West Seattle, Washington
19 Friday
(October 7th photo by WSB reader Mel)
Three and a half months after the discovery of a 16-year-old girl’s body along Highway 509 south of West Seattle, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office has released results of her autopsy. The most recent media-information list released by the KCME says Keyaleas Brewer died of “asphyxia due to strangulation” and ruled her death a homicide. When we last checked with the King County Sheriff’s Office a few weeks ago, they repeated only that it remained an “open and active case.” Back in October, as reported here, they asked for video from anyone driving on southbound 509 between the 1st Avenue South Bridge and South 112th between 5 am and 7 am on Friday, October 7th – the morning Ms. Brewer was found dead – and welcomed anonymous tips via p3tips,com or info via email at mcutips@kingcounty.gov – refer to case #C22033455.
From Nico, who says this happened in North Admiral:
We had a car stolen overnight last night. 2000 Honda CR-V, WA Plate # AJZ2148. Antisocial sticker on back window and has a roof rack. Police report has been filed. Contact me or SPD if you happen to see it.
From Jonathan:
1989 Land Cruiser
Plate BJL4073Stolen from SW Myrtle Street near (Myrtle Reservoir) park.
Incident # 2023-020722
Around 7 am today, my vehicle was stolen. I saw the thieves driving off and jumped in another car to follow. I lost them around Roxbury Safeway. If seen, please report to Police.
(Note that this is the same general area from which we received a stolen-car report Saturday.)
West Seattle Autoworks (7501 35th SW; WSB sponsor) is cleaning up after two break-ins overnight, one of which was a crash-and-grab.
(WSB photos)
First, their office was broken into around 7 pm. The burglar(s) took an empty safe. According to their security cameras, they were in a red Honda CR-V. Then after 6 am, a white van rammed the garage door on the south side of the building. The door was damaged and a battery charger and a diagnostic tool were taken.
Security video shows the van being backed into the building twice, and three burglars getting out, with one also hitting the building with some kind of tool:
West Seattle Autoworks wants customers with vehicles at the shop this weekend to know that all of their keys are safe – and they are now being kept off-site; no customers’ vehicles were damaged or otherwise touched. If you have any information, the SPD incident # is 23-019442.
SATURDAY: Sent by John:
Our blue 2018 Hyundai Elantra was stolen from in front of our house on 35th Ave between Holly and Willow. WA Plate #BIH3868. Please call SPD if you see it. Thank you.
This happened Thursday night/Friday morning.
SUNDAY: See comments – John’s car was spotted by a reader. However, his Seal Sitters equipment inside is missing – if you see cones or signs dumped somewhere, let us know!
Charges are now filed in two cases on which we reported previously:
HATE-CRIME, BURGLARY CHARGES: On Tuesday we followed up on the weekend arrests of a husband and wife accused of attacking, threatening, and using racial slurs against a neighbor in his own apartment. Today the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office filed charges against the two. 38-year-old Rosalyn J. Gearhart and 40-year-old Joshua J. Kramer are each charged with one count of residential burglary and one count of hate crime, in which the court documents allege they “maliciously and intentionally and because of their perception of the color and race of (the victim), did cause physical injury to (him).” These court documents include the same narrative we summarized extensively in Tuesday’s report, with the added detail that the victim’s “5-year-old daughter was inside the apartment during the entire incident, witnessing the assault.” The charging papers say Kramer “has out of state convictions for felony-level assault and terroristic threats” while Gearhart has no known criminal record. Both remain in jail, her bail set at $15,000, his at $50,000.
ASSAULT CHARGES IN GUNFIRE CASE: A gunfire incident in November that put a school campus into shelter-in-place has led to felony assault charges. We reported on the incident November 7; it happened around 10:30 that morning. Now 19-year-old Kenneth M. Haggith is charged with two counts of second-degree assault. The charging documents allege he shot at a car containing two people – a 16-year-old boy who is charged with shooting at Haggith in an earlier incident, and that teenager’s mother. Prosecutors say mother and son were sitting in a car at Roxhill Park that morning when a car pulled up behind them and they saw someone they identified as Haggith hanging out of the passenger window with a shotgun. They heard gunfire and decided to leave; prosecutors say the car containing Haggith followed them and that he shot at them repeatedly; police reported finding six shotgun shells in the Roxhill Park parking lot. No one was hurt but the victims’ car was damaged and the multi-program campus at 30th/Roxbury went into shelter-in-place. Witnesses provided police with a photo, phone video, and a license-plate number that led them to Haggith, a Renton resident. They finally heard from the mother late that night; she identified Haggith as the shooter. According to court documents, the dispute between her son and the defendant is apparently “over a female.” Haggith pleaded not guilty at arraignment and was ordered into electronic home detention.
Two Crime Watch reports this morning:
CARJACKING: This one is classified as a robbery/carjacking because the victim said the thief pointed a gun at him when he tried to stop him. It happened in the 4000 block of 45th SW around quarter past 7 last night. The victim told police that he was working nearby when a co-worker asked whether he had started his vehicle – he hadn’t, and he had the keys, but someone was in the vehicle and had started it. The victim approached and the thief started driving the vehicle away. The victim told police he ran after it, managed to pull open the driver-side door, and then the thief pointed what was described as a silver handgun at him. The thief then got away, last seen eastbound on SW Andover. The police summary doesn’t describe the stolen vehicle, but archived police-radio audio describes it as a red 1998 Ford Ranger with a white canopy and a St. Jude’s sticker on the back. Plate D04481A. No description of the thief. The incident # is 23-017429; any tips can be called in to the SPD Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000.
ANOTHER TRUCK THEFT: A reader sent this report of a pickup truck stolen in South Park:
Our 1992 Ford F-250 was stolen last night from 12th and Dallas. It’s blue and gray with big aluminum running boards. WA Plate #C86448U. Please call SPD if you see it. Thank you.
(Afternoon update – the pickup taken in South Park was found in Bellevue.)
Tuesday afternoon, we reported on the theft – and recovery – of two U.S. Postal Service carriers’ trucks in West Seattle. The initial response was from Seattle Police, but as commenters noted, this is a federal crime. So we followed up with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service today. Regional spokesperson John Wiegand said he couldn’t comment extensively because: “There is follow up on this investigation going on right now, with some active leads … We have a possible suspect vehicle identified and are following up on that right now.” As for who investigates from here, “We are the primary agency investigating these, SPD responded as it happened in their jurisdiction and are usually always in the loop on things happening in the city limits. That allows us to amplify our reach and investigation with resources.” They don’t have specifics to share regarding exactly whose mail was stolen, but if you learn that yours is missing – such as, via use of a stolen credit card – they want to hear from you, and Wiegand says the best way is by phone: 877-876-2455. He added: “We are working with the postal service to help prevent these from happening more. And we encourage members of the community to be on the lookout, if they see unknown individuals removing mail from a mail truck and placing it in another vehicle to please call police asap and preserve any video of they have it. Yesterday we were able to recover multiple videos from the community that will be very helpful.”
Police investigating reports of gunfire near Roxhill Park this past half-hour have found shell casings on the south side of 28th/Roxbury – at least three reported to dispatch so far. No injuries. They have found at least one witness who reported seeing someone shooting from a “gold sedan” and then heading eastbound on Roxbury. The area where they found casings is King County Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction, so deputies have been summoned.
We have followups on two West Seattle cases first reported by police via SPD Blotter last week:
BAIL SET FOR HATE-CRIME SUSPECTS: New information on these two arrests reported over the weekend comes from documents we obtained from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office after bail/probable-cause hearings. The SPDB post said that what started as a fight between neighbors ended with the arrests of two people for investigation of burglary, assault, and hate crimes. Here’s what the newly obtained documents – containing the police report’s full narrative – say happened:
The victim called police to the building in the 8400 block of Delridge Way SW where both he and the suspects, who are husband and wife, live. While on the way, police learned the victim had obtained an anti-harassment order against the female suspect but it had yet to be served. Arriving officers say both suspects had facial injuries. The female suspect claimed it all started when the victim yelled obscenities at her. She yelled back, “Is that all you’re going to say to me. Is that all you got?” Then, she said, he punched her in the face, grabbed her by the neck, and then swung at her husband when he came downstairs. The male suspect told officers he intervened to try to defend his wife. The victim, meantime, told officers it all started earlier when he saw the couple drive into the building’s parking lot, and he overheard her tell him something like “Oh look, he’s mean-mugging me,” as they proceeded to their apartment – which is over his – and continued making comments such as “I’m gonna get you, just watch, I’m gonna get you.” Then, the victim says, he heard a crash near his vehicle and found “a pile of dirt” had been poured on it, right below the suspects’ apartment window.
He called 911 and headed back into his apartment – but he encountered the female suspect, who, he said, told him, “I told you I was gonna get you. I’m gonna kill you, you stupid (n-word).” The victim says he tried ignoring her and continuing toward his apartment but that she allegedly threw an ashtray at him and then pushed her way into his apartment as he tried to close the door. He said she tried to punch him in the face; he tried to push her out. Then the male suspect came down and also entered the apartment. As he tried to intervene, everyone went down to the floor. Physical fighting and struggling continued. The victim says the male suspect punched him while yelling, “I’m going to kill you, you (n-word).” Then the male suspect walked out of the victim’s apartment while allegedly still yelling threats and racial slurs. At some point the female suspect left too, and the victim crawled toward his door to close and lock it..
Even then, the victim said, he was still in fear because of a previous incident in which, he said, the male suspect had pulled a knife on him; the report says he “believed (the two) would actually carry out their threat to kill him and believed it was at least partially motivated by his race.” Police interviewed neighbors who noted that, the report says, “it is common for (the two suspects) to make racially biased remarks.” Officers arrested the two and booked them into jail. Neither has been charged yet – prosecutors were awaiting referral of the cases – but both have had bail hearings; his bail is set at $50,000 – half of what prosecutors requested – and hers at $15,000. The KCPAO says this is the first time it’s dealt with these two people.
SUSPECT CHARGED AFTER FAILURE TO FLEE: Last week we reported another case spotlighted on SPD Blotter, that of a woman arrested in southeast West Seattle after police found her in a stolen car that they say she tried to drive away from them, repeatedly hitting SPD vehicles that had her boxed in. The suspect, 33-year-old Jaqueline N. Bruce of Snohomish, is now charged with one count of attempting to elude police and eight counts of identity theft. After she eventually surrendered, police say, they found – in her possession and in the car – checks, cards, a passport, and a driver license, all belonging to different people, plus almost 300 pieces of stolen mail addressed to “dozens” of people and an FBI special agent’s ballistic vest. (The latter was determined to have been stolen from the agent’s vehicle at his home in east King County.) Bruce has past convictions for trespassing and theft; she remains in the King County Jail in lieu of $22,000 bail.
3:22 PM: Two more USPS carriers’ mail trucks were stolen in West Seattle this afternoon; one has since been recovered, minus its contents. Both thefts were reported in the greater Alki area; the one that was found was missing its mail and packages, officers told dispatch. A home security camera from one scene is reported to have recorded a vehicle linked to the thieves, a purple early-’90s two-door Ford Ranger with a black canopy. No other details at the moment; the thefts were reported in the 5600 block of 57th SW (incident # 23-016226) and the 3300 block of Beach Drive (incident # 23-016223).
4:54 PM: According to police radio, the other one’s been found.
1:48 PM: This time, burglars hit By and By, the skateboarding/apparel shop that opened a little over a year ago on the ground floor of the Senior Center of West Seattle. Proprietor Tony emailed us to report:
Around 3 am, 3 intruders were able to smash their way into the store and steal our cash register along with clothing and skateboards.
We have since gotten our door fixed and in progress of securing the store even more.
Police have the footage from our cameras of the theft in action.
We believe we will be able to open up for regular business hours tomorrow.
We’ve asked if he can share any image(s) from the security video. This is on the same block where Menashe & Sons Jewelers was damaged by a crash-and-grab burglary attempt on Christmas Eve morning. Also in The Junction, the door at Cherry Consignment – about two blocks north – was damaged in a break-in attempt overnight Saturday/Sunday. (Added: And as we’re reminded in comments, Junction True Value was burglarized New Year’s Eve.)
6 PM: Tony has since sent these security-camera images:
We asked if there were any particular items people might look for, whether dumped or put up for sale somewhere: “They stole a lot of our store-branded clothing as well as jackets and women’s clothing. Nothing that could really be that specific or different. There was a skateboard with a Le Petite Prince graphic on it.”
Since this morning’s report on a West Seattle business break-in, we’ve heard from another business, hit by an apparent burglary attempt:
That’s the door at Cherry Consignment (4142 California SW), whose proprietor Nyla says it happened sometime last night or this morning. Whoever broke the door glass didn’t make it all the way through, as the photo shows. She’s hoping someone nearby might have caught something on a security camera or might otherwise have seen something.
Two West Seattle Crime Watch notes this morning:
COFFEE STAND BREAK-IN: The photos and report are from Erik:
Mighty Mugs Coffee – West Seattle on West Marginal was broken into last night, I just happened to be driving by as workers were cleaning up the wreckage so pitched in and will add some bags to yesterday’s pile for pickup. It looks like a vehicle was used to pull the door off its hinges and then they proceeded to trash the place, causing lots of damage.
If you have any information please contact the business and call the police, and then please patronize this business when they’re up and running again!
The police-report number is 23-014120.
DUMPED-LIKELY-STOLEN BICYCLE: Matt spotted this in Highland Park:
Seen on Henderson Place SW and 9th Ave SW.
Three notes in West Seattle Crime Watch tonight:
STOLEN CAR: West Seattle resident Dan‘s car was stolen in Burien and he’s getting the word out regionally to watch for it:
My car, a white 1997 Subaru Legacy GT wagon, was stolen this afternoon (around 1-1:30 pm) in Burien on SW 157th in the parking lot between Azteca and Value Village. License plate #2869 LEM. Video footage from Azteca shows two men pull up in a green Ford Ranger, steal the car within a few minutes. Both sped out of the parking lot after stealing the car.
It’s been reported to police/sheriffs in Burien; we’ll add the number when we get it. (Added: C23001615)
STOLEN TRUCK: This was posted via a comment, so we’re following up to get the location: “My 15-foot truck U-HAUL was stolen today around 1:00 pm. License plate AG30561 – if you see the truck, please call 911 or contact me by email: Mrgpuckett@outlook.com”
ARRESTS AFTER NEIGHBORS’ FIGHT: A post on SPD Blotter this afternoon recaps an incident to which police responded Friday evening around 5:30 pm in the 8400 block of Delridge Way SW. Police say it started with a report of a fight between neighbors and ended with a 38-year-old woman and 40-year-old man arrested for investigation of burglary, assault, and hate crime; details are here.
Some readers asked about the police search this past hour in South Delridge. Police were looking for a man reported to have violated a no-contact order and damaged some items inside his ex-partner’s apartment near 17th/Henderson. No injuries reported. We haven’t heard yet whether they found him or not. (9:44 pm update: So far, they haven’t.)
(Photo courtesy Molly’s Bottle Shop)
If you’ve been in the 3200 block of California SW today, you might have noticed that startling sight – the “parklet” structure out front of Molly’s Bottle Shop is now in pieces. Shop manager Sebastiano says a hit-run driver destroyed it just after 3 am – the collision was caught, though not clearly, on a neighbor’s security camera:
(Choose YT’s “full screen” option for a slightly better view)
If you have any information – especially if you’re the driver right behind the hit-run vehicle – please contact the shop, which is awaiting a police-report number.
Two West Seattle Crime Watch reports this evening:
(Reader photo)
THIEVES SHUT DOWN ANOTHER CHARGER: Thanks for the tips. Seattle City Light confirms that both of its electric-vehicle chargers on 39th SW are out of service because of theft. One charger’s cable was cut/stolen in November; now the same thing has happened to the other charger. And SCL’s Jenn Strang told WSB today the charger hit first was hit again last month: “The cables on the northern station at Alaska Junction were stolen in November and December and cables on the southern station were stolen between January 9th and 10th. Given that all cables have been lost at the Alaska Junction location, City Light was unfortunately forced to set these stations to unavailable.” So what’s the plan now? we asked: “In November, we submitted a request for a full contingent of replacement parts for both stations and still await delivery from the manufacturer. We are looking at solutions to help mitigate this issue moving forward, while also attempting to source replacement and back up parts to minimize downtime impacting our customers.” We also asked how widespread the problem is; Strang replied, “City Light has had cables stolen from 8 chargers in the last year, and we are seeing similar impacts to other public charging providers.”
One item from today’s police reports:
THWARTED ESCAPE IN STOLEN CAR: Around quarter past 10 this morning in the 7700 block of Detroit SW in southeast West Seattle, police say, they spotted what turned out to be a stolen Ford Escape. As they drove up to the front of the parked car, its driver threw it in reverse – crashing into an SPD vehicle behind it – then, trying to go forward, crashed into the SPD vehicle in front. Police say this cycle repeated until the driver, a 33-year-old woman, finally surrendered. According to their report, they found – either on her or in the vehicle – “multiple credit cards, checks, IDs, and more than 200 pieces of mail, which did not appear to belong to the suspect (and) a ballistic vest … that had been stolen from a law enforcement agency.” She was booked into King County Jail.
Three West Seattle Crime Watch notes tonight:
SERIAL-ROBBERY CHARGES: On Friday night, we reported that police announced an arrest in the December 4th robbery of the 35th/Barton 7-11. Today, 22-year-old Ricardo F. Valencia-Alvarez was charged in that holdup and 10 others, and an alleged accomplice, 21-year-old Cesar Sandoval, was charged too; another alleged accomplice, Daniel A. Recinos, is already in jail and charged with multiple robberies. In the 95-page charging document filed by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, investigators detail a string of robberies, mostly at gas stations, in October, November, and December, in communities including Bellevue, Mercer Island, Kent, Renton, Redmond, and Maple Valley, as well as West Seattle, White Center, and Burien. The night we reported the 35th/Barton holdup, we noted that a Burien gas station had been held up a short time later by robbers who matched the description; that robbery yielded some key evidence – the clerk fired 11 shots at the robbers as they fled, and detectives say Valencia-Alvarez posted photos of the shot-up white BMW on social media, where he added, “We had just robbed the gas station too.”
The BMW had been carjacked in Federal Way days earlier and was found a day after the West Seattle/Burien robberies, on I-90 in Kittitas County, where the suspects are accused of abandoning it and carjacking another driver to get their next getaway car. About a week earlier, on November 29th, prosecutors and police allege, the robbery rampage included Little Caesar’s Pizza restaurants in White Center and Burien. The charging documents say Valencia-Alvarez has a record with juvenile assault and theft convictions as well as a current warrant in a malicious-mischief case, while Sandoval has a record including robbery and burglary, and had just gotten out of state prison a month before the robberies started. He’s being held in lieu of $2.2 million bail, while bail for Valencia-Alvarez is set at $750,000. (Bail was set at $900,000 for the other alleged accomplice, Recinos, who’s 20.)
Also in Crime Watch, one reader report:
REPEAT VISITOR: A resident near Lincoln Park says their security camera has caught this person repeatedly prowling his property, once to steal electricity to charge a phone, another time to try to break in, and a third time to vandalize:
(updated) The incidents have been reported to police.
And a reminder …
TALK WITH POLICE THURSDAY: The next West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting – your chance to hear from and ask questions of local police – is Thursday (January 12th), 7 pm, at the Southwest Precinct (2300 SW Webster).
At a short King County Superior Court hearing this morning, the West Seattle man charged in the July hit-run death of bicyclist Robb Mason pleaded not guilty.
The judge agreed to prosecutors’ request for electronic home monitoring of 20-year-old defendant Mohamed A. Yusuf, and the defense did not object. He is charged with vehicular homicide and felony hit-run, accused of hitting Mr. Mason at a speed past 50 mph on Spokane Street while the 63-year-old victim was riding his bike home just east of the low bridge. Yusuf did not address the court; Mr. Mason’s widow Claudia Mason was in the courtroom and did speak to Judge Karen Donohue during the hearing – here’s what she told media outside the courtroom afterward:
Before she spoke to reporters, a sobbing supporter hugged her in the hallway, lamenting that “the law is not fair,” allowing the defendant to remain out of custody. The judge, in response to Ms. Mason, had contended that being under electronic home monitoring means he is in custody. In the charging documents, as we first reported last Wednesday, police say they identified Yusuf as the suspect through “scrupulous detective work” including evidence such as car debris at the scene and video from a Metro bus, and evidence gathered once he was charged included his online/phone activity, some of which involved searches, links, and messages related to the case. He is due back in court next month.
Three items in West Seattle Crime Watch tonight:
HIT-RUN HOMICIDE ARRAIGNMENT MONDAY: As reported here Wednesday, a suspect is now charged with vehicular homicide and felony hit-run in last July’s death of Robb Mason. 20-year-old Mohamed A. Yusuf will be arraigned tomorrow morning at 8:30 am in courtroom E-955 at the King County Courthouse. His family and friends sent a statement that they “would like to let the West Seattle community know that the arraignment is open to the public for anyone who can be present as a show of support for Claudia Mason and her beloved husband Robb.” The courthouse is at 516 Third Avenue.
35TH/AVALON ARRESTS: Several people asked about a sizable police response around 10 pm last night at the 35th/Avalon – including Evan, who sent this photo:
Research today yielded information that this was a stolen-vehicle recovery, with people in the vehicle when police found it – two were reported to have been taken into custody.
GARAGE BURGLARY: Karen reports from Hansen View (the neighborhood just south of The Mount) that someone broke into a neighbor’s garage Friday afternoon by smashing out a glass panel:
This happened while someone was home; the burglar(s) stole items including three bicycles, one of which Karen found a few doors down. SPD incident # is 23-005507.
Two items in West Seattle Crime Watch this evening:
ROBBERY SUSPECT ARRESTED: Seattle Police just announced an arrest in the early-morning holdup at the 35th/Barton 7-11 on December 4th. They say the 22-year-old man was identified through evidence gathered by detectives and arrested Thursday in Auburn. He is in the King County Jail, bail set at $750,000. No word on other suspects’ status in the case; when the robbery happened, police said three people were involved, and that they also were likely suspects in a holdup a short time later in Burien.
JTF BURGLARY REPORTED: Police were dispatched today to investigate a reported burglary at the Seattle Fire Joint Training Facility on Myers Way in southeast West Seattle. Dispatchers told officers that the burglar(s) were reported to have taken $5,000 in training equipment. We asked SFD for comment, but they said information would have to come from SPD, so we’re now awaiting that.
Look closely at the top half of that photo and you’ll see bolts that formerly held the Admiral Way/Belvidere USPS mailbox. We got a tip this morning that the big blue collection box was missing again, more than 11 years after its previous theft. A spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service confirms to WSB that the mailbox was indeed stolen – and says it’s just been recovered this past hour “in the Burien area.” We have followup questions out including when it happened (we recall seeing the box in place just a few days ago) and what you should do if you might have had mail in the box; we’ll add whatever we hear back.
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