Three reports in West Seattle Crime Watch this morning:

BUSINESS ROBBERY: Police are investigating an armed robbery last night at Canna (WSB sponsor), the cannabis shop at 5440 California SW. Police say it happened just before 11:30 pm as the shop was preparing to close. Four masked people entered the store, two with guns drawn, according to a witness, who says they ordered three staff members and one customer to get on the floor. They took phones from the security guard and a customer, threw the phones over the counter, then stuffed cash and marijuana products into plastic trash bags and took off. Some of the products were found in a nearby alley. The robbers have not yet been found.

BURGLARY ARREST: A reader reported hearing police making amplified warnings early this morning in Highland Park. Here’s what that was about. The early police summary says officers responded to a domestic-violence disturbance around 2:30 am near 9th/Trenton but the person reported to have caused it was gone. Two hours later, they were called back to the same residence after the same person forced their way in, then ran off, jumping fences to get away. A K-9 search ensued – that’s what the amplified warnings were about (police policy is to warn suspects that a dog is being deployed to look for them) – and a suspect was found and arrested.

BICYCLE THEFT: The photo and report are from an Arbor Heights resident:

This guy came into our yard with bolt cutters in hand and rode off with one of our bikes (he left his own bike behind). If he’s riding around with bolt cutters then I assume he’s looking for other bikes as well. (Stolen) bike is a black Novaro Buzz.

The victim says this has been reported to police.

From Derek McCloud, manager of the Seattle Public Schools-owned Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex:

Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex had the locks cut to the equipment shed and had a chainsaw, two weed-eaters, a hedger, and possibly more (taken). If anyone sees power tools with an SPS logo that would be from the complex.

The photo and report are from LL:

Just wanted to shoot out a warning for people to check their tire; somebody tried to slash 2 of my tires.

Happened sometime between Saturday midnight and this morning. In the alley 42nd & Raymond.

11:52 AM: The photo and report are from Lisa in Upper Fauntleroy:

Our 2006 white Toyota Sienna – plate ABK5160 – was stolen from in front of our home this morning. The kayak rack was attached. Please keep an eye out for it.

If you see it, call 911

3:51 PM: Update from Lisa – her husband went driving around looking for their car and found it, at 15th/Cambridge.

Two reader reports in West Seattle Crime Watch:

CATALYTIC CONVERTER STOLEN ON THE STREET: Jeff saw it happen:

I witnessed a catalytic converter theft on Alki this afternoon.

At approximately 12:00 PM, I was jogging down the hill at California Way SW leading to Harbor Ave SW (near Marination Ma Kai) when I saw a man underneath a parked silver Toyota Prius. Another man was standing next to the car. They were both white, in their late 20s or early 30s, and wearing backward baseball caps and undershirts. A woman in a parked silver Nissan Pathfinder without rear or front plates was looking back from the driver’s seat at the 2 men. After a few seconds, they had retrieved the Prius’s catalytic converter and ran toward the parked SUV, and then all 3 drove off. I took a picture of the Nissan and attached it.

Hopefully I got the make/model of the getaway car correct, would appreciate input from anyone who might be better at identifying cars from suboptimal pictures. I filed a police report and am awaiting a case number.

Jeff also left a note for the Prius’s owner and has connected with them.

ABANDONED BICYCLE: Mason saw this abandoned bicycle both days this weekend:

There was a bike left on the side of street on Holgate & 44th … (Sunday) it was still around, maybe someone stole it, then left it? Any reports of a missing old blue road bike?

Three reports in West Seattle Crime Watch:

MAILBOXES BROKEN INTO: From AL:

While walking my dog this morning I noticed that my mailbox on Cloverdale and most mailboxes on the 8400 block of 25th Ave SW were busted open. I’ve reported to SPD non-emergency but thought your readers would like to know.

TENNIS COURT VANDALISM: Players arriving at the Solstice Park tennis courts this morning noticed two nets had been tampered with and another appeared to have been cut down and taken, with only this (lower left) left behind:

It’s been reported to police.

AXE SUSPECT CHARGED: One followup today – a felony charge is now filed against the man accused of swinging an axe at a West Seattle Junction 7-11 employee on the Fourth of July. 29-year-old David D. Ailep Jr. is charged with second-degree assault. The charging documents say that the employee had asked Ailep to leave the store because he was acting aggressively, yelling, and throwing items on the floor. Her shift was almost over; her husband was waiting outside to drive her home, and she went out to tell him she needed to do a few more things. Ailep had just left and confronted her outside the store, the documents say, pulling out the axe and swinging at her; she told police that if she hadn’t backed up to get out of the way, he would have hit her in the head/neck/chest. The employee’s husband subsequently got out of his car and used bear spray on Ailep, who police say then fled; they found him in an alley a block away, lying on the ground, the axe under him. Ailep remains in the King County Jail, bail set at $150,000.

Two reports in West Seattle Crime Watch:

CARS VANDALIZED: The photo and report are from Pelicans:

Sometime overnight, someone broke windows in 5 vehicles on both sides of the street on the 3300 block of Beach Drive SW, at Constellation Park. One had five broken, some one, two or three. The perps worked from the street side, as well as the sidewalk side. All vehicles were SUV’s. The only other cars parked there were a Prius and a sedan, which were untouched.

An SPD officer was cruising by sometime after dawn and noticed all the damage and the glass in the road. He took photos and filed a report. The incident # is 2021-171103. He said he thought this was vandalism versus done for the purpose of car prowling.

Apparently no car alarms nor anything else was heard. Please, if any one has overnight video, or heard/saw anything, contact SPD and reference the above incident number.

AXE ARREST FOLLOWUP: We reported Monday on a Fourth of July arrest – a man accused of trying to attack a Junction 7-11 employee with an axe. Here’s what more we’ve found out about the suspect: He’s 29 years old, still in jail as of this morning, and held not only in connection with this incident, but also on a failure-to-appear warrant in an unrelated assault case, We looked up the documents in that one; it’s a Municipal Court case in which he is accused of attacking a man on Capitol Hill in 2019. His prior criminal history includes an assault conviction from a 2018 random attack on a woman and her father walking downtown. Those case documents say the woman tried to defend herself with an expandable baton she pulled from her purse; he took it away and injured both her and her father. The case ended in a plea agreement and a 9-month sentence; he’d already served that much time when the case was resolved, and he was released. In this week’s West Seattle case, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is awaiting a referral from police for a charging decision.

In West Seattle Crime Watch:

ABANDONED BICYCLE: Ruth Anne says that Peugeot bicycle was abandoned on Puget Ridge near South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) in April, and she’s tried a variety of ways to find its owner, So farm no luck, so she’s trying here too. If you think it’s yours, we’ll connect you.

HIT-RUN #1: From Mike, who says this happened around 8:40 last night:

I wanted to report a hit and run that totaled the front end of my car on 39th and Stevens in Admiral. Luckily no one was hurt and the person was caught by SPD. But I really wanted to give a huge shout-out to my neighbors, who all came out of their house to share video doorbell footage, told me what they saw, and help clean up the debris on the street. One my neighbors who got outside first, flagged down another neighbor who was driving by, and it was that neighbor who was driving followed the vehicle, called the police while she driving and got the police to stop the person who hit my car. It’s good to know that even we’re in a big city, we still have good neighbors that come together and help each other out.

HIT-RUN #2: SA reports this happened Saturday:

I was in my living room when I heard the sound of multiple impacts on vehicles. I ran out the front door in time to hear tires screech as somebody sped off south, and saw a white car pull over with the driver emerging. His car was pretty damaged, leaking radiator fluid everywhere, and he was very shaken.

Apparently a black or dark gray Toyota (Camry?) hit him from behind, and pushed him into the blue Ford truck (parked), which ramped the curb and came to rest partly blocking the road. The victim then tried to steer away from the Camry and veered into the parked Ford Focus which was facing north in the south-bound lane. That car was also leaking radiator fluids.

This was reported to SPD but we don’t have the incident number, so far.

One more incident from the Fourth of July. The preliminary police summary says this was reported just before 9:30 pm last night – here’s the narrative:

Officers responded to the 7-11 located on Erskine Way to a report of an assault. Upon arrival, officers contacted the victim, who is an employee. The victim told officers that an unidentified male came into the store acting “crazy” — throwing things around and yelling. When the male left the store, the victim followed him outside. The male turned and retrieved an approx. 2-foot-long axe from his pants pocket. The male swung the axe at the victim — who managed to get out of the way — narrowly missing the victim’s head and neck area with the blade. Another store employee pepper-sprayed the male, who fled the area on foot. The suspect was located by officers a short while later a short distance away — still in possession of the axe.

He was arrested and booked into jail.

Two West Seattle Crime Watch reader reports:

PEEL & PRESS BURGLARIZED AGAIN: In Morgan Junction, burglar(s) have again struck Peel & Press (6503 California SW), whose proprietor Dan Austin sent the photo and report:

This should be a celebratory weekend with the Fourth of July and 100% capacity for the first time in 16 months at the restaurant. Instead we walked in and found that we’ve been burglarized again. We are frantically trying to replace some critical equipment with hopes of being able to open later tonight.

ADDED: Some followup information:

Security hard drive was taken. They also got a week’s worth of my kitchen’s tips :-(. I just want neighbors to be aware and if folks want to buy some food over the next … it wouldn’t hurt. Thanks to White Center Glass for moving as fast as possible to get the glass replaced early next week and to the folks at The Bridge for helping me, temporarily securing the back door. The business community and neighborhood always rally.

CATALYTIC-CONVERTER THIEVES’ GETAWAY CAR: The video is from Sarah:

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My husband caught these guys taking our catalytic converter on our Prius. Older model white Dodge Durango, tinted windows, silver rims. End of the license plate is 793P or 723P. Contact police if you see this vehicle.

This happened before 6 am today in the Fairmount Park area.

Be on the lookout for Tom‘s stolen car, a dark-blue 1997 Subaru Outback, license AXH 2450, taken from the 3900 block of 42nd SW (corner of SW Bradford) on Wednesday night. If you see it, call 911.

(WSB photo)

That’s a photo of Tilorae Shepherd, the 22-year-old Federal Way man shot and killed at Alki on Monday night. Just before family and friends gathered at the beach this evening for a memorial, charges were filed in the shooting that took his life and injured three other people.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has filed a second-degree murder charge and two first-degree-assault charges against 19-year-old Milton Arnold III of Des Moines, who’s been in custody since shortly after the shooting. The charging documents tell the story of what witnesses told police happened that night.

First – the charging documents reveal that while Arnold has no history of criminal convictions, in addition to the domestic-violence arrest last November that we mentioned in our previous coverage, he was also facing possible charges in an incident less than two months ago. Federal Way police say Arnold and accomplices robbed two people at a park there, at gunpoint, then hit one of the victims in the face with his gun, and walked both into nearby woods – still at gunpoint – as they pleaded for their lives. Charges had not yet been filed in that case. One of Arnold’s alleged accomplices that day, prosecutors say, is an 18-year-old friend who was injured in the Alki shooting – the one who was allegedly driven to Harborview, with Arnold in the same car.

Harborview, you may recall, is where police found Arnold. But first, here’s what else is the charging documents:

First, the original assessment of the victims that night as being in their 30s was incorrect. Along with the 22-year-old who was killed, and the suspect’s 18-year-old friend who was wounded, the two other people who survived with gunshot wounds to their legs are described as a woman and man who are both also 22 years old.

One witness told police that those two had “confronted his group about using fireworks” – one 911 caller said the woman had been hit with one – and alleged that Mr. Shepherd came over to defend the man, and “displayed a gun.” Another witness said that the gun was in Mr. Shepherd’s waistband, and that while he lifted his shirt to show it, he did not pull it out nor use it in any other way. As noted earlier, there had been a 911 call about a dispute involving a gun even before shots were fired; then the calltaker heard gunfire while that caller was on the line.

The documents say officers found nine fired 9mm casings at the scene along with two .25 caliber casings

Witness and vehicle descriptions were circulated among police, and when officers got to Harborview Medical Center about 15 minutes after the shooting, they saw a gray BMW arrive with two women and two men. The latter were Arnold and his previously mentioned friend, who had a gunshot wound to his abdomen. Police saw two guns in the rear passenger seat where Arnold had been sitting. Arnold matched a description given by witnesses, so officers took him into custody and impounded the car. (The two women in the car were questioned and said they had gone to Alki with Arnold but weren’t with him when the shooting happened, nor did they know his friend who was wounded.)

The other man who was shot was interviewed by police at the hospital, He said he and the woman who was shot – his partner – were riding scooters at Alki when they ran into Mr. Shepherd, an acquaintance of his. A short time later, he said, a firework hit his partner in the head, They started confronting people nearby, trying to find out who was responsible. At one point when they were asking two men if they had seen who did it, Mr. Shepherd came up behind him. The other men reportedly said, “Don’t come over here with that s—t, don’t come over here with that,” and then, the shooting survivor said, one man pulled a pistol out of his pants and shot Mr. Shepherd from just a few feet away. The survivor started running, and that’s when he and his girlfriend were shot.

Police talked to her too; she said she and her boyfriend got into “a little confrontation” with people over the fireworks but worked it out and were walking away when the two men, believed to be Arnold and his friend, said something like, “why are you beefing with my people” – and then the argument heated up again, followed shortly thereafter by gunfire. She said the two men were with two women who matched the description of the ones who arrived at Harborview with Arnold and his friend.

In trying to sort out who was armed and who fired shots, police included additional information in the charging documents: No gun was found on or near Mr. Shepherd, but a Glock .357 SIG magazine was found on him. A relative later contacted police and said Mr. Shepherd may have had his Glock 32 Gen 4 pistol with him when he was killed and provided the serial number. No casings of that type were found at the scene, just the 9mm and 25-caliber ones mentioned earlier. Detectives believe all the 9mm casings were from the same gun.

Earlier today police got a search warrant for the impounded BMW. Inside it they found a Glock 32 – but with a different serial number than the one given by Mr. Shepherd’s relative – along with a Beretta that fires “the equivalent of” a .25-caliber round, and a 9mm “ghost gun,” made from different parts. Neither the Glock nor the Beretta had ammunition but the 9mm gun had a 21-round magazine with ‘additional live 9mm rounds.” They also found a blue hat similar to what witnesses had described, and a bloody white T-shirt.

A judge set Arnold’s bail today at $2 million. He remains in the King County Jail and will be arraigned later this month.

Two West Seattle Crime Watch notes today:

ANOTHER OFFERUP USER ROBBED: The newest post on SPD Blotter spotlights three recent armed robberies of people who say it happened after they responded to OfferUp ads – two of them in West Seattle. We’ve already reported on the first one, two weeks ago in Riverview. SPD says the other West Seattle case happened this past Tuesday (June 29th), in which “a man reported he had met a man purportedly selling a car on OfferUp in the 6500 block of 30th Avenue SW, only to have the seller pull a gun on him, demand cash, and threaten to shoot him.” If you have any information about these cases, you can call SPD’s Robbery Unit at 206-684-5535.

SUSPECTED CATALYTIC-CONVERTER THEFT ATTEMPT: Emailed by a reader:

We scared off a trespasser the police believe was attempting to steal our catalytic converter at approximately 6:30 this morning, 5400 block of 49th Ave SW. A white male, 30’s, dark T-shirt and jeans, was brazenly checking our vehicle in our driveway, near our open front window. When the trespasser saw/heard us, he ran to the passenger side of a small, ‘90-’00 black sedan, headed north on 49th. SPD was quick to respond but our cameras did not get a vehicle plate number so these folks are likely still prowling.

You might have seen regional-news reports about more than a dozen arrests today in what federal agents describe as “an investigation involving armed drug trafficking.” We’ve learned that one of the warrants was served in West Seattle. A reader told us a major law-enforcement response including federal agents and local officers had been at her apartment building near Westwood Village early today. We didn’t get an address but did confirm with authorities that one of the search warrants involved today was for an address on SW Barton. We don’t know yet if an arrest resulted at that location; the court documents made public so far don’t match addresses to names. In all, the U.S. Attorney’s Office says 12 people were arrested today in King and Pierce counties, indicted for alleged drug-distribution conspiracy. Its announcement adds, “Today alone officers seized 48 guns, 2 kilograms of cocaine, 2 pounds of methamphetamine, several thousand fentanyl pills and two illegal marijuana grows. An additional $120,000 cash was also seized.” Agencies participating in the raids included FBI, DEA, Seattle Police, HSI, Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, King County Sheriff’s Office, Valley SWAT, Kent Police Department, ATF, and Narcotics/Currency/Firearms K9 support from seven agencies.