Out of the WSB inbox, from Kent:

Just reporting that the annual “school is out” graffiti has begun on Charlestown hill (and 47th). This year’s tasteless art includes a blue Swastika as well as obnoxiously large white lettering and it doesn’t end there. I really wish there was a way to thwart this! Maybe putting out the word that while we are proud of our graduates, maybe they might consider that we have to look at this graffiti in front of our homes every day now for the next few years (until it wears off). The city refuses to remove or cover it and it just invites other vandals.

We’re checking with SDOT regarding the latter contention.

ADDED 5:44 PM: From Rick Sheridan at SDOT:

SDOT does remove graffiti on streets, and takes hate, sexist, and racist graffiti seriously. Our goal is to respond to offensive graffiti on public property as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours. SDOT will work to remove the swastika from the roadway on Wednesday, June 16.

We will also assess at that time whether the other painted elements need to be addressed. SDOT recognizes that this is a standing tradition for students, one that is not typically the subject of complaints.

In tonight’s West Seattle Crime Watch roundup – First, our partners at the Seattle Times have updated the Highland Park beating case tonight; they quote the victim’s father as wondering why no one has been arrested, while a police spokesperson is quoted as saying “there is more to this story than we can share with the public.” Here’s the Times story. Meantime, from the SPD online system that makes certain reports publicly available, four West Seattle reports published this weekend:Read More

We’ve got reports to share – and we’ll be adding them to this story in the hours to come, so if you happen to see this shortly after we publish this, please check back – first reports are after the jump :Read More

Seattle Police have now released more information on an incident that several people asked about this morning – we’d called earlier and all they told us at the time was that the incident that left police tape up at 15th/Henderson was “a robbery” – so we shared that info in a WSB Forums thread while working to find out more. Here’s what’s just gone up at SPD Blotter:

On June 11th at approximately 4:45 a.m., officers responded to a home invasion robbery in the 1500 block of SW Henderson St. The victims stated that they were awakened by loud noises and suspects storming into their bedrooms.

The suspects were armed with a knife and wearing masks and gloves. The suspects jumped on top of the victim’s beds demanding to know where the money, drugs, and jewelry was. The suspects took $3,500 and a projector from the victims.

The suspects spoke both English and Spanish. They gained entry by forcibly kicking in the front door and both bedroom doors. Seattle Fire responded and treated the two male victims. Neither victim was transported. The Robbery Unit responded and processed the scene and interviewed the victims. The suspects are at large.

New details from police this morning in the incident dispatched last night in Westwood as an “assault with weapons.” While shots apparently were fired, police tell us, no one was hit – but two people were beaten. Det. Mark Jamieson says the first call went out as a “fight disturbance in progress with shots fired” at 29th SW/SW Trenton. Several people said they saw teens fighting and heard four gunshots. When police got there, they found, according to Det. Jamieson, “a group of about 20 people huddled around a male victim who was sprawled out on the sidewalk, northeast corner of the intersection. At first, officer thought victim had been shot, because of the way he was lying and he was unresponsive. He was, in fact, not shot, but had been badly beaten up.” He was taken to the hospital; another male had injuries to the face and head, Det. Jamieson says, but didn’t need hospitalization. The two had been “‘jumped’ by at least 12 other males,” who allegedly shot at them as they tried to run away; police “were able to locate where the shots were fired from (29th SW/SW Cloverdale). After officers were able to interview everyone involved , three young men were arrested and booked into King County Jail for investigation of assault.”

Today’s West Seattle Crime Watch roundup has four reports – one from the Seattle Police some-reports-viewable website, three from the WSB inbox. After the jump, we start with the SPD report, in which a man said he was attacked in Roxhill Park last Friday night (just heard from a WSB’er that a TV crew is out and about trying to follow up on this) – read on:Read More

Today’s West Seattle Crime Watch roundup starts with two cases from the inbox: Julia reported a car break-in at the Chelan Café‘s east lot Sunday morning around 11 – happened to folks in line at the restaurant next to them, she says: ” It was a newer silver SUV with very tinted windows and it sounded like the thieves got a purse and possibly some of the luggage in there. Wanted to alert people that this happened… That location is an easy spot to smash and grab and drive away on the bridge so please remind people not to leave anything valuable in their cars while parked!” Second, James just e-mailed from the 7700 block of 46th SW to say, “This morning, when showing a contractor where our cable TV runs into the house, I noticed that the screens on our basement windows were pulled off and a sloppy attempt was made to pry our windows open with what seems like a small screwdriver. This must have happened sometime in the last 2 weeks.” Meantime, we have info on 5 burglaries and 1 burglary attempt reported to West Seattle police last week, the newest cases available in the new online-access-to-some-police-reports system, now that it finally updated – read on for summaries (remember, this system has a few days’ lag – so if it happens to you, let us know, so the news will get out quicker):Read More

This afternoon, we have two reports from the Lincoln Park area – one from a man who e-mailed to report he was chased through nearby Solstice Park last night; the other was a robbery/attack reported in LP last week, published on the new SPD online-report website. Read on for both:Read More

At the federal courthouse downtown, trial is scheduled to begin today for DeVaughn Dorsey, charged with a long list of federal crimes including the May 2008 shooting of a mother and her 10-year-old son at their Delridge home. We reported the indictments in January 2009, including the allegation that the 2008 shooting was a case of attempted witness intimidation (both victims survived) in a car theft/”chop shop” case involving multiple locations (one in West Seattle). Starting today, Chief Judge Robert Lasnik presides over Dorsey’s trial; last September, investigators made one last neighborhood sweep – as we noted here – for evidence and witnesses, before going to trial.

(May 24th photo by David Rosen from SlickPix Photography)
A followup this afternoon on car-theft cases, including the one that yielded the May 24th photo above, as well as the one discussed in this recent comment thread. Charges have just been filed against Ronald E. Thompson, a Gatewood resident who turns 20 on Monday. He is charged with three counts of auto theft and one count of possession of a stolen vehicle, all happening over the past month and a half, starting with one theft in Queen Anne on April 16th. We just obtained the documents from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. The vehicle stolen in QA was found in West Seattle, while the other three were stolen from, and found in WS – the one in the photo was taken from, and found in, the 5400 block of 46th SW. A Lexus stolen in the 6000 block of 44th on May 30th is the one in which Thompson was found two days later, when police arrested him in Gatewood, a few blocks from his house. After the arrest, the charging papers say, Thompson told police about “an assault rifle” at his home; police found a Sturm-Ruger Mini-14 .223-caliber rifle loaded with 21 rounds of ammunition; he told them he’d bought the rifle, but it was listed as stolen in a King County burglary. Thompson remains in jail and is scheduled to answer the charges June 14th; the documents say he not only has a juvenile record, but also is still awaiting trial on a different auto theft case, in which “he told police that he stole a vehicle from West Seattle and drove it to Bothell, where he was trying to sell a laptop computer.”

We, and other media outlets, have asked for this for a long time – and Seattle Police say they’ve been working on it for a long time. Now SPD has just announced the system’s ready to go, and it’s available to everyone: Major police reports are available online – in the form they’ve been made available to the media on discs for the past few years, with names/full addresses redacted (blacked out), and delayed a few days. This means not only that you can sign up to read them yourself, but also that we will summarize more of them in WS Crime Watch, more often, since they’re accessible without the time-consuming process of going to the precinct to download reports from the discs and search through the citywide information looking for local cases. However, two categories that figure prominently in reader-reported Crime Watch roundups are not mentioned – car thefts and car prowls – so keep sharing your stories with your neighbors here. Speaking of which, we have two from the queue:Read More

5:13 PM ORIGINAL REPORT: We’ve gotten two tips of a robbery at Viking Bank on the east edge of The Junction. Will be there shortly to find out in person. 5:19 PM: Adding photo in a moment. Police are definitely at Viking Bank (4022 SW Alaska) and we’re seeing would-be customers getting turned away. Working to get info of description(s). 5:31 PM UPDATE: Confirmed at scene that the bank was indeed robbed. Talked to Det. Jeff Kappel in SPD media unit – he says the robber was described as female, 55 years old, 5-1 or 5-2, sunglasses, black scarf, gray zip-up hoodie, thin build. Possible maroon SUV getaway vehicle. 5:48 PM NOTE: For those who were wondering, the last West Seattle bank robbery was the Admiral B of A on May 5th (here’s our original coverage; here’s our followup with news of arrests).

Here are 2 of the latest out of the WSB inbox – click ahead:Read More

3 weeks ago, we brought you the report of a car theft that hit a family dealing with cancer, among other difficulties. Many WSB’ers offered help; the outpouring continued as a couple of citywide media outlets picked up the story. But the car remained missing – till this weekend. Just got this followup note from Tina, the patient’s wife, who says it turned up about half a mile (blue marker) from where it was stolen at 44th/Hinds (red marker):

On Friday May 28 at 4 pm, while driving down 45th Ave SW at SW Dakota Ave, I spotted my car that was stolen sometime on May 8 or early morning on the 9th. It had been ransacked and a few things stolen out of it, but it had not been in an accident looked to be in good shape. One of the windows had been left open; the seat and carpet got wet and the car smells a bit musty. After 2 days of trying to dry it out it looks like I am going to have to replace the seat and carpeting in the car. I am glad to have it back home where it belongs. My three furry babies will now be able to go to the doggie park again and they are very happy about that.

Missing items
New and improved Tow Ready Modulite Module which they cut out and destroyed the wiring from the front to the rear of the car, this is used for our utility trailer lights (was not visible)
Power Supply for my laptop (was not visible)
Prescription Sunglasses
Small air compressor (was not visible)
2 new tarps
Large First Aid kit for both humans and dogs
Coins (not visible)
12 tie downs
Couple of doggie toys
Plastic storage container with miscellaneous items

Thank you for the story you did earlier this month – there were a lot of kind neighbors who wrote to offer help; I even had one offer to give me their car.