The family of 26-year-old Steven Bushaw, the man shot and killed in The Junction on Sunday night, has now decided to go ahead and release a recent photo of him. His sister Tanya Bushaw says that’s Steve with niece Ava, photographed last summer. As we reported last night, a fundraising event is scheduled at Talarico’s this Sunday, and a fund has been set up at US Bank in Steve’s name. Some asked us what the money would be used for, so we asked Tanya, and she replied: “People should know that my family had nothing to do with organizing any of these memorial events or accounts. Friends of Steve set up the event with Talarico’s and another friend of our family who works with US Bank insisted on setting up this fund. Yes the funds will be used for funeral expenses other expenses associated with closing his estate if you will.” The family plans a private memorial service in West Seattle this Saturday. So far, still no word from police of arrests, and no further information on the suspects beyond the vague descriptions originally made public Sunday night — two black males, possibly with dreadlocks, who got away, heading southbound, in a white sedan.

1:02 PM UPDATE: The Sunday event at Talarico’s is being organized by another family member, Steve’s cousin Stacey Bushaw, who just told us the time has been changed to 1-5 pm. She also elaborates on the purpose of the event:

This fundraiser (is) to help cover all medical bills as well as all funeral and burial costs. In addition, this fundraiser will help with possibly setting up reward money to find the assailants and it will also help cover any other unforeseeable bills that may continue to creep up.

No one ever expects something tragic like this to happen to them or their family so we are being proactive and assuring that his parents and sister do not have to face any more obstacles while they continue to mourn over our loss. This is our chance to play a role in helping take away as much of the financial burden from them as we possibly can.

More importantly we are celebrating Stevie’s life. There will be music, food, drinks, and just a time to share in Stevie’s amazing memory with people that love him dearly. I can’t articulate the pain our family is feeling but we truly appreciate all the love and support we have received from family, friends, and the community at large.

Stevie will live on forever through us and our circle of love will never be broken!

**UPDATE – SINCE THIS WAS PUBLISHED, TALARICO’S EVENT TIME MOVED TO 1-5 PM**

We just heard again from Tanya Bushaw, sister of Steven Bushaw, whose shooting death in The Junction on Sunday night remains unsolved – she wants everyone to know about a benefit coming up this weekend, and she has an additional message:

A friend at US Bank is setting up a memorial fund at US Bank. It is supposed to be set up tomorrow afternoon for people to donate to. I believe it will be under Steve’s name…so people just have to mention Steve Bushaw memorial fund but I will find out the final details tomorrow.

(And) Talarico’s has offered to open their establishment for us to hold a benefit evening in memory of Steve. It will be this Sunday evening at 8 pm and it will be a $10 cover for each person and any other donations are welcome as well. They have been so kind to offer a band to play and the proceeds from the evening will be donated to the family. They also told us that kids are welcome to come from 8 until 9 pm. After 9 pm anyone under 21 will not be allowed.

Tanya adds a message that she feels is very important for you to understand:

This had nothing to do with Talarico’s beyond the fact that it happened in front of their business. The people that did this were not patrons of Talarico’s and people should not feel scared to go there. I myself have been there before, and it’s not a place to be afraid of.

(An earlier version of this story included the date/time for the memorial but the family decided they need to keep that invitation-only for now.) Again, as we reported earlier tonight, police haven’t released any new information on the search for the two men who opened fire on Steven Bushaw as he crossed the street late Sunday night, midblock between Alaska and Edmunds. We are continuing to check with them frequently and will let you know whenever there’s anything new to report. 9:37 PM P.S.: The tribute table with flowers and signs is back outside Talarico’s tonight.

There’s an “assault with weapons” call in the 7500 block of 12th SW (by the south end of Riverview Playfield – here’s a map); no other details so far – heading to check it out. 10:32 PM UPDATE: Got to the area, police and fire gone, call now closed on 911 site. TUESDAY UPDATE: It was a stabbing, according to this P-I blog post. Following up with SPD.

If you have a Yakima-brand rack on your car, beware – ahead, two theft reports in 2 nights:Read More

(Sunday night photo by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli)
Though his wounds were originally described as “not life-threatening,” Seattle Police now say the man shot in The Junction late last night died overnight. The update a short time ago from Officer Renee Witt also includes a few other changes to what police have found out since our original coverage: They say he’s 26 years old and was “walking across the street” when two people “both opened fire, striking the victim twice.” (We have since clarified with Officer Witt — as originally reported, it’s still believed he was in some kind of argument with those two people when he was shot; the victim is reported to have said that himself after running into Talarico’s and collapsing.) The two suspects are still believed to have gotten away by car, described only as a “white sedan,” and Officer Witt says investigators have no other information on the suspects they’re seeking. 7:37 AM UPDATE: Checking e-mail from the past few hours, we found this note:

The man shot at Talarico’s was my brother, Steven. He was 26 and unfortunately, he did not make it. He passed away shortly after arriving to Harborview. The shot to his chest went through the main artery from his heart. He was an amazing man and I will miss him! If any of your readers know anything about what happened please have them call the police. I just can’t believe the people who did this are out there running around…

The note is from Tanya, whose surname also is on the e-mail, but we won’t add that until we can confirm with the Medical Examiner that the man’s next-of-kin have been officially notified (we just called and they currently don’t expect to release the official ID till this afternoon). This is the first homicide in West Seattle since 49-year-old Tracey Creamer was killed last April in Highland Park by her husband, who then killed himself; that was the only 2008 WS killing, following three in 2007. 8:39 AM UPDATE: The latest information from police is also now summarized on SPDBlotter. 11:37 AM UPDATE: New photo from WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli – one of the bullet holes in the Talarico’s facade:

ADMIRAL BURGLARY: Much has been written – even more in the comments than in official stories – about 18-year-old Skyelar Hailey, charged with burglary after his Admiral arrest November 10. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has notified neighbors that after Hailey’s latest court appearance, he has chosen to proceed to trial (prior court documents had suggested a plea bargain was a possibility) and the date is set for April 21. Hailey, whose publicly viewable record includes 10 cases in which he is listed as “defendant,” spent 10 days in jail following the November arrest.

DELRIDGE SHOOTING BEFORE CENTRAL DISTRICT MURDER: CentralDistrictNews.com reminds us (see the story here) that Friday marked one year since the rampage in which Rey Davis-Bell was arrested for allegedly shooting into his girlfriend’s Delridge apartment (WSB coverage here) and then killing a Central District restaurateur. CDN says Davis-Bell is not scheduled for trial until October.

Just saw a KING5 followup about the FBI’s just-released “National Gang Threat Assessment,” but we don’t see a link to that actual FBI report on their website; we have the link from an FBI news release e-mailed today, so we wanted to let you know that if you want to read it, you can find it here. Page 18 focuses on the current/predicted Northwest gang situation, and names the gangs the FBI believes are most “criminally active”; information on those individual gangs starts on page 23. No Seattle specifics, but local law-enforcement agencies are listed as contributors.

Last November, alerted by a hovering helicopter, we reported on the search for, and arrest of, a man who had broken into a Lincoln Park-area home — where a woman and her two children were asleep — shortly after trying to break into the Colman Pool complex in the park. He turned out to be 41-year-old Richard Lovejoy, a registered sex offender (for rape convictions; photo at left was from his page on the sex-offender-search website) from Arbor Heights who also had been convicted previously of burglary, harassment, and drug possession. After covering the original court action in the case in November (WSB report here), we hadn’t followed up till now — and discovered that Lovejoy pleaded guilty to 1 count of burglary (the second was dropped) on December 31st and was sentenced last Friday. Court documents confirm that Lovejoy was sent immediately to prison to begin a sentence of 5 years, 3 months (the lower end of the “standard range” for the crime, 63 to 84 months, per court documents).

Thanks to Trick for pointing out this Times article about prostitution-related arrests in West Seattle earlier this month. Here’s additional information we’ve found on the case: We checked the jail register, and the 33-year-old man arrested for trying to pimp two 15-year-old girls at Seattle West Inn and Suites in the Triangle (West Seattle’s only motel, aka the former Travelodge), Toda M. Robinson, is still behind bars, with bail set at $100,000. We also downloaded the court documents for more details; he is charged with two counts of promoting sexual abuse of a minor, and the documents note that Robinson has an “extensive criminal history” including “at least six crimes of violence.” (The state court-system search engine has 110 results for his name, dating back to 1991, when he would have been as young as the two girls involved in this case.) The court documents say police arranged the location for the sting, booking a room at the motel after answering a CL ad, and made the arrests after Robinson dropped the girls off – they tracked him down in the parking lot of the 35th/Avalon KFC with a 16-year-old girl in the car, which was described as emanating “a strong odor of marijuana.” One of the girls told police that he usually gets half their money and has at least 3 other teenagers and 10 adult prostitutes working for him.

We showed you that photo Monday, while reporting that West Seattle firefighters helped clean up and secure the area around a big broken window on the west side of a former Huling/Gee storefront on SW Alaska east of Fauntleroy Way. We subsequently checked to see if it was a case of burglary or “just” vandalism; this morning, we have followup information from Southwest Precinct Sgt. Mike Teeter, who summarizes that “a large rock was thrown through the window, but no entry was made.”

Meantime, a new Crime Watch report this morning, from Amy in Gatewood:

My car was stolen from my driveway yesterday sometime between 10 pm Monday evening and 6 am Tuesday morning. I live on the corner of SW Myrtle street and 36th Ave SW [map]. I filed a police report and thankfully my car was found yesterday around 5 pm by the King County Sheriff’s (Office). It was recovered in the South Park area and towed to a Burien lot. They said they had just recovered a similar Honda Accord like mine stolen from the same area. This is the second time my car has been targeted in my neighborhood. Two years ago my stereo was stolen. I think it’s a group of punk kids going for a joy ride. They didn’t take any car parts, just valuables that were in the car, punched out the ignition, stole my stereo again (luckily I carry the face plate with me so it’s useless to them now), and trashed the inside of the car. Just thought people should know about this in case there is anyone else out there who has had the same thing happen around the area.

We’ve received reports both official and unofficial of more than a few car thefts lately, including a “huge spike” in the unincorporated area south of WS, as described by King County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Hancock at last week’s White Center Crime Prevention Coalition meeting, but the Southwest Precinct says numbers on this side of the line are not currently higher than usual.

“Only” one crime report to share tonight – it happened to Paul west of The Junction about this time last night:

Edmunds and 47th [map], 9 pm on Friday night. I got home … to find broken glass and a smashed flashlight in my kitchen. Looks like one or two people got in, stole a couple of DVDs of the Wire (ironic), and left a lot of blood – one of them cut themselves badly coming in through the back door window. Definitely felt like opportunists, not a professional job. At least they were nice enough to close the front door when they left, so the cats didn’t get out.

Our e-mail system didn’t get that to us till several hours after Paul sent it; after we e-mailed him back this morning, he sent an update: “The cop that showed up thought that he’d managed to pick up the guy at around 1 am – he’d been called out by someone reporting a vehicle prowl a little further up north, and apprehended a guy with a bleeding right hand.”

That photo is from Ray, who says his car is the wheel-less Honda Fit reported by Justin in this comment on last night’s Junction wheel-theft report. That’s not the only car-targeting crime we have received word about today:

Somebody smashed Mark‘s car window near Fairmount Playfield. He says it appeared to be an isolated incident, at least on his block (5000 block of 38th SW – map), and he also sent a report of the weapon:

Two more reports to share, ahead:Read More

This is just out of the WSB inbox, from Daphne, who wanted to alert others to what happened at her home near Hill/41st (map) a little while ago:Read More

Brian at TouchTech Systems in The Junction sent that photo Wednesday – he’d noticed this car parked in the pay lot at 42nd/Edmunds (map) for a while, with wheels, until yesterday morning. He notified the owner, and by late afternoon, the car was gone. Same kind of theft happened to Drury‘s husband’s car – read her story, and Amy‘s burglary report, just ahead:Read More

Desiree is not only upset about something that happened to a friend of hers, she wants to make sure it doesn’t happen to you, so she e-mailed WSB to share the story, so you know what and who to watch for – read on:Read More

From the neighborhood east of Lincoln Park, an alert about two early-morning sightings of apparent would-be mail thieves:Read More

A multitude of updates from police at tonight’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting – but there’s one we wanted to get to you first: A few more details about the “home invasion” robbery late last night at 12th/Myrtle. One concerned neighbor came to the meeting in hopes police would have more information to share, and they did: Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen said they don’t believe it was random — “we think they knew what they were looking for,” possibly with some kind of drug involvement. He says the two robbers were masked, believed to be Hispanic, and “forced their way in after knocking on the door.” The two victims they attacked were men, two of the four adults who were in the home along with one child. Lt. Paulsen reiterated that the victims weren’t the ones who called the police – after they drove downtown to Harborview Medical Center to get treatment for one victim’s injuries, the hospital called SPD, and that’s when officers went to the 12th/Myrtle home. “The scene was pretty extensive,” Lt. Paulsen noted, wth some of the loot left strewn “down the block.” He says because victims and suspects aren’t believed to be totally strangers, “it might not be too difficult to follow up on,” though no one’s been arrested yet. More updates on other cases, coming up later.

Posted at SPDBlotter: Two people broke into a home in the 1200 block of SW Myrtle (near Riverview Playfield; map) late last night and held residents at gunpoint, beating two of them before getting away. Police say they first found out about it when one of the victims was driven to Harborview Medical Center for treatment. We’ll be checking for more info on this beyond what’s in the blotter entry. We’re also likely to hear more at tonight’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting (7 pm, Southwest Precinct, all welcome). ADDED 12:37 PM: A few more details from Lt. Steve Paulsen at the precinct: “4 adult and 1 child victims were inside. There was an assault on two of the male victims which required hospitalization.. Some of the stolen items were recovered a short distance from the home. No suspects have been arrested yet.”