We start tonight’s Crime Watch roundup with some information on an incident that several people have e-mailed tonight to ask about – another guns-drawn arrest on The Bridge late this morning. We started checking on it after one note then, but didn’t get enough details to report until we saw Southwest Precinct Lt. Norm James and Lt. Steve Paulsen at tonight’s Southwest District Council meeting (separate report to come). Lt. James says it started as a domestic-violence incident in northeast West Seattle – the call went out to watch for a certain vehicle with a suspect who apparently has had encounters with police before; after a brief pursuit the vehicle was stopped on The Bridge, and the numerous police vehicles that had been engaged in “containment” to try to catch the suspect pre-bridge flocked to the scene. The domestic-violence victim, Lt. James says, was not seriously hurt. Now, on to several reports including graffiti – with a request for ideas – a car theft, and a car break-in:Read More

Brief followups tonight on two weekend incidents. First, several people e-mailed us Sunday afternoon about an incident early that morning in the 4500 block of 40th SW (map), involving police using a bullhorn to call to someone. We got a bit of info today from Southwest Precinct Lt. Norm James, who says it was ultimately a false alarm of sorts, first called in as “a burglary in progress where the complainant did not know the address. Officers arrived in the area but the witness refused to come outside to contact the officers. A loudspeaker was used to try to contact the witness and have him come out. Once the officers made contact with the complainant, it was determined that there was no burglary or any other type of criminal activity.” Second, we also asked a question brought up by several commenters on Saturday – whether there are any indications that the two burglary suspects arrested on The Bridge (WSB coverage here) were linked to other burglaries beyond the one in which they’re suspected of involvement that day; so far, says Lt. James, no.

Siobhan first reported this tonight as a comment on another story but has since sent the photo you see at left, along with details: The red Dodge Neon Sport with a trunk fin and Idaho plate 1G55739 was stolen very early New Year’s Day from a carport behind an apartment building by Pizza Hut on the SW corner of 35th/Morgan (map). Siobhan adds, “The back bumper has two Scottish stickers on it. One is the St. Andrew’s Cross and the other is an Oval with a St. Andrews Cross the letters SCO and the Rampant Lion. It also had a Jolly Roger License Plate in the back window. If anyone sees it PLEASE have them call 911.. it has already been reported stolen so it’s in the Police System on their ‘Hot List’.” And a side note – a minivan stolen from Georgetown the same morning was found in the alley nearby (its owner had arrived to pick it up); Siobhan says the speculation is that the thief or thieves ditched it and took the Neon – which police have said before (see this report from October) is not unusual.

3 Crime Watch reports to share tonight – 2 cases of vandalism at local homes – one that happened earlier tonight – plus a car prowl. First, from FH in the 3400 block of 45th SW [map]:

I wanted to report that our front door window pane was smashed at a little before 6:00 pm tonight. A neighbor walking by heard a crash and then saw a kid run from our front yard across 45th Ave SW to Madison Middle School. He called the police who came, reported in the incident and provided a case number. … The neighbor said he also heard a crash of glass from the corner of Spokane and 45th Ave SW.

A North Admiral resident reports:

Writing to report that our house on 46th Ave and College [map] has been vandalized twice in the last week. December 25th and December 31st after dark our house was egged and mail removed from a locked mailbox and strewn across the porch. The vandals had to climb very steep stairs and the house is not surrounded by trees or bushes, it is out in the open. Report filed with the police department and they will be patrolling more frequently in the next weeks. Hope neighbors will keep a look out and report suspicious people, especially after dark. The postman observed that other houses were not egged so this feels like a repeat-targeting of our house. Wondering if there have been other reports such as this.

And from Annamarie in the 6900 block of 25th SW [map], who reports several cars were prowled in her neighborhood Wednesday night; she discovered she was among the victims after a neighbor’s phone call:

We both had not locked our doors and they did not break anything. I am missing CD’s, tools, etc. My car is parked right outside my bedroom window with security lights and all…but I did not hear them. I just want to get out a warning. I normally lock my car doors but must have not remembered …

As reported here last night, the west end of the West Seattle Bridge was shut down for a while late New Year’s Eve because of a multi-car crash. SPDBlotter has published a short update today, saying the driver, first reported “driving erratically” on The Bridge, is suspected of DUI:

(The car) subsequently struck two other vehicles as well as the jersey barrier forcing the shutdown of the westbound lanes for 90 minutes. In addition, the eastbound lanes were shut down for 15 minutes while the jersey barriers were moved back into place. There were no serious injuries and the suspect driver was processed for DUI.

Three reports to share tonight (here’s how to reach us, with a Crime Watch report or anything else). First, from Suzanne:

Just wanted to let everyone know that a burglary happened at our house yesterday between 11 am and 1 pm on the 3700 block of 42nd Ave SW [map]. Stolen items included jewelry, laptop computer, camera, and various other electronics. The police officer responding to our call said that there have been an increase in burglaries in our area and that everyone should be vigilant. Please be on the lookout as we’d hate to see this continue in our and surrounding neighborhoods.

From Sonja:

I wanted you to know of a break-in the 6300 block of 38th Ave SW [map] early this evening. It’s my friend’s home and she called me about 4:45p to cancel our plans because her back glass door was shattered and her TV was gone. She thought it strange though since her laptop and other electronics were untouched.

And from Morgan, via Facebook:

I would like to let everyone know that my family’s home was robbed yesterday (december 28th,) We’re in the Arbor Heights area. We believe that the people came through our dog door in our back yard. If you have a dog door I would advise that you keep it locked unless you’re home. They took mainly electronics and jewelry.

Morgan says her neighbors spotted a “small gray car” in her home’s driveway at one point. Meantime, Seattle Police have some specific burglary-prevention tips online here.

Two break-in reports this morning – one of them, from West Seattle’s best-known arts nonprofit, ArtsWest in The Junction. Executive director Alan Harrison writes:

I just wanted to report that at 6:00 Wednesday morning there was a break-in at ArtsWest. Someone (or perhaps more than one) broke the back door’s glass with a rock, ran in, and tried to steal the Lucite donation box. The alarm went off and the perpetrator smashed the box to the floor, breaking it and sending money everywhere before running away. We don’t think he/they took much money, but the new door is going to cost us $500 to fix. There was a police report on it. If anyone has any legitimate information about the break-in, they can report it to SPD.

$500 is a lot of money to ArtsWest. If anyone would like to donate money to help us fix the door and install a new security/camera system (an additional $1600), call us or click directly (here).

If they’d like (it’s optional), under the “Designation” box, they can type in “Back Door.” Maybe it’s a sign of the economic times, that someone would try to rob a nonprofit, but if you could spread the word, maybe we can continue to put our resources behind producing art instead of broken glass.

ArtsWest (a WSB sponsor for the run of “Plaid Tidings,” which continues with a show tonight at 5 and concludes this Sunday) can be reached by phone at 938-0963 (administrative) or 938-0339 (box office). The non-emergency number for reporting info to police is 625-5011. P.S. We asked about insurance:

We do have insurance, but there’s a $500 deductible. And the upgrade to the security system is not covered and was not budgeted for the year, so unless we can raise some specific money for that, we’ll have to decrease funding to one of our programs.

Meantime, our other break-in report is residential – burglars that moved fast while residents were out shopping – read on:Read More

Two West Seattle Crime Watch notes tonight: First, via Twitter, Marty reported a burglary attempt today at his home near 35th/Othello (map) – we don’t have the full narrative but he did say police caught the suspects. Meantime, Cathy at 45th/Stevens (map) reports a car break-in, and something heartening she heard when she reported it to police:

Just a reminder to lock your doors and keep valuables out of the car. When I called to report it the dispatcher asked what kind of car. He said someone had already called in suspicious behavior on my block regarding my car. I was glad that I live in a community where people look out for others.

4 Crime Watch notes: 1st, we checked with the precinct regarding a report published this morning at SeattleCrime.com regarding an incident last week on the grounds of Madison Middle School. Police confirm that “a bottle filled with flammable fluid was thrown on the roof of the school” around 5 pm 12/12 and that nobody’s been arrested.

Also in Crime Watch, three break-in reports. First one is from a WSB’er near 38th/Dakota (map) who says a neighbor’s home was broken into around 12:30 pm Wednesday – while someone was home. The burglar, they tell us, started knocking on the front door; the person at home decided to ignore the knocking – but shortly thereafter, the burglar went around back and kicked in the door. Our tipster adds:

… thankfully the person ran off when they realized someone was home. The police told our neighbor our block would be put on the watch list for extra patrols. It is scary — we live high up on a hill and it is not easy for people to come up all the stairs to knock to begin with — then to go through a gated privacy fence to kick in a back door? Really disturbing.

Two other break-in reports ahead:Read More

Thanks to “Born to be Mild” for catching this in the King County Jail Register database first: New information regarding bail and charges for Ryan Joshua Cox, arrested yesterday for the second time this year and accused of multiple instances of vandalizing West Seattle homes, businesses and public facilities, usually with a profane three-word anti-gay slur. The register now says he’s charged with 10 counts of property destruction, as well as graffiti and having a dangerous weapon – as police told us yesterday, they found a fixed-blade knife on him when he was arrested in The Junction. Bail is now up to $20,000. We’re looking for more details on the latest developments in the case and will add whatever more we find.

(scroll down for latest information, added to the original report)

ORIGINAL 10:16 AM REPORT: Just announced by Seattle Police at SPDBlotter:

Ryan Cox was arrested this morning by Southwest Precinct detectives near the intersection of 44th Avenue SW and SW Alaska Street. Cox was taken into custody without incident at around 8:30 a.m. He will be booked into King County Jail. The Seattle Police Department appreciates all of the public assistance in this matter.

The arrest comes less than 24 hours after police released photos of Cox, including three like the one above, in which they say he was caught in the act of marking/painting the same three-word anti-gay slur that reappeared on businesses and homes around West Seattle repeatedly over the past three months (here’s the report we published Sept. 9), after incidences in the spring that led to his previous arrest. 10:44 AM UPDATE: We just checked with Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen, with whom we have talked about the case multiple times in recent months (including yesterday, after we got three more reports, at which time he told us about the arrest warrant). Regarding more details on this morning’s arrest, he says Detective Nick Bauer spotted Cox at California and Erskine on the south end of The Junction, called for backup, and “several patrol units assisted in the arrest” two blocks north. 11:48 AM UPDATE: The King County Jail Register shows Cox was booked about an hour ago, and the charges are listed as property destruction and “dangerous weapon” – we’re checking on more information regarding that last one. 11:57 AM: Lt. Paulsen explains it: He says Cox was found carrying a “fixed-blade knife.” He’s scheduled to answer the charges in a hearing tomorrow; bail currently totals $1,330.