West Seattle, Washington
18 Thursday
Just talked to the Southwest Precinct – they’ve arrested the key suspect in the laptop thefts last night at Freshy’s and Monday night at Cupcake Royale. (Previous WSB coverage here and here.)
Just off the phone with the Southwest Precinct — 
updates on 3 cases: FIRST — The Freshy’s robbery yesterday (original report here) — police say they know who they’re looking for and at least one suspect should be in custody soon — plus there’s a strong likelihood, as posted in the comments on the Freshy’s report, that the main suspect also was involved in a similar robbery at Cupcake Royale Monday night — “exact same M-O,” police say — ask a question about a bus route, grab a laptop and bolt. At least one witness from Freshy’s knew the suspect’s name; separate from that, regarding the discussion about descriptive factors — light-skinned black male, 17 years old, 6’2″, 190, is what’s on the report. No good description of the other suspect(s). SECOND ITEM: The Admiral rock-throwing suspects, as reported here and here: A second suspect has now been arrested; just one more left to go. (No description but police in this case too say they know exactly who they are after.) THIRD ITEM: Police are putting out two photos of a van linked to a wallet-snatching at South Seattle Community College three weeks ago, hoping it might lead to some tips:
That’s a light blue or gray ’90s Dodge Caravan with tinted windows, used as the getaway vehicle after the robbery at 7 pm January 17. Police say a woman who works in the campus library had just parked her car and was walking to work when a suspect described only as a black man in his 20s asked her for 50 cents. She thought he was a student, so she pulled out her wallet and was going to loan him the money after a promise he would find her in the library and pay her back; he then grabbed her wallet and ran, with four other suspects (no description) suddenly appearing and fleeing with him. (No description of them.) If you have any information on the van, or anything else about this robbery, here’s who to call: Detective Jim Rodgers in the Seattle PD Robbery unit, 262-2515.
This just in from Michael:
I *just* witnessed a robbery at Freshy’s coffee on California. Three
young African-American men came in and asked the barista how often
some bus came by. She answered, then they milled around for a minute
acting like they were debating if they were going to wait. Then one
guy grabbed the open laptop of a woman who was sitting near the door
and bolted, along with another one of the guys. The woman screamed and
chased after them. The third fellow stood around saying “What’s going
on?”, but it was clear that he was in on the scam — either trying to
block other people from chasing the perps, or to grab something else
while people were distracted.The woman came back to the coffee shop a few minutes later saying that
one of the guys had knocked her to the ground very forcefully when she
chased them; she ended up with a big welt on the back of her head.
Meanwhile another patron chased the guys as well and saw them leave in
a red car parked near the high school. The barista called the police
and they’re on the way. The victim said she’s from out of town, making
it that much worse.This was such a deliberate, organized crime that I’m sure they’re
going to try pull this again. Please tell everyone to be on the
lookout, to protect their laptops and other valuables when they’re
out, and to keep an eye out for people running this kind of scam.
If you haven’t been to Freshy’s and can’t place the location — west side of California, south of the Admiral District, across from Hiawatha.
Wanted to get this info out before finishing the Sealth/Denny meeting report — we were gathering this at the Southwest Precinct when the Charlestown Cafe fire broke out, and from there, it was right off to the school meeting. Anyway, from the latest police reports — we start with a robbery involving teens: A local middle-schooler was at the bus stop by KeyBank at California/Alaska this morning, playing with his GameBoy, when another teen sat down next to him, said “Hey, that’s a cool game, I used to play that on Nintendo G4,” edged closer, then suddenly grabbed the boy’s game and ran. The victim chased him for a while; then the robber turned on him and pushed him into a fence before getting away. The victim wasn’t badly hurt; he continued on to school, where he told administrators, who called police. Next — the gas-pump hit & run:Read More
Todd e-mailed to alert everyone that his car was broken into — “again” — tonight @ 21st/Roxbury. He asks, “When will these little brats learn that I keep NOTHING in that car?”
Quick update ahead of our police-report check at the Southwest Precinct later today — Lt. Steve Paulsen confirms the arrest of one juvenile in the Admiral rock-throwing incidents, as Meredith reported last night; he confirms they are still looking for the two other suspects but know who they are looking for.
Just out of the inbox from Meredith:
Just seen at Grayson & Belvidere (just north of Admiral): Three police cars with one teen in custody (Caucasian, about 14-years-old). Chased down after caught throwing rocks at cars. Officer says this kid, plus two others have been reported in 20-30 incidents along the Admiral Way corridor (37th – 41st). Two kids still at large, reportedly around 14- to 15-years-old, one Hispanic, one with longish red hair. PLEASE alert drivers for their own safety, and ask residents to keep an eye out for these kids. Their actions could case an accident, perhaps a death for one of those b*****ds speeding up the hill. Kids are also suspect in the knifing of a neighbor’s tires, theft from vehicles in the area, and rocks thrown thru home windows.
The area and description are similar to the 1/11/08 reader report we published on the Crime Watch page, involving a brick thrown through a front door, after three teenage boys were seen “cruising” the area.
23-year-old Rey Davis-Bell (photo left) has just been booked into the King County Jail within the last 40 minutes, according to the KCJ register, for investigation of homicide, assault, and drive-by shooting. Almost every citywide source that has posted about this has a different nugget – the Times has the most thorough information on his criminal background, for example. It’s been widely reported that the Longfellow Creek Apartments unit on Delridge where he allegedly fired shots through a window 
yesterday morning (photo from WSB contributor Sage K) is where his girlfriend lives; exactly what ties he had to the Central District restaurant where he is accused of opening fire half an hour later, killing the restaurant’s owner and wounding another man, is still not clear, though the owner’s niece is quoted as saying her uncle did “know” Davis-Bell somehow. The suspect was captured after a manhunt that is said to have involved more than 100 officers, many of them out on the streets all night.
So says KIRO TV. Looking for more details now, such as where they found him; other citywide media are now (12:23 pm) confirming the arrest, but no location yet. Slog says police will announce more details at 1:15 pm. 12:29 PM UPDATE: KING just reported the arrest was made at 40th & Cloverdale – they didn’t include a street direction (S or SW) though – we’ll check further – our money’s on S since SW is within earshot of us and we haven’t seen/heard anything. 12:37 PM UPDATE: Tony says in the comments on this item that KOMO reports MLK/Elmgrove as the arrest location (here’s a map), which isn’t far from 40th/Cloverdale, so we seem to have established it happened in South Seattle. 12:42 PM UPDATE: Confirmation on that. 1:43 PM UPDATE: More details in a just-updated Times story, which has yet another slightly different version of the arrest location (3700 block Cloverdale). (Previous reports: Here’s the original coverage yesterday; here’s the update early today about police finding the suspect’s car.)
So says KOMO (location shown on this map). However, as of now, the suspect is still on the loose (see his photo in our earlier coverage). 6:40 AM UPDATE: No arrest reported yet.
ADDED 3:20 PM: Thanks to WSB contributor Sage K for this photo of the bullet holes in the window at Longfellow Creek Apartments (map), from the shots 23-year-old Rey Alberto Davis-Bell (photo at bottom of this post) is suspected of firing (nobody was hit/hurt) before the deadly Central District shooting in which he may also have been involved:
ORIGINAL 2:19 PM POST: OK, here’s more of what we’re piecing together from various sources regarding who police are looking for in the shots-fired case at the Longfellow Creek Apartments a few hours ago that is apparently linked to the shooting that seriously injured two people at a restaurant in the Central District (2:50 PM UPDATE: one of the victims there is now reported to have died):
-According to Scott from Central District News, police are looking for “a 2002 black Lincoln, 4 door, with license 210 XMJ.”
-Another source tells us that the suspect, 23-year-old Rey Alberto Davis-Bell, 23, has a long rap sheet. Police say he’s who they’re looking for in the Delridge shots-fired case, though they’re not yet ready to definitively link him to the CD shootings. Here’s his photo as posted on Slog:
The jury is now deciding the case of the two former Huling Brothers sales staffers. A court clerk says they got the case just after 2pm. That means defense testimony lasted just one day.
4PM UPDATE: The jury has gone home; they’ll be back in the morning.
For those following this internationally publicized case — according to the P-I’s Big Blog, Arbor Heights resident Edda Mellas, mother of tabloid-featured Italy murder suspect Amanda Knox, gave her first major interview to ABCNEWS, airing this Friday night.
We checked with Lt. Steve Paulsen @ the Southwest Precinct this morning regarding two things around midnight last night — one that we heard on the scanner, one that a reader asked about. First, a report of possible gunshots heard in the California/Stevens vicinity (map) — he says police got a couple calls, checked it out; couldn’t find any evidence of what it was (could have been fireworks, hard to tell). Second, police recovered a stolen car after an operation that was quite interesting to listen to on the scanner: a Mercedes originally stolen from Tukwila was spotted in High Point, then at the 7-11 at 35th/Avalon, then Lt. Paulsen himself — out on late-night patrol — spotted it on Sylvan Way — after setting up “containment,” officers caught one suspect near 42nd/Fauntleroy, then recovered the car near 36th/Graham.
From our latest review of reports at the Southwest Precinct (which, if you’re new here, is the “police station” for West Seattle, at Delridge/Webster by Home Depot): We start with a suspected drunk driver caught asleep at the wheel — in his Oldsmobile Cutlass, motor running, blocking an intersection. This happened after 3 am Saturday at 25th/Cloverdale. Officers woke the 26-year-old man up; one of his breath tests came in at two and a half times the level officially defined as DUI. Next — how a police car wound up with its back window smashed out:Read More
Went to the King County Courthouse this morning to check on the trial of ex-Huling Brothers sales staffers Adrian “AG” Dillard and Ted Coxwell, 
since we hadn’t heard anything since testimony began 10 days ago. While we were in the courtroom, the prosecution rested its case; the defense planned to start calling witnesses later this morning. DETAILS ADDED @ NOON: The last two prosecution witnesses, called while we were there, had testified earlier, but were brought back for more questioning — one was a former Huling employee, the other a Seattle Police detective. Fairly technical stuff — the ex-employee was asked this morning to identify various spots on photographs of the then-Huling dealership property and the apartment building where the victim in the case lived; the detective was asked about records showing vehicles owned by co-defendant Coxwell. We’ll keep checking on the trial as it proceeds in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Nicole MacInnes in the days to come.
Just a few things to share from our latest review of reports at the Southwest Precinct, starting with an apparent flasher at Westcrest Park: This happened at 4:30 pm Wednesday, but wasn’t reported till a day later. Two girls, 12 and 13, told police they saw a man running up and down a hill (between the off-leash area and the rest of the park) with his private parts not-so-private. They left the area, then saw him again in another part of the park, “stretching and exercising,” and still exposed. No detailed description of the suspect was available. Next: The hit-and-run suspect who wasn’t hard to find:Read More
In addition to the call for witnesses that we posted this afternoon, we have one more bit of news tonight from the Southwest Precinct – this is directly from a detectives’ progress report forwarded to WSB:
For the first three weeks of 2008, (January 2, 2008 to January 23, 2008) Southwest Detectives were assigned 38 cases for investigations.
Detective have identified a few groups of individuals who they believe are responsible for a pattern of burglaries. Detectives have built cases on several of these individuals within these groups which has greatly interrupted these patterns.
21 of those cases have been cleared with arrests.
14 cases, detectives have developed leads and/or have identified the suspects (filing pending).
3 cases, no leads at this time.
Detectives have noticed a substantial decrease in residential and commercial burglaries.
Just anecdotal, but when we reviewed six days worth of police reports at the precinct yesterday (resulting in this writeup posted last night), we did indeed notice fewer break-in reports than we’d seen in recent weeks.
The West Seattle crimefighters at the Southwest Precinct are hoping you might be able to help with one of the cases we reported in last night’s West Seattle Crime Watch update — involving six young men/boys attacking and trying to rob two men on a Metro bus around 6:15 pm last Saturday as it headed across The Bridge, from downtown to West Seattle. Contrary to what we wrote last night, it seems there WERE other passengers on this bus when this happened, so police believe there are more witnesses. As reported, they arrested three teenage suspects shortly afterward, but now need to find the other three. If you were on that bus when this happened, or have any otherwise-obtained information about it, Detective Nick Bauer at the Southwest Precinct wants to hear from you at 206/233-7830.
The latest from the files at the Southwest Precinct – and we’ve got a lot to tell you about, since our last visit was last Thursday. We start with a “good news” story that unfolded while we were at the precinct late today: It started this morning, when a West Seattle man found a wallet in the Central District. He reported it to police later by flagging down an officer at Delridge and Hudson. Police called the wallet’s owner and asked if she could come pick it up at the Southwest Precinct. She arrived around 4 this afternoon, received the wallet from officer Buzzy Katzer at the front desk, and exclaimed, “Wow, my 11 dollars are even still in here!” She wanted to thank the man who found her wallet and turned it in; at last report, police were trying to reach him to convey her message. Ahead – an amazing array of other incidents, including the “adult model” dispute and the runaway litterer:Read More
35TH/ROXBURY: Reminder that you will see a significant police presence there much of the day because of teenage shooting victim DeChe Morrison‘s memorial service @ Freedom Church later this morning (as reported here last week).
READER REPORTS CAR BREAK-IN: From Melissa in the 9700 block of 41st (map):
I thought our little neighborhood was immune, but no. Our dog went a little bonkers at about 10 pm Monday night. That must have been whenever was taking my cellphone and binoculars and rifling through our cars was doing so. My husband went out at 5:45 this morning to find my door still open. I wonder if our dog’s barking scared the thief off?
From Colleen in the 48th/Dakota vicinity:
Friday night my son’s bike was taken out of my van. They also took a clay cat that my daughter had made, only valuable to me. I’m curious if they hit any other vehicles around here.
Besides whatever we hear here, we’ll also check next time we’re reviewing reports @ the Southwest Precinct. Meantime, the important reminders: Call 911 if you know or suspect something’s happening right now or just happened; 206/625-5011 is the non-emergency number; lots of crime-prevention resource info at the bottom of the WSB Crime Watch page.
Off the emergency-radio scanner (and please note, those radio transmissions just reflect what police get calls about and dispatch officers on — not all reports pan out, but once in a while we hear something you might need to know about fast): Police were just flagged down by several children reporting a man exposed himself to them in the 31st SW/SW Juneau vicinity. We didn’t catch the full description off the scanner but the few words we did hear (Hispanic, stubble) did NOT match the description of the indecent-exposure suspect we wrote about in last night’s roundup from police reports, in case you wondered.
| 6 COMMENTS