(added Wednesday afternoon, surveillance photo from Gas Depot robbery earlier this month)
This story posted online tonight by KING features both surveillance video of robbery suspects and an interview with a man identified as a West Seattle convenience store owner who chased them out of his shop. The story is a little meanderingly told and we can’t tell which store (perhaps you recognize the owner who was interviewed?), but these seem to be the same suspects sought in the Highland Park/White Center robberies earlier this month (and a South Seattle stickup reported earlier this week on SPDBlotter). We had asked Seattle Police and King County Sheriff’s Office previously for any visuals that could be shared to help solve the crimes; if any of the images from tonight’s TV story are obtainable through police, we’ll get them and share them here. WEDNESDAY LATE-MORNING UPDATE: We have received those items and will be adding them soon.

Not that the cold weather completely stopped crime in its tracks – certainly seemed to slow it a bit, though. Now, the reports are starting to roll back in – read on for word of two thefts in recent days:Read More

Just out of the WSB inbox from Pigeon Point resident KK:

I just wanted to let you know two of our windows were smashed under the West Seattle Bridge sometime Sunday evening to Monday morning. They stole our ashtray, our chains, the emergency kit, and a bunch of empty cloth bags all in the trunk.

We had moved our car down to the bottom of the hill because we could not drive up and down Andover to get to our house.

I just want to give a warning to NOT park your car at night under the bridge. It is not safe. We had nothing in the car. The items stolen were about $50 at most. It cost almost $500 to fix the windows (and trying to find a place open yesterday was a challenge.)

It was a fabulous Merry Christmas; thank you, thieves/vandals. I hope no one else has to deal with this.

Just out of the WSB inbox from Erin at Twilight in The Junction (immediately west of Easy Street):

At some point between noon and now, someone managed to steal 3 pieces of art RIGHT OFF THE WALL at Twilight Artist Collective. 2 5×7 encaustic collage paintings (with Lemurs or a Monkey in the image) with black frames ~ $200 each, and a 5×7-ish painting of a crane on canvas ~ $100. This must have been a quick and nasty grab, probably while I was busy wrapping a purchase at the counter.

This is SO LAME, especially in these already hard economic times. Not only is this a blow to our business, but also to the local artists they stole from.

If ANYONE has information, or sees these art pieces out there, please contact Twilight immediately. We’ll gladly take them back, and in return we won’t have the thief arrested.

ART THEFT IN THE JUNCTION ~ please spread the word so other local businesses know to tighten up a bit, even during the holiday merriment.

Erin is looking to see if they have any images of the stolen items, but wanted to get the word out fast without waiting for that.

Some more non-snow news before we move on to the evening update: Even while the main page here was devoted mostly to weather-related news, we’ve been adding crime reports to the WSB Crime Watch page. Most of it, car break-ins, and we have another of those reports tonight from Greg:

My neighbors live at the end of 52nd Ave. SW one block south of SW Stevens St. (map) They had their SUV broken into and the stereo stolen around 2 AM on Wed. 12/17. It was an older vehicle but it had an aftermarket stereo. It was parked in the driveway in a spot not easy to see from inside the house.

If you don’t have an alarm on your vehicle, a decent one with a motion sensor costs less (installed) than your comprehensive deductible (or if you are not insured, less than a repair bill for a torn up dashboard). A flashing red LED costs almost nothing to buy and can be installed by anyone. It is a cheap and simple ploy that is better than nothing at all.

Forget “The Club”. I still see them around, but a thief with a newer high tension hacksaw can cut through your steering wheel in under a minute and pull that useless hunk of metal off.

We share crime reports from West Seattleites, as well as from official sources such as Seattle Police, in the interest of “knowledge is power” — if you know what’s happening, you have a better chance of protecting yourself and your family, and we’ve reported multiple stories in which informed, aware neighbors have helped catch criminals and solve crimes. E-mail us at editor@westseattleblog.com any time.

The other day, we got word from Hansen View Blockwatch (the neighborhood west of the Camp Long entrance) about car prowls, and linked their report to the WSB Crime Watch page since the main page here was completely caught up in weather coverage. Tonight, since weather woes are in a lull, we’re posting here that HVB has sent word of another car-prowling incident, two cars in the 5000 block of 36th (here’s a map; full report is on the HVB website).

Two updates from the Southwest Precinct: Lt. Steve Paulsen says still no arrests in the 14th/Cambridge “violent mugging” reported here yesterday. We also inquired about a reader report of intense police activity around quarter till 4 this morning at 35th/Cambridge; Lt. Paulsen says it was the second time police have been to that address in two days, and describes the incident as “an occupied burglary to rip off a Marijuana Grow farm. A weapon was fired at the intruders, no injuries. Homeowner was arrested.”

Posted tonight by the P-I: 44-year-old Kevin Palmer, getaway driver in the Admiral Wells Fargo heist that was followed by a downtown standoff and shooting, has been sentenced to 4 years in prison and will testify against the accused robber, 51-year-old Douglas Cox. Here’s our running coverage from while it was all unfolding on July 1st.

This has been on the Crime Watch page since Seattle Police posted it on their SPD Blotter site (which feeds the CW page instantly as soon as SPD posts something) – but we wanted to call attention to it here too: Two homes on 32nd SW were hit by bullets last night, nobody hurt, nobody arrested. A High Point resident sent us a Twitter message last night about that time saying he’d heard what sounded like gunfire – we listened to the scanner for quite some time and monitored 911 but nothing obvious. In several separate Twitter messages, Ryan reported:

I live in High Point and am pretty sure I just heard gunshots. a lot of em, sounded like two different guns … I’m at 32nd and Juneau, it sounded less than a block away, and afterwards a car drove really fast down my dead end street … and then turned around and drove away …

We get “thought I heard gunshots” reports fairly frequently, and they don’t all pan out, but this one obviously did. We’re checking with the Southwest Precinct for any additional information about who’s been sought and potential motives. ADDED 2:02 PM: Lt. Steve Paulsen provides additional details: 5900 block of 32nd SW (map); no description of the suspect/vehicle. They haven’t quite zeroed in on the motive yet but are investigating the possibility it involved a relationship dispute of some sort. No relation to the “house hit by bullets” incident from 20th/Henderson last month.

From David in Gatewood:

I … wanted to get the word out about a pair of prowlers in the Gatewood area. I live on 41st behind Thriftway and came home to a neighbor of mine who stopped me and said she chased away 2 (african-american) men in our front yard this morning at 10 AM that were clearly prowling in the windows of our home. Our front yard has a white picket fence and she had said they had opened the fence and they were in our front yard looking in the home. She walked up to our yard with her large dog and they immediately retreated up the street to 41st and Frontenac. Thanks to our great neighbors but I wanted to let the area know in case anyone may have seen these guys today.

We are in the King County Superior Court courtroom of Judge Michael Fox, where Brian Walsh has just been sentenced for the 2007 beating murder of “Benny” Reside (left), a mentally and physically disabled man who had been letting him stay in his apartment in Morgan Junction’s Cal-Mor Circle. This was the second part of a sentencing hearing that began October 17 (WSB courtroom coverage here), after Walsh pleaded guilty to second-degree murder (in a plea deal that we covered last summer). Prosecutors and family wanted the high end of the sentencing scale, 18 years, while defense argued for the low end, around 14. Reside’s sister Pam Reside Leach and brother-in-law Jeff Leach addressed the court again today (photo above shows Pam [left] directly addressing her brother’s killer [far right]), and for the first time, the killer, Brian Walsh, spoke as well, sobbing and asking the family’s forgiveness, reading from a handwritten statement. The judge is imposing the maximum possible sentence – 220 months, mostly, he says, because of the “absolute helplessness” of the victim, the unprovoked nature of the attack, and the savageness of the crime. More details from the courtroom – and the family’s reaction afterward (“It’s not a happy day,” Pam said) – will be added shortly. ADDED 12:38 PM: Read on for those details – what the family said, what the killer said, what the judge said:Read More

Out of the WSB inbox, from Travis:

I don’t know how many of your readers are concerned with the space behind the Admiral Theater, but I just bought a townhouse here about 6 months ago. Everything was fine for almost 6 full months, and in the last 3 weeks there has been a significant spike in graffiti, likely gang related, and I was shocked to hear from my neighbor this morning that her car was broken into @ 5:30 am. These incidents have been reported to the police but their frequency and severity appear to be on the rise. A police watch placed on the alleyway for the last several weeks has not seemed to curb the offenses.

I for one am quite concerned as a new homeowner who paid high N. Admiral prices to live in a safe, clean, and friendly neighborhood.