Crime Watch: Latest reports; plus, hear from the new captain
Before we get to the latest highlights of reports from the Southwest Precinct, we wanted to mention you have two chances today to hear from Captain Joe Kessler, who has been running the SWP for more than two months now (we first caught up with him on his first day in the office, April 9th): At 2 pm today, he and other SW Precinct leaders will be at City Hall downtown to brief the City Council’s Public Safety, Human Services, and Education Committee on crime trends and other issues/achievements in our area; you can watch live on the Seattle Channel (on-air or online), and we’ll be there to cover it, too. 
Then tonight at 7 pm, Capt. Kessler will be at the monthly West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting — which always includes an all-star lineup of local police leaders, but he hasn’t had a chance to join them yet. This is also the monthly meeting where you can come ask police about any concerns in your neighborhood; a new name likely will be chosen before the night’s out, too (here’s our report on previous suggestions); you can see the agenda here — including a list of phone numbers you might want to keep handy for neighborhood nuisances as well as crime-related problems. Now, on to a few notable incidents from reports processed over the last several days (there’s often a day or more of lag time, so this doesn’t include incidents from most of Sunday, or Monday), including two scam reports and the latest home/car break-ins:Read More
Police confirm arrest in early-morning West Seattle HS burglary
Police confirm a break-in early this morning at West Seattle High School – Victoria tells WSB there was quite the commotion on her section of Walnut between about 3:30 am and 5:30 am, when a car apparently related to the investigation was finally towed; Lt. Steve Paulsen at the Southwest Precinct says one “adult” was arrested and they suspect “some seniors (were) involved as well.” Thanks also to Todd for pointing out this brief online citywide-media report, which suggests the burglars had targeted computer equipment.
Crime Watch reader report: Burglary with unusual loot to look for
Just out of the WSB inbox, from Susan, who hopes you’ll keep an eye out for the unusual items stolen from her:
Bummed to report that my house (off Charlestown near Schmitz Park) was broken into yesterday. Came home from work to discover a slashed screen, window popped out of place. They must have been on foot because all they took were the contents of my change jar and a little safe.
I’m bummed about the safe–and the burglars are going to be bummed, too–because it held all the spare change from my travels around the world. Which is to say, if the burglars thought they were getting another pile of
quarters, they are sorely mistaken, as they got a bunch of coins from around the world, coins that the bank won’t even convert back to U.S. currency. Sentimental value only.
The safe was a gift–it was made out of an old P.O. box. I’m picturing it on the side of the road somewhere; or perhaps dumped in Schmitz Park. If any of your readers find a small old PO box safe, please put them in touch! [WSB note: E-mail or call us if you see it]
And hurrah for my neighbors, who saw the commotion (three police cars responded) and came over to check in on me.
Possible county crimefighting cuts: Meeting announced
Though this is from the King County Sheriff, whose crimefighting turf starts just over the line in White Center, it’s part of a larger county criminal-justice-funding concern that in the end could affect us all – since, for example, it’s county prosecutors who handle city crimes too – so we wanted to share this announcement of an upcoming public meeting you might want to attend:Read More
West Seattle Crime Watch: Girl approached; squatters booted…
The WSB inbox has been devoid of first-person crime reports lately, so when we dropped by the Southwest Precinct this afternoon to check the latest police reports, we asked Lt. Steve Paulsen if things are indeed as quiet as they seem. Not entirely crime-free, as you’ll see in this report, but yes (knock wood), it’s been relatively quiet. After more than a dozen burglary arrests, for example, they think the word’s starting to get out on the street that you’re not so likely to get away with it in West Seattle. That said, we’ve got some summaries to share, including burglaries and car break-ins as well as the search for a man who tried to lure a girl into his car, gang-affiliated squatters getting the boot, more cases of alert witnesses helping foil crimes, and more – all from a full week’s worth of reports:Read More
Update: GameStop armed robbery suspect arrested
(photo added 3:40 pm)
ORIGINAL REPORT: Thanks to those who have called/e-mailed about the major police presence in the 16th/Trenton vicinity (map) and beyond — police tell us they are looking for an armed-robbery suspect who got away on foot. Working to get info on what/where was robbed. 3 PM UPDATE: More information from Detective Nick Bauer at SWP: Officers are going through neighborhoods in the late 8000s/9000 block areas of 16th and 17th looking for the robber, who held up the GameStop store on Roxbury with a gun. He even pointed the gun at an officer at one point but managed to get away. We’ll keep you updated on the search as we find out more. 3:18 PM UPDATE: Lt. Steve Paulsen just confirmed that the suspect has been arrested. 3:33 PM UPDATE: GameStop has this sign on the front door.
Police were still inside the store interviewing employees about the incident as of 3:20 pm. We have a phone call and email into their coporate headquarters in Texas to see when the store might reopen.
Update: Southwest Precinct info on Camp Long molestation report
As promised last night, we have more information from the Southwest Precinct today regarding a 12-year-old girl reporting being molested during a field trip at Camp Long last week. Lt. Steve Paulsen tells WSB that the incident was reported through the North Precinct, which is the area where the victim lives; SWP and the Special Assault Unit are now investigating. “We take incidents such as this very seriously,” Lt. Paulsen adds, and says his staff will get a schedule of events such as field trips and group activities at Camp Long so they can keep an extra eye out.
Cove Park update: Return of the raven
Less than two weeks after somebody knocked Cove Park‘s raven sculpture off its perch, Gary Dawson of the Fauntleroy Community Association sends word tonight that it’s back, writing: “The Raven at Cove Park returned to his perch today, looking not the worse for wear. But he certainly wishes that he will not have to suffer another assault like the last one. At Cove Park, the Raven, Native American Canoe replica, and the pebbled stream bed, like the Stream Echo overlooking the fish ladder at Fauntleroy Creek, are the products of a talented Northwest artist, Tom Jay. Tom was commissioned for both projects that was both publicly funded and by local donations as well. The art is on public property and any damage to either by vandals is subject to Seattle’s code of property damage. At this time there is no lead as to the person or persons responsible for damaging the Raven, but anyone with knowledge of such should contact any of the Board members of the Fauntleroy Community Association.” (Our original report about the vandalism is here.)
West Seattle Crime Watch: Return of the report summaries
West Seattle Crime Watch has been long on reader reports and short on police reports for a while because of a change in how we access those reports, related to Seattle Police switching to a new computerized report system. But now we’re getting back into the rhythm of things, so those who are interested in these roundups can see what’s been going on. Keep those reader reports coming, though. Meantime, here are some West Seattle notes from the past four days worth of reports, plus one reader report:Read More
Cove Park vandalism update: The raven will rise again
We told you last Thursday about the raven sculpture at Fauntleroy’s Cove Park getting knocked off its perch, apparently a victim of vandalism. As we mentioned in that report, it’s in the custody of Gary Dawson from the Fauntleroy Community Association; we checked back to ask him its fate, and he says: “We have a plan on how to repair it and reinstall, but it will take some time to get at it. It won’t be that big of a job, just need to dedicate time to work on it.” No updates on the search for whoever’s to blame.
Friday night Admiral attack: Update from police
Just got a call from Sgt. Jeff Durden at the Southwest Precinct with the latest – and a clarification – on the Friday night attack that injured a woman walking her dog in west Admiral. First of all, Sgt. Durden wanted to clarify part of what was reported in a tv story last night (as we mentioned here) – he says police do NOT have anyone in custody, and do NOT know of any similar attacks in West Seattle. In addition, he says, they are NOT certain that the man was trying to steal the woman’s purebred Siberian Husky – Sgt. Durden notes that the man did not say anything to the victim; that was simply her speculation that theft might have been his motive. Here’s the description information they have so far: Black man in his 30s or 40s, about 6-1 and 180 pounds, wearing a red sweatshirt and dark-colored jeans, and one final descriptive detail from the report, “(the suspect) did not smell very good.” Southwest Precinct detectives are continuing to work on the case and promise to let us know of any new developments.
More details on Friday night Admiral incident
Apparently there’s been at least one tv report on this tonight, though we can’t find anything online; it reportedly further confirms the info we shared Friday night that an assault was the reason for the air and ground search in the Admiral area – and according to two other unofficial reports we have, the victim, who was out walking her dog, did not know her attacker. She’s recovering; we will add any links we can find on tonight’s coverage if they’re posted, and we’re hoping to get the police report on this in the morning. 11:07 PM ADDENDUM: According to the channel 5 report (still not online), the victim says the attacker was trying to steal her purebred Siberian Husky; she told the station that police may have a suspect in custody after a “similar attack,” and more info should definitely be available tomorrow.
Crime Watch reader report: Car vandalism
E-mailed by “j”:
Last night around 1130 we were awakened by some banging that sounded like fireworks. I went out on the front porch and saw nothing …. all was quiet. About 15 min later there were a couple of police cars in front of our house. Someone got ALL of the windows smashed out of their car and apparently other cars on the block were hit. We’re on 44th and Findlay [map].
(P.S. Crime Watch side note for those in north West Seattle — sorry, still no further details on last night’s search.)
Update: Checking on Admiral-area search
Since more than a few people have e-mailed and texted, just wanted to let you know we’re monitoring the scanner to see if we can figure out what the Admiral-area search is about (perhaps there’s an area resident with direct knowledge?) … nothing obvious so far (and we have the helicopter frequency on our scanner too so we usually hear what they’re up to), and there’s no 911 medic calls in the area, which at least indicates that if a crime was involved, nobody’s hurt. We’ll update if we find anything out. 10:42 PM UPDATE: This is still not official info but two different e-mails have said the same basic thing so we feel comfortable about passing it along – apparently some kind of assault happened in the area. Absolutely no information about circumstances, but police told one resident that they were looking for an “assault suspect.” Don’t know if that person was found – still no scanner traffic hinting at something active. 12:39 AM POSTSCRIPT: Still not another shred of info, anecdotal, scanner, or otherwise. Will try our best to see if we can reach anyone at the precinct tomorrow for followup.
Community Safety Partnership report #1: Shootings update
First of at least two reports from tonight’s West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting — Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen had a little information about the mother and son shot in their Delridge duplex last week. He said both are doing OK; no one in custody right now but a possible “person of interest” was detained, then released pending further investigation. He also said the shooting was not random – the mother was definitely targeted, not sure about the 10-year-old son. Other news from tonight’s meeting included the promised briefing on “casing” (no revelations but good reminders) and plans for WSCSP’s first Officer Appreciation Day at the precinct. More on all that in the morning.
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