Two West Seattle Crime Watch items tonight:

HATE-CRIME ARREST: From the SPD Significant Incident Reports file:

On 12-01-2020 at 2142 hours, officers were dispatched to a hate crime offense at an apartment complex in the area of 35 Av SW and SW Avalon Way. The complainant was calling to report that a tenant there had assaulted another tenant in the common area of the building and had also been calling the victim racial and derogatory names. Officers arrived on scene and developed probable cause for a hate crime. The suspect had returned to her apartment and refused to open the door for officers. The Hostage Negotiation Team was called to the scene, several CIT officers were on scene, and a search warrant was applied for while officers attempted to convince the suspect to leave her apartment. Ultimately, the warrant was signed and SWAT assisted in forcing entry to the apartment. The suspect was taken into custody without incident and booked into the King County Jail.

We don’t know the suspect’s status yet. Meantime – hate crimes are another category of crime that’s up this year, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which said earlier this week that it’s filed charges in 51 hate-crime cases this year, compared to 38 last year, and 30 in 2018.

PACKAGE THEFT: From Monica:

We had some packages stolen off our front porch (Monday) afternoon off 46th Ave SW & Hudson. We have video from our front door camera. Sounds like he may have hit several houses in the area … A good reminder to grab packages quickly. They were not out there long, but he was obviously scouting the area.

Other neighbors caught that he was driving a white van – seemingly alone. He was driving and hopping out of the van to grab packages.

A police report was filed. (P.S. As we got ready to publish this, a White Center community-group crime briefing also featured discussion of a white van involved in package thefts.)

(Sunday’s arrest scene – WSB photo by Patrick Sand)

Three days after a man was shot while driving in an Alki alley, the suspect arrested shortly afterward is charged. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has charged 35-year-old Garrett R. Heinemann with first-degree assault and first-degree burglary. The charging documents confirm that the victim is a neighbor of the suspect, in the same block of 60th SW where the shooting happened; the victim moved to Alki, from California, just two weeks ago. He told police he had never seen Heinemann before the shooting, which happened shortly after he left his apartment to drive somewhere to get coffee. He told police the suspect stepped out in front of his car in the alley, stopped him, and then told him to put his hands up, so the victim thought it was a robbery – but without saying anything else, he said, the suspect opened fire. Police say five bullets were fired into the victim’s front windshield, and six into the rear passenger-side window; 10 casings were found around his car.

(SPD photo, Sunday)

Minutes after the shooting, the charging documents say, Heinemann walked into a nearby apartment and attacked one of the two people who were inside; they managed to escape, and he fled out a window. The documents don’t have any information about a possible motive, noting that Heinemann refused to talk with detectives. As we previously reported, and as is noted in the charging documents, he has no criminal history. The charging documents say the gun Heinemann is accused of using, a .40-caliber pistol found at Alki Beach Park, is one that he has owned for eight years, and that he has a concealed-weapons permit. He remains in King County Jail, bail set at half a million dollars. Harborview Medical Center told us Tuesday that the victim had improved to satisfactory condition, though the charging documents note he faces additional surgery.

Three items in West Seattle Crime Watch this afternoon:

(WSB photo, Sunday)

ALKI SHOOTING FOLLOWUP: The man shot in an Alki alley on Sunday has improved to satisfactory condition, Harborview Medical Center tells us today. Meantime, the man accused of shooting him remains jailed, bail set at half a million dollars. The probable-cause document doesn’t shine any light into a possible motive. It says the shooting was reported to 911` by someone who recognized the suspect as a nearby resident. Another caller said the same man had broken into their apartment and tried to pistol-whip someone who fought back and suffered only minor injuries. Yet another nearby resident said he saw the suspect, who he’s known for two years, walk down the alley holding a gun before crouching behind a truck, then standing up, stopping a car coming down the alley, and shooting into that car through its windshield. He then, police were told, ran to the beach, where he is reported to have dumped the gun and told someone, “Just watch, it’s going to get crazy.” Then, police say, the suspect ran back inland toward Admiral, and was arrested in the 3000 block of 61st SW. He is not yet charged but is being held for investigation of assault and burglary; as we noted in Sunday’s coverage, there’s no indication of a prior criminal record.

Next, a reader report:

APARTMENT PEEPER: Elsewhere on Alki:

(Sunday) night at about 10:15 pm my boyfriend and I were lying in bed at our apartment, which is on the bottom floor of a complex on Bonair Pl SW, right off Alki. When he got up to go to the bathroom, I looked out the bedroom window to see a man on his stomach peeping into our bedroom watching me and potentially us for the past 15 minutes. When I yelled for my boyfriend and ran out of the room, I went into the living room where I could see him army-crawling away into our neighbor’s side yard. He then got up and walked onto the street where he began to peer into their car windows. He then continued to look at our bedroom window but then noticed me in the living room calling the police and took off running. He was wearing darker jeans and I could see his white underwear because his pants were falling down a bit (either from crawling or because they were undone) and he had a grey puffy jacket on. He is medium build, between 5’10 and 6 feet tall and of hispanic ethnicity. Please use any of this information to let our community know that this guy is on foot and either lives in the area or visits frequently enough to know the neighborhoods off of Alki. This is disgusting and outrageous and a complete violation of privacy.

A police report was filed.

And from the Southwest Precinct:

BURGLAR SOUGHT: The photo and report are being circulated by police:

On 11/12/2020 just after 0300 hours, the male suspect pictured above forced entry into the secured parking garage of the Holden Court Apartments at 931 SW Holden St. While inside, the suspect prowled a vehicle and broke into several storage units using a baseball bat to damage the locks and doors. The suspect was associated with a female … who was contacted and released at the scene. (She) claimed she only knew the suspect as “James” and just gave him a ride to the location. Assistance is requested in identifying this residential burglary suspect.

If you have any tips, refer to SPD case 20-317947.

Earlier this week, the Southwest Precinct issued an auto-theft alert, noting that it’s up 14 percent in the past month compared to the same time last year. And tonight, we have two reader reports about stolen vehicles:
STOLEN ACCORD: From Josh:

My car was stolen overnight. It’s a beige-colored 1997 Honda Accord. A police report has been filed and we’re hoping to find the car ASAP. Might be good to remind the neighborhood to keep their cars locked. License plate is AJJ1695 and we’re in Fairmount Park on 37th Avenue.

STOLEN CHEVY PICKUP: From Steve:

Stolen ’95 Chevrolet Pickup, stock 4x, WA plate B18708T– from 4800 block 41st Avenue SW sometime last 4 days.

If you see either one – or any other stolen vehicle – call 911.

Three West Seattle Crime Watch notes today:

BURGLARY/HIT-RUN: This diesel pickup truck is being sought in connection with a burglary and hit-run in Highland Park on Wednesday.

If you have any information, the case number is 20-328142.

BURGLARY/CASING: Keep watch along alleys, Andreas advises: “Last Sunday at 0900, my wife and neighbor came upon two men … breaking into my alley garage. They sped away in a white BMW when noticed. They returned Thanksgiving morning, slowly moving down the alleys in a large white van to finish the job. I assume they are still in the area looking for targets of opportunity while people are away.” This happened in a neighborhood near The Junction.

SHOOTING FOLLOWUP: We checked with police earlier this week to follow up on last week’s shooting at a house in the 6900 block of 24th SW. No arrests so far. As for the repeated problems at the house where it happened, Southwest Precinct Operations Lt. Sina Ebinger tells us it’s a “complicated” situation. City files show that seven more complaints about the property have been filed since the shooting, mostly complaining about garbage. Both police and neighbors say they have tried to get the property owner to put a dumpster at the site. The owner, meantime, has been pursuing a court action since early October to evict the occupants of the house, which he bought last spring; another hearing is scheduled next week.

Two reports in West Seattle Crime Watch:

PARK ASSAULT: Robin emailed to report what happened to her high-risk teenager one week ago:

My 14 year-old son was out last Sunday biking in Schmitz Park. He’s been told to distance by his nephrologist and the Mayo Clinic physicians who monitor his rare kidney disorder, so this is one of the only outdoor activities still available to him. Sadly, he’s not allowed to see friends or family outside of our “pod,” who have been required to observe pretty extreme distancing measures to keep him from contracting COVID. Three people came up on the trail with “rock crawler” RC cars, and he asked for a second to move; they said they wanted the space and he tried to move, explaining he needed to stay socially distanced because it would be very bad if he was exposed to COVID, due to his condition.

At that point, one of the ADULT MEN then got in my son’s face (as my son left his bike behind, trying to escape up the side of a hill) screaming at him that the COVID pandemic is a hoax, that my son was a “liberal retard” for wearing a mask and staying distanced from others; then proceeded to breathe hard on my kid, following him in a menacing manner, to drive home his (rather asinine) point about the pandemic.

Moms are amazing, and one who had heard about this experience sent us video of them back in the park. We’d like to identify the man (wearing the black coat and camo backpack) who accosted my child, as well as the other two “men” (to use the term loosely) who looked on and did nothing.

Anyone who has heard about this has been disgusted, and the response has showed us that West Seattle isn’t this guy. For our kid, this really, really was rough. He has literally not seen a friend face to face since March. Not hung out, not been with peers. So “breaking quarantine” with this guy was just terrible.

They have filed a police report – 20-326928 – so if anyone has tips or encounters the same people/behavior, please call police and reference that number.

PACKAGE THEFT: Elisa emailed to report: “Just want to give the Arbor Heights community a heads up on this porch pirate hanging around a little before 1 pm today. The box he was trying to steal was an empty treat box for the postal workers so he threw it up on the lamp post and drove off.” Here’s a photo of the person and car.

Two West Seattle Crime Watch reports:

PUGET RIDGE GUNFIRE: This summary is from the SPD Significant Incident Reports file – it happened in the 6500 block of 21st SW early Friday:

On 11-20-2020 at 0027 hours, a male was sitting in his vehicle when a suspect drove by and shot at him four times. The victim’s vehicle was hit all four times, with the front passenger door being hit three times and a tire once. The victim was not injured. The victim said that he believes the suspect tried to kill him because he was there to testify in a court case.

JUNCTION VANDALISM/THEFT: Back on Wednesday, we reported someone broke a window at the Senior Center of West Seattle. There’ve been at least three other broken-glass incidents, two involving theft, according to the West Seattle Junction Association: “At West Seattle Optix, a window was smashed and handfuls of glasses were stolen; at Emerald Water Anglers, a window was smashed. In the 42nd Ave parking lot, a van window was smashed, with $2,500 of speakers stolen.”

(added at 2:44 pm) MORE VANDALISM: Just after we published what’s above, this arrived, from Gay: “Our [Vespa] scooter was pushed over and damaged while parked in the lot behind Key Bank in Alaska Junction about 1pm today. A man behaving erratically and swearing at people came up to the Scooter and slammed it on its side. Thanks to the father and son who noticed and helped get it back upright.”

Second vehicle-theft report we’ve received today. This one’s from Ryan:

Ford F-350 stolen last night after 2 am off Beach Drive near Me-Kwa-Mooks. It has a utility rack and an 8-inch lift. WA plate C99304T.

Call 911 if you see it.

9:58 AM: An unusual, and heavy, theft target in northeast Morgan Junction – the photo is from Dana, who reports, “I had a tree stolen from my truck at 39th and Graham the afternoon of November 14th. around 3:30. It is a weeping beech in a pot and weighs over 300 pounds.”

ADDED 10:07 AM: Minutes after we published that, we received one more Crime Watch report via email, so we’re adding it:

Jim reports, “Our trusty 2001 Honda CRV was stolen overnight from in front of our house – just 2 blocks south of the West Seattle Junction. It’s an older car, but reliable and needed and used every day. It also has our car seats inside. We can’t afford to replace it. And insurance won’t give us much value. Perhaps a reader has seen it. It is gold, and has a spare tire and folding bike rack on the back. The license plate is 709XMA.” Call 911 if you see this or any other known stolen car.