West Seattle, Washington
03 Thursday
(see bottom of this post for added/updated info throughout the evening)
ORIGINAL 4:21 PM REPORT: It’s the closest major mall to West Seattle so this is practically local news: A shooting is reported at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila – at least one person reported to have been hit. We are monitoring some of the scanner traffic; the search for a suspect/s appears to be continuing. Will add more info/links as we get them; this is the first report. Eerie that it was the pre-Thanksgiving weekend three years ago when the Tacoma Mall shooting happened. 4:33 PM UPDATE: Scanner says it happened “between Mac Store, Banana Republic, and main hallway” and believed to be gang-related. We are also monitoring regional news sources for any new details from scene. Here are some direct links: P-I report, KING5 report, KIRO report, more links when they show up online (here’s the Twitter stream for Southcenter mentions). The Times doesn’t have a separate story yet but its home-page blurb says 2 victims have been taken to Harborview Medical Center; scanner traffic a few minutes ago also mentioned 2 victims. 5:01 PM UPDATE: KING says the person who shot 2 men at the mall is NOT in custody at this point; officers are continuing to search the mall in case he’s still in there. 5:22 PM UPDATE: First eyewitness account we’ve found is in a Daily Kos “diary,” of all places. “exiledfromTN” wrote:
Long story short, we were upstairs when we heard the shots. The mall was packed with people, and when the first shot went off, my Memphis upbringing told me immediately the noise was too loud to be anything else but shots. Everyone is looking around as if they’re all thinking, “WTF was that?” Then shots two and three go off, and there’s no question.
Times now has a standalone story, which says two other people were hospitalized besides the shooting victims – including “a pregnant woman who went into labor.” 6:06 PM UPDATE: Witness doing a phone interview on KIRO says it started after a fistfight between a group of young men who the witness said “looked 18, tops.” The two victims are described as “late teens/early twenties.” 7:06 PM UPDATE: One of the victims has died, according to the Times. 7:42 PM UPDATE: “WesCAddle” reports this in the comment section below:
We were there. In watching a movie at the new theater when about 30 minutes into it, they turned on all the lights and an usher came in and announced that we all needed to evacuate the mall. When we got out into the lobby of the theaters, the big metal gate was closed and we were told we would not be allowed to leave the theater. After about 10 minutes of standing around in the lobby (and watching police with automatic rifles running all over the place on the other side of the gates) the theater operators told us we could go back in and finish watching the movies, since it would probably be a while before we could leave.
Needless to say, we returned to the movie and finished it. When the movie ended they began letting people leave, and traffic was a nightmare. The police response was huge outside and inside the mall.
It was better than the movie.
ADDED 9:29 PM: We have an even more harrowing account from WSB’er “Jack Loblaw”:
My wife and I were at the Starbucks at Southcenter when the shooting occurred. We used to target shoot for hobby and knew by the second round fired that it was gunfire. Out daughter and her girlfriend ( 13 years old ) were at the theatre seeing “Twilight”. We ran for our lives. I looked back and saw that my wife had ran into Starbucks which was a trap with no way out. I ran back knowing that I could be shot and pulled her out and ran faster than I have ever run before. We got outside and I called 911. It took 45 seconds or more for them to answer. I told then that we were at Southcenter and 5 shots had been fired inside the mall. They said that there were multiple reports and that they were on it.
We were on the first floor and our kid was in the theatre on the top floor. We snaked our way up stairs and got to the theatre. There were just locking the doors of the theatre when we got there. I told them that our kids were inside and that we were not going to be locked out from them. They let us in; as I stood watch my wife searched theaters for the kids. They finally evacuated all the theaters but would not let us leave the lobby. They told us to go back into a theatre to which I replied “F-Off ” I just was in the line of fire and I refuse to be trapped in a box with no way to run.” We were held captive for what seems like an hour. Verizon cell phones DID NOT WORK. I used my AT&T Blackberry to start searching for information. I called a friend on AT&T to get info via the web. Finally we were let out.. There was at least 5 or 6 police officers with fully automatic weapons that we had to pass through on the way out. …
What is wrong with America that it is not safe to take our family to the mall ? We were just remarking 2 minutes before the shooting occurred that Southcenter looked like it had cleaned up its act and that it did not look like gang central — I guess we were wrong. Do we need to be armed to go out in public any more — ???
9:36 PM UPDATE: The person who was killed is identified (per the Times) as 16-year-old Daiquin L. Jones. 15-year-old Jermaine McGowen is the survivor. No arrest reported yet. 10:01 PM UPDATE: Channel 5 says the search inside the mall has just ended, no sign of the killer. 10:43 PM UPDATE: Later in that newscast, a relative of the victim told a reporter that the victim had just gotten out of jail “last Friday” – not clear if that meant yesterday or a week earlier. EARLY SUNDAY UPDATE: Times says Southcenter Mall will reopen today.
At this past week’s Delridge District Council meeting attendees heard a moving presentation about the Southwest Healthy Youth Partnership — which needs more people power to help keep local kids out of trouble with alcohol and other drugs, not just to keep them safe for now, but also to reduce their chances of lifelong problems – the sooner you start drinking, the more likely you are to struggle with alcohol abuse as an adult. Since knowledge is power, as the saying goes, one simple way to help — if you’re a West Seattle parent — is to complete a new survey – and you can do it online. Here’s how Renae Gaines, a local leader in this fight, explains it:
The Southwest Healthy Youth Partnership is interested in getting feedback from community members about the attitudes and perceptions of underage youth using alcohol and/or other drugs. We realize that you are a valuable source of information and the information will help the coalition to address alcohol and drug use in the community.
In late November, a survey will be sent out to 1233 community members to gather information on attitudes, knowledge and perceptions around this issue. The coalition will use the community information to develop community strategies and solutions. The survey data is important for understanding the issue surrounding underage use of alcohol and other drugs in the community and we strongly encourage community members to participate. The community members were selected randomly and will receive a survey via the United Stated States Postal Service which will include a postage paid return envelope. Or you can have the option of completing this on-line survey:
www.surveymonkey.com/WestSeattleParentSurvey . If you are a West Seattle parent and you haven’t received the survey via US mail or completed it through Madison Middle School, please take it online.The results of the survey will be distributed throughout the community after the data analysis and community members will have an opportunity to provide feedback on the results.
If you have questions about the community survey and/or information about the coalition, please contact the SPF-SIG Community Coordinator, Renaé T. Gaines: (206) 396-2945 or her e-mail: rtgaines@seattleschools.org
Another way for you to join forces with the Southwest Healthy Youth Partnership is to attend the next meeting, coming up Tuesday night — 6-8 pm, Southwest Library branch; here’s a map. (All the group’s meetings through next May are listed now on the WSB Events calendar.)
ORIGINAL REPORT: The “heavy rescue” call to 6900 Delridge (map) is a two-car crash, including a rollover, and it’s blocking the road both ways – photos in a moment. Thanks to T. Bradley for the photos above, and this info:
From what I could observe the overturned car was heading southbound on Delridge when it hit the silver Honda Civic that appeared to be parked on the west side of Delridge. Upon striking the rear driver’s side of the Civic, the gold Ford Taurus rolled over onto its roof. The Taurus appeared to be occupied by a women and 2 to 3 small children. No one was trapped and all were able to extricate themselves prior to the arrival of the first fire department units. There appeared to be minor injuries. Currently Delridge Way is blocked in both directions.
We will go check in a bit to see if the road has reopened yet. 4:09 PM UPDATE: It’s cleared, and open.
Seattle Lutheran High School‘s girls soccer team beat Ocosta today, 6-0, for 3rd place in the Washington State B Soccer Tournament. Bil Hood from SLHS adds: “Congratulations to players Ashley Shaw, Maddy Williams and Kendra Rancich, who were named to the First Team, Sea-Tac League All-Star Team; Kelsey Shaw was named Second Team; and Coach Jeff Norton was named Coach Of The Year.”
West Seattle has one official off-leash area for dogs. Go off-leash at any other park, and you’re running a costly risk. When WSB Forum members noticed a city crackdown at Lincoln Park (photo above from park’s southeast entrance), University of Washington News Lab reporter Monique Vague saw the opportunity for a news story. Not only did she find out more about the LP crackdown, but she also discovered the city’s future enforcement-expansion plans:Read More
That’s barely half the line as of about 20 minutes ago stretching southward on 39th toward Fauntleroy Way from Eastridge Christian Assembly, which is again this year giving away hundreds of turkeys (along with other groceries). As Eastridge’s website puts it, they’re doing this “to bless families who need a little extra help for Thanksgiving.” They are giving away 500 each at their West Seattle and Issaquah campuses, till noon or till they run out. (If you’d like to extend holiday help to local families in need, you can do it any time through online $ donations to the West Seattle [click here] and White Center [click here] Food Banks.)
From the West Seattle Weekend Lineup: Lots going on – starting with hundreds of turkeys to be given away 9 am-noon by, and at, Eastridge Christian Assembly (across 39th from West Seattle Bowl; here’s a map). 10 am, learn how to make wreaths, at Camp Long Lodge (here’s a map); 1 pm, Seattle Free School brings “Stocks 101” to High Point Library (here’s a map). To see what else is up today/tonight, click here to hop directly to the Saturday section of the Weekend Lineup.
Those are three of the four glass ornaments that West Seattle Hi-Yu is selling in its annual holiday-time fundraiser – designed and hand-blown by Glass Eye Studio, $25 each, proceeds supporting Hi-Yu (including all the fun summer events Hi-Yu presents, and the float its volunteers create this year to represent West Seattle in parades near and far). You can buy them from any Hi-Yu member, or be on the lookout for ornament-sellers around West Seattle — this Sunday, you will find them at the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle booth on the east side of the West Seattle Farmers’ Market (10 am-2 pm) and you’ll also find Queen Zoe and Princess Elyse from the Hi-Yu Junior Court selling ornaments Sunday, 11 am-2 pm, at West Seattle Thriftway in Morgan Junction. Another big event coming up where you’ll be able to buy them: The Kiwanis Club’s big Pancake Breakfast (which itself sounds like a great deal — all the pancakes and ham you can eat, 7 am-11 am December 6th at the Masonic Hall [map], $6 adults/$3 kids 12 and under; Santa’ll be there too – here’s the flyer). The Hi-Yu ornaments are available through Christmas — if they don’t sell out sooner!
Nasty night and more trouble on the roads – this time, a pickup truck flipped on Genesee near Avalon, blocking Genesee just east of Avalon (map) – the driver survived and is talking with police right now, while a towing crew figures out how to handle the truck. We’ll have a picture in a bit. ADDED 9:54 PM: Our short video clip shows the tow truck starting to work to get the overturned pickup off the top of that steep section of road (we had to stop rolling to get out of the truck’s way).
Found this on the High Point Neighborhood Association website, though the P-Patch will be in the Junction area — a new one next year on a site donated by West Seattle Christian Church (which is already gardening to help neighbors in need, as we reported last July). If you’re interested in the P-Patch, Here’s how to get involved. West Seattle currently has six P-Patches, per this map.
Thanks to “gatekrasher” for posting an eyewitness report and photo in the WSB Forums about an accident of some sort on Barton between 16th/17th (map). This call was on 911 as “medic response” and we don’t automatically roll on those; heading out now to see if police are still at the scene and if so, to see what we can find out. 7:16 PM UPDATE: Talked to Officer Jeff Kappel in the Seattle Police media unit; his info says it was indeed a pedestrian-vehicle accident and one person was taken to Harborview Medical Center, but that’s it for details.
Next Tuesday, Seattle Public Schools leaders are scheduled to present their proposal for the next round of school closures. We’re watching this closely because South and West Seattle have the most likelihood of finding schools on this list, since the north end has been dealing with overcrowding, but these areas have not. We don’t know yet if a media briefing is planned earlier that day, but we do know the recommendations will be formally presented to the School Board at a 6 pm workshop at District HQ, and whichever buildings are scheduled for closure will get on-site public hearings during the week of 12/15. Before that, the district has just announced two “workshops” 12/4 and 12/6 to discuss the recommendations before those hearings – read on for full details:Read More
First, the getting – We caught that quick video clip in The Junction this afternoon, as festive boxes (decorated by Swee Swee Paperie) arrived at merchants participating in the big $5,000 Giveaway – go to a participating West Seattle Junction (WSB sponsor) merchant (full list on the 2nd page of this flyer) any time starting NOW to enter (free!) the raffle for Junction gift certificates totaling $5,000. There will be three raffle drawings, starting with one at the Christmas Tree Lighting at 5 pm December 6th (44th/Alaska).
Two more Junction notes: Husky Deli has its holiday open house 5-9 TONIGHT, and also — this just in via Twitter — just launched its updated website (see it here).
Also from the “getting” file: Lora Lewis at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) sends word of bonus Internet access hours:
Are you an early riser and like to get your Internet surfing done in the mornings? Then come into Hotwire and with a drink purchase you receive a full hour of Internet surfing in the mornings from open till 10 am. More of a night owl? Then we have surfing for you too! Purchase a drink and sign in between 4 pm and close and you also receive a full hour of surfing. Between those times you still get 15 minutes of Internet surfing with a beverage too. Hotwire has computers loaded with the full MS Office suite, a printer and super high-speed connection. We’re also a great place to do any online holiday shopping too with our double firewall secure connection. Have a laptop? FREE lifetime wireless is at your fingertips.
Also from West Seattle coffee land, in addition to the Java Bean food drive we mentioned yesterday, C and P Coffee sends word that through the end of December, if you bring in a “food or diaper item” to donate to its Food and Diaper Drive, you get a free drink. One last coffee note – the other day, we mentioned that Xconomy Seattle seemed to be slighting West Seattle in its post about innovators’ favorite coffee hangouts; it heard the call and has updated the list, a bit. P.S. We are starting to assemble our annual holiday “which coffee shops are open and which aren’t” lists – if you are a WS coffee provider, e-mail us with your Thanksgiving hours! Thanks!
Not in West Seattle but with all the city-owned parkland etc. around here, certainly relevant – the city’s just set a public hearing for the proposed rule restricting guns on city-owned property – read on for the full announcement (including a new webpage through which you can send written comments):Read More
Wanted to spotlight a reader report that a Gatewood resident just posted as a comment on a Crime Watch report from last weekend — sounds like this may be a new door-to-door ruse:Read More
A side note to the Fauntleroy Way lane-reconfiguration proposal, which as we reported last week will be discussed at an open house December 1st (now that the prerequisite repaving project’s a go despite city budget woes): Cindi Barker‘s latest bulletin to the Morgan Community Association includes background on the last time something similar officially came up – voted down by Morgan Junction “stakeholders” in the neighborhood-plan process exactly 10 years ago today, as it turns out – here’s the excerpt from what Cindi sent out:
Brief history of “ Fauntleroy Way SW Boulevard” proposal as part of the Morgan Junction Neighborhood Plan process.
As part of the process to create and adopt the Morgan Junction Neighborhood Plan, the MoCA Transportation Sub-committee proposed a series of improvements. One of those recommendations was for Fauntleroy Way SW to be studied for reconfiguration into a boulevard concept. Below is the text of the draft recommendation that was presented to the public at a Validation Event on Nov 21, 1998, at which Morgan Junction stakeholders voted on all the elements of the proposed plan. There were 222 ballots returned, 79 supported the Boulevard concept, 123 opposed the concept and 20 ballots were blank for this element. (104 of the votes were cast at the event, the rest were mailed in or submitted at the town hall drop box). In addition, a “straw poll” was conducted on the day of the event by a group associated with Neighborhood Rights, which was a group in opposition with the Urban Village and Neighborhood Plan concept. The results of their straw poll was that 12 people supported the Boulevard Concept and 56 opposed the concept.
To see the exact text of what was voted down on that date, read on:Read More
When we brought you some SDOT information earlier this week about the project that’s been tearing up roads in Fauntleroy (primarily Barton toward 35th) and now has moved east of 35th, we mentioned that we hadn’t heard back from Puget Sound Energy, whose gas line is at the heart of the work. We subsequently got a call from a PSE media person who couldn’t find our phone message but did read the WSB post – so she in turn connected us to another PSE person who had more details on the project. We have lots of new details now about what turns out to be work to replace almost two miles of old metal gas piping with plastic (as shown above) – read on for more about what’s happening, where, why, when (and how come there was no general announcement sent to news sources like us, to share with you):Read More
Both from the WSB Forums: A rave for a dog rescuer, and one for a thoughtful act of neighborliness.
We’ve been tracking the county budget crunch here and on White Center Now; many components of the county budget affect far more than those in unincorporated areas — it also affects public-safety and other services provided for everyone in King County. Council leaders just announced they’ve found a way to save some of the services that were on the chopping block – here’s the entirety of their (long) announcement (P.S., you can send comments online by going here):Read More
Holiday merriment, of course, continues to gear up — free turkeys, wreath-making, the Log House Museum‘s annual gala — but this edition of the West Seattle Weekend Lineup has eclectic offerings too: Seattle Free School brings a timely class to West Seattle (Stocks 101); the Point of Order Parliamentary Law Unit welcomes you to its monthly gathering; Chief Sealth and West Seattle High Schools both have theater productions; that’s all among 38 West Seattle and WS-linked events on our handy list ahead:Read More
From the Events calendar: At 10 am, the West Seattle Garden Club meets – topic, “Winterize Your Garden,” bring your lunch, the club provides dessert and beverage, $5 donation, Alki Congregational Church, 6115 SW Hinds (map). At 1 pm, the Nature Consortium‘s free monthly guided hike through a part of the West Duwamish Greenbelt you might not have known existed – it’s a fairly easy walk, fun, and fascinating, meet at the trailhead at 14th/Holly (map); call 923-0853 if you want more info first.
When we showed you images this morning from the presentation to be made at tonight’s second “early design guidance” meeting for the Admiral Safeway redevelopment proposal, we wondered aloud if there was much difference between the applicants’ “preferred alternative” from round 1, and the “preferred alternative” this time around (rendering above). Short answer: No, except for an “alley vacation” transformed into an “alley relocation.” And the lack of change did not go over well with most of the board members – though before the meeting was over, it became an interesting case of what happens when design philosophy clashes with economic reality – read on:Read More
From tonight’s Alki Community Council meeting: Crime prevention was the major topic on the agenda, as the ACC held its last scheduled meeting of the year. Southwest Precinct crime-prevention coordinator Benjamin Kinlow had been invited to speak as a followup to a meeting last month with neighbors in the 1500 through 1700 blocks of Alki SW. That in turn was a followup to a late summer wave of break-ins in those two blocks (which spawned this WSB reader report at the time). Kinlow gave an abbreviated version of his standard Block Watch presentation, saying he hoped to return with more detailed information tailored to both the neighborhood and the residences involved. He said the security issues involved in a condo building are very different than those of single-family residences, noting that the neighborhood had both. Also he encouraged the Council to have an informal meeting prior to Night Out next August so that neighbors could meet and share information about what they see going on in their neighborhoods. ALSO: The ACC gave out recognition awards to former board members of their board. Receiving personalized coffee mugs and gift certificates to the Phoenician restaurant were Jackie Ramels, Gary Ogden, Peter Stekel, and Don Wahl.
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