is no additional information about possible criminal histories, but the jail register shows that the 21-year-old suspect from First Hill spent a day and a half in the county jail in June for a case described as shoplifting and harassment.

In West Seattle Crime Watch notes tonight:

ROBBERY SUSPECTS: First, an update on the three men whose arrests we covered late last night in Arbor Heights, believed linked to other crimes around the city: They were not booked into jail until midday today, so their bail hearing isn’t until tomorrow afternoon. We haven’t turned up any information on criminal records yet, but the authorities have access to more tools than we do, so we should find out something definitive when probable-cause paperwork is available tomorrow.

BUSY DAY FOR BURGLARIES: The SPD map, tweets, and scanner traffic total up to (at least) eight burglaries reported in West Seattle today, more than three times the average:

Read More

(WSB photo from 48th/Findlay arrest scene last February)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Half a year ago, you might recall the saga of what appeared to be a one-man burglary wave – 25-year-old Justin Wood, arrested twice, for two burglaries, one week apart, while he was already facing prosecution for another, and then confessing to more than 20 more break-ins. Wood’s bail eventually was set at an extraordinarily high amount for a “nonviolent criminal” – half a million dollars.

We lost track of Wood’s case until a WSB’er’s note last night informing us he had pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. So we dug up the court documents to find out more about the plea bargain struck in this case:

Last Thursday, Wood pleaded guilty to seven counts of residential burglary, one count of attempted residential burglary, and two counts of theft of a firearm, from incidents between September of last year and February of this year, all at residences in West Seattle. The burglaries to which he has confessed happened all over the peninsula, from North Admiral to Westwood, according to addresses and summaries in the court documents, which say some loot was recovered, but a lot was pawned, apparently so Wood could feed a heroin habit. He was found in possession of heroin during one of his final arrests back in February. Some of the burglaries were committed while he was out on personal recognizance after a December arrest for a November burglary last year.

Documents show the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office plans to recommend a variety of concurrent sentences that, if the judge agrees, will add up to 8 1/2 years total. Wood’s sentencing is scheduled for October. He’s been back in jail six months as of tomorrow, with his bail still at that half-million-dollar level set shortly after he went back in.

Be on the lookout for his van full of work tools, stolen from the Westwood Village area. It’s a white 1995 Econoline utility van, no back or side windows, two ladder racks that – at least at the time of the theft – carried two yellow ladders. License plates are Washington B88338H; there’s no signage on the van, the owner says, but there’s a “crease in the back passenger side corner panel.” It was taken sometime between 10 pm Monday and 6 am Tuesday near 24th and Barton (map), and has been reported to Seattle Police, so if you see it or have information about it, call 911 (as SPD advises in its tweets about this and all stolen vehicles).

Two robbers and two victims in a holdup late Tuesday night: We heard fragments of this via the scanner, and now we’ve heard directly from one victim, whose name we’ll abbreviate to “M.” He wrote, “My friend and I were robbed by two armed men at gunpoint; they asked for our phones. It took place on California and Ferry [map] at around 10:45 pm; be careful and be on the lookout.” He says the robbers approached from behind, “displayed their weapon and said ‘this is a stickup,” then walked us down the hill far enough to be in the shadow, and took our things.” He described one as Hispanic, 5’8″, in a gray hoodie, the other African-American, 5’10”, in a “purple Husky hoodie,” both male, both wearing shorts. Last we heard on the scanner, poilce hadn’t found the robbers, but we’ll doublecheck later this morning.

4:54 AM: Commenter Eric asked about a recap of other recent armed street robberies. Checking our files and the SPD map (which only has a “robberies” category, so note that not all incidents showing with that icon are holdups like this):

–Monday night (August 18th), 5800 block of SW Lander (no details online, will check with SPD)
–Thursday morning (August 15th), 2600 block of SW Thistle, knifepoint holdup, phone stolen, arrest made when phone tracked by GPS (23-year-old suspect Tyler Lambert has been charged and is still in jail)
–August 3rd, 30th and Myrtle (this case and the next one were both covered in this story)
–August 1st, 5200 block 16th SW

ADDED: We procured the Monday night Alki robbery report from SPD, as noted in comments. The report says it happened at Whale Tail Park just before 6 pm Monday; the victim was listening to music on his iPhone when he was approached by three people (no descriptions are included in the section of the report we received, except that one was female). One of them asked the victim if they could use his phone to make a phone call. The victim handed over his phone, and the robber/thief said “it’s mine now.” While he did not display a gun or say he had one, the report says the victim said he had reason to believe he did. The three then ran southbound from the park; the victim went to a friend’s home nearby and called his mom, who called 911 an unspecified time later, after she and her son drove around looking for the robbers. No injuries reported.

Following up on our Monday report about the attack on a WSDOT worker posting notices in the 9500 block of Myers Way (map): 36-year-old Matthew Hadley is now charged with second-degree assault. The court documents include the same narrative we reported here yesterday (follow the “Monday report” link above) – with one additional detail: The suspect’s weapon was a folding knife with a three-and-a-half-inch blade. So far, the jail register indicates Hadley’s bail on the assault charge remains at $10,000, but he is also being held on a no-bail federal warrant dated this past May, issued for an unspecified weapons offense. Court documents say that’s the only criminal history prosecutors have found for Hadley, so far.

10:44 AM: Bail is set at $10,000 for the man arrested for allegedly stabbing a state worker at an encampment site in the 9500 block of Myers Way (map) last Friday – and it turns out, there’s a federal warrant out for his arrest. The victim, who was not seriously injured and declined treatment at the scene, was posting 72-hour eviction notices at the site along with a colleague, according to the Seattle Police report we obtained today:

… They noticed that (the suspect) was sleeping under a tarp or blanket. (Worker) said, “Good morning, it’s time to leave the property.” (Suspect) stood up and told (worker) that he was trespassing. (Worker) told Hadley that he was actually the one trespassing. (Suspect) pulled a knife and lunged at (worker), cutting him in the chest. (Worker) quickly grabbed a branch to try to keep distance between himself and (suspect …. who) grabbed a bigger branch. (The workers) retreated to their work truck and called the police. (The suspect) walked out of the state-owned property he was camping on at the same time (an officer) arrived at the scene.

However, the suspect didn’t surrender quietly, according to the report; he ignored the officer’s orders and walked across Myers Way, then running southbound, with the officer driving behind him for about two blocks until the suspect stopped again, at which time the officer took away his knife, and took him into custody. The subsequent check of the suspect’s record turned up the federal warrant for what’s described only as a weapons offense, with “full extradition.” We’re following up on that as well as on the status of the “encampment” site and the injured worker, and will add any additional information we get.

12:33 PM UPDATE: Just talked with Bart Treece of WSDOT, who says the worker who was attacked is fine – they did talk him into getting checked out at a hospital, eventually; the wound was described as a “nick.” These are workers from the WSDOT’s maintenance division, who do everything from roadway repair to plowing snow to something like this. And while they have been threatened before, Treece says this is the first known actual attack on a WSDOT worker while posting or clearing this type of site.

The “Myers Way woods” area has to be posted relatively often, Treece told WSB in a phone conversation. Typically, that’s followed by a cleanup, usually done with assistance of work crews from the Department of Corrections; in this case, that’ll likely be done sometime later this week. It’s WSDOT property because it’s right-of-way for Highway 509, immediately east, and it’s a safety issue, he emphasized, in making sure people don’t camp there. In the general West Seattle vicinity, besides Myers Way, Treece says, the 1st Avenue South Bridge area requires postings and cleanup relatively often. That costs hundreds of thousands a year at sites like this around the state, according to Treece, money WSDOT would rather spend on the roads.

Two car crimes in West Seattle Crime Watch today – both happen to be from WSB readers named Cheryl, coincidentally: First, a stolen SUV:

My mom’s car was stolen early this morning from 7300 block of 30th Ave SW [map] and I wanted to see if we could get it on the blog to hopefully track it down. It’s a 2000 Red Jeep Cherokee Sport/Freedom Lic Plate #ABJ5598. … The police came out and we filed a report General Offense #13-297919.

One clue – a bumper sticker for Twilight Artist Collective.

Next, a car prowl (Seattle’s most-common crime, says SPD) in Arbor Heights, in the 10000 block of Marine View Drive (map):

I wanted to let you and your readers know that my car was prowled last night, in my driveway. My stereo was stolen and the dash is all torn up, items were stolen from the glove box (paperwork and whatnot), and a dark teal Eagle Creek backpack full of my son’s clothes from camp was stolen. I know there has been a rash of car prowls in the neighborhood recently but I felt safe because my car is parked to far off the road. Not the case.

There’s no car-prowl wave shown in that area on the Seattle Police crime map, which – since we’ve long noted it’s not a perfect representation of everything happening – might be a glitch, but if anyone who’s been hit has NOT filed a report, please do, for reasons from increasing the possibility you’ll get your stuff back if it gets recovered, to increasing the possibility of patrols as SPD moves more and more into a data-driven world. You can even report car prowls online.

Starting to get a resurgence of gas-siphoning reports – here’s one out of the inbox tonight from Andre:

Gas was stolen from our car using the drain plug on the bottom of our gas tank. Our car was parked on the street on 20th Ave SW between Cambridge and Barton.

Remember that if you see suspicious activity happening NOW, potentially a crime, don’t hesitate to call 911.

(August 6th photos by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
Donald Maxwell Plute is now charged in connection with the pickup theft and car-ramming incident that unfolded across the peninsula a week and a half ago. And his bail in this case alone will start at $250,000 – if police can find and arrest him.

Plute is the 23-year-old Top Hat man who was let out of jail the day after his arrest last week as first reported here, because District Court Judge Johanna Bender didn’t find “probable cause” to hold him. Compounding matters at the time, a warrant for his arrest was issued the same day, related to another case, but somehow it wasn’t brought to the judge’s attention. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office told WSB at the time that charges still might be filed – and today, indeed, they have been.

Plute is now charged with first-degree robbery, two counts of second-degree assault, and attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle. As we reported during and after it all happened on August 6th, the pickup truck he is accused of stealing from outside Cactus on Alki was pursued by an Audi containing two men including the pickup’s owner. While calling 911, they followed the pickup to Upper Alki, where it reverse-rammed the car, then took off. It was spotted again in Morgan Junction, where a police car pursuing it was also reverse-rammed on southbound California just south of Fauntleroy. The pickup was ditched nearby in Gatewood and Plute was arrested hiding under a deck at a nearby home.

The charging document filed today says that evidence developed since last week includes fingerprints from a phone that was in the pickup when it was stolen, as well as witness identification of Plute. The documents also say Plute has had five warrants out for his arrest in the past three years, with convictions including hit-and-run and another case of attempting to elude police; his record goes back to age 15, with juvenile convictions including theft, assault, car prowl, and possession of a stolen vehicle. The charging documents tell the tale of many citizen witnesses who spotted the suspect on the run in Gatewood and also note that the damage to the police car alone will cost more than $11,000 to fix. Again, Plute is now charged, but is not in custody; if and when he’s arrested, $260,000 in warrants are out for him.

ADDED 1:38 AM: Went back through our photo archives and found a full-face photo we took at the arrest scene after Plute was taken out of a patrol car to be checked out by arriving firefighter/medics summoned when he complained of pain.

According to a close-up view on the Facebook page a commenter mentioned, the neck tattoo says “FEAR ME.”

From Jamie: “On August 14th a 20′ U-Haul van containing ALL of a newly stationed Coast Guard member’s belongings was stolen from SW Hudson and 38th Ave SW. The license plate of the van is Arizona AE28808. Hopefully it will be recovered somewhere with a few of the person’s belongings inside.” If you see it – or have any information – call police.

Seattle Police say no one’s been arrested yet in connection with a stabbing early this morning at what they describe as a “transient camp” beneath the Delridge Way offramp from the bridge. Via SPD Blotter, they report that Port of Seattle Police were first called to the parking lot of the Chelan Café around 2 am, but when it was determined the attack had happened at the “camp” across the street, SPD took over. The man who was stabbed says he was asleep under the offramp and woke up to discover a man he knows only as “Lazarus” was stabbing him. He was taken to the hospital (the call is on the 911 log as a “medic response,” not “assault with weapons”) and is expected to survive.

Following up on last month’s deadly rollover at Delridge/Kenyon: The allegedly drunk pickup driver, 43-year-old William K. Edmon, was in court today and pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide and reckless-endangerment charges. Michael Fisher, also 43, died after being thrown from the back of the pickup Edmon was driving when it rolled after running a red light clipping an SUV late the night of July 27th. As reported here and elsewhere, Edmon was driving without a valid license – as had happened at least 13 times before, according to his long record, which also includes two DUI convictions. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office says the judge is keeping Edmon’s bail at $1 million; his next hearing is tentatively scheduled for August 29th.

Three reader reports in West Seattle Crime Watch – two about thefts, with a request that you be on the lookout for the stolen items; third, what might have been a car-theft attempt.

First, from Becca:

We just had a bunch of stuff stolen from our house … and the most important things were a camera (Samsung) and two Apple Computers that had a lot of baby pictures from our child’s first year. I don’t care how they come back, but I would love to get the pics. I don’t even need the computers, but the pictures are really important to me.

If anyone buys a computer or camera from Craigslist or a pawn shop or anything like that, no questions asked, send it anonymously or however, but please consider giving me back my pics of my kid.

From Danielle:

My husband just recently bought a brand new Prodeco Genesis electric bike as a means of transportation to/from work (he is in the military). He locked it up Thursday night after work in the bike room of our secured access garage at our apartment complex. He didn’t need it for the rest of the weekend until (Monday) night when we went to the bike room to grab the bike (we had just gotten a new rack for our car) and noticed it was gone. He had secured and chained the bike in the bike room Thursday night and it was stolen at some point this past weekend. We are not sure if this was an act of someone in the apartment building or someone sneaking through the garage gate from the outside street while it was open letting a car in/out. Again, the bike is a brand new Prodeco Genesis electric bike (silver in color with black fenders). It may be easy to spot because of the large battery pack on the pack of the bike. He also had 2 stickers on the bike, one was from a band called “Being as an ocean” and the other from a band called “Heart to Heart.” The bike was stolen from the Residences at 3295 (intersection of Avalon Way and 35th Ave SW in West Seattle).

And from a Subaru Forester owner who didn’t want to be identified – they discovered a theft (or break-in) attempt that happened at 47th/Admiral early Saturday evening:

At 8:30 pm I went out to my car and saw that the driver’s-side lock had been what looked to me like drilled or hammered. There was a small scratch on the body. Must have been scared off by people, it was still light and kids playing at the house next door.

If you have information on any of the above – or any other crime – contact police.

(2:34 PM NOTE: Briefing’s over now. Will replace the screengrab below with archived video when available)

2:04 PM: City and county officials are presenting a briefing on this morning’s shooting incident downtown (see our earlier coverage here), and the live video above is courtesy of Seattle Channel. We’ll update this with new-info toplines as it goes. **Click the “play” button for the live video.**

County Executive Dow Constantine begins with “commend(ations)” for both drivers involved this morning. And: “Metro is safe,” he insists. “This was an isolated incident. It happened on a Metro bus but (it could have happened almost anywhere) … (and) there are a lot of people out there with guns who shouldn’t have them. The safety of our drivers and our passengers is always our first priority.” He says he met with the injured driver, who wasn’t only “awake and alert” but was “in good spirits … and asked almost immediately, ‘how are (his) passengers?’ That is the kind of dedicated public servant we so appreciate.” He also expresses appreciation for the second driver, the Route 120 driver, who dealt with the suspect trying to “commandeer his bus” before police intervened.

2:07 PM: Mayor McGinn speaks briefly and turns it over to Seattle Police Interim Chief Jim Pugel. He offers this chronology:
–At 8:48 am, the 1st bus was southbound on 3rd Avenue near Union/University. 3 people boarded, were asked to pay, 2 exited, 1 did not, “began pacing back and forth in bus, made his way up to the operator … then physically assaulted the driver and then shot him at least twice.” People were fleeing the bus yelling “He’s got a gun.” Two officers were nearby. One rushed to help, one rushed to seek the suspect, who still had a revolver in sight, and was on the run, and “according to witnesses, turned and pointed the gun at officers several times. … The suspect continued southbound on 2nd Avenue toward Seneca Street … tried to get into (two other vehicles) … eventually engaged a Metro bus that had passengers on it and was coming up the hill .. at SW corner of Seneca/2nd … somehow the door came open, the suspect got on the bus, several people got off …” Other officers, including an assistant chief, were in the area, gave verbal orders, the suspect raised his gun once, was shot, raised it again, was shot again. Seven minutes elapsed between the first call and the end of the incident, says Chief Pugel, “which is phenomenal.”

Two passengers on the second bus (the Route 120 bus) suffered minor injuries but no one besides the first driver and the suspect were hit by gunfire, says Chief Pugel.

“Today was a day when one of our drivers unfortunately met an individual who clearly should not have been there, with that weapon, and we at some point collectively failed to pick up that danger … It’s not a transit issue,” says Constantine now, reiterating, “It’s not a transit issue. Transit is safe … I hope next time you board a bus that you will take a moment to thank your Metro driver.”

2:15 PM: They’re taking Q/A now. Chief Pugel is not confirming one TV station’s ID of the suspect, who has a significant background, but not ruling it out either. He says Nick Metz is the assistant chief who was in the area and joined in the “chase.” What about security on buses? County Executive Constantine is asked. He recalls the 2010 assault on a Metro driver (a West Seattle resident) and talks about ways they worked with the transit union on safety procedures since then, and a resulting decline in assaults on drivers. (A union rep is at the briefing, but so far has not spoken.) “We safely deliver millions of people per week to their destinations without incident,” Constantine reiterates. A Transit Police (part of the King County Sheriff’s Office) rep comments on this too, saying that several of their personnel got there fast. Regarding the alleged fare refusal that preceded this, he says that drivers are asked to request fares – but not engage beyond that.

2:23 PM: Is there video from either bus? Potentially, says Chief Pugel. They’re checking people’s phone video, too. Next, Mayor McGinn is asked about the recent call for more police downtown because of other violence. He reiterates that two police officers were “right on the scene when this occurred,” but says they’re evaluating the overall situation. Executive Constantine says he’s not going public with the 64-year-old, 14-year-veteran shot driver’s name until hearing from the driver’s wife that enough of their family has been told, that it’s OK to go public. Back to driver safety, he notes the request for enclosing drivers, and says the drivers themselves considered them more of an impediment to their job than protection. The transit union rep, president Paul Bachtel, now speaks and says the enclosures were tested multiple times in the past, with 300 operators surveyed after testing 30 shields. The union executive board rejected them for reasons including glare, a change in relationship between drivers and passengers, feedback from other agencies that had tried them. He also reiterates that operators are told to only ask for the fare once, and some, if they feel it’s unsafe, don’t do that at all.

Executive Constantine repeats that drivers are all “a bit shaken up today … so your kind words will mean a lot to them.” And at 2:29 pm, the briefing is over.

2:34 PM NOTE: Though traffic conditions weren’t discussed in the briefing, the latest from Metro is: “Buses traveling into Seattle on NB Alaskan Way Viaduct rerouted via 3rd Ave w/ no stop on Seneca west of 3rd. SB viaduct buses are OK.” And: “Buses still rerouted off 2nd Ave between Stewart & Spring. Board/exit all 2nd Ave routes at regular stops N of Stewart, E of 3rd or S of Spring.”

3:01 PM UPDATE: And now from Metro: “Most transit service has resumed normal operations.” They will have additional updates here throughout the PM commute.

4:27 PM UPDATE: Just tweeted by SPD: “Streets reopened downtown. 2nd Ave still closed between Spring and University but should be opening shortly.”

4:53 PM UPDATE: SPD has now confirmed that the suspect has died. Also, the Seattle Times (WSB partner) has identified the injured driver as 64-year-old Deloy Dupuis, whom public records say lives in Burien.