Update: Police/helicopter search ends with Highland Park arrest

| Crime | Helicopter | Highland Park | West Seattle news

ORIGINAL 2:39 AM REPORT: The law-enforcement helicopter Guardian One is involved in a search in Highland Park right now, as are at least two K-9 units and other police — we know they’re looking for one suspect, but don’t know yet what it is that he’s being sought for — we’re monitoring via scanner, where it appears they’ve been discussing the Riverview Playfield area (map) as well. 2:49 AM UPDATE: “One in custody” is the report on the scanner, so the search is over. (The chopper led the ground crews right to the suspect with one of its specialized nighttime tracking capabilities.) 3:45 AM UPDATE: Southwest Precinct Lt. Ron Smith confirms this was related to the 1:32 am “motor vehicle accident” call on the 911 log at Highland Park Way/West Marginal Way (map) – he explains that before officers arrived, there was a report “a driver from an involved vehicle fled from the scene.” The “adult male” suspect who was subsequently arrested was booked, he says, for hit-and-run.

Ivy E June 25, 2009 (2:45 am)

Been listening to it for a while. Woke up my roommate. So far just increasing radius along that greenbelt at the bottom of Highland Park Way.

Djk June 25, 2009 (2:50 am)

45 minutes so far…seems to only be circling over Riverview Park, along the ballfields…over and over and over again, no searchlight, no hovering, just circles. As I’m writing this it only takes about 20 seconds between when it’s right over my house, so pretty tight circle.
Wow 2:50, just suddenly stopped, sweet silence.

WSB June 25, 2009 (2:52 am)

I just posted, they got the guy they were looking for. Will be trying to find out now exactly what he allegedly did – whether it was related to the motor-vehicle accident call a bit earlier at HP Way/W. Marginal, as one bit of scanner traffic indicated … TR

Djk June 25, 2009 (2:53 am)

Thank you so much for reporting this part…”The chopper led the ground crews right to the suspect with one of its specialized nighttime tracking capabilities.)”…I wanted so much not to be annoyed at how loud it was and how it really did not seem to be performing ANY function by the constant circling…but now I know.

WSB June 25, 2009 (2:59 am)

It was pretty amazing to listen to – it sounded as if the suspect was in the greenbelt, “You don’t know how thick this is,” one officer said at one point – and the chopper was giving them specific distances, so definitely an invaluable part of the search. Subsequent scanner traffic does suggest this is related to the accident report I mentioned; I’ll see if I can find out anything more from my overnight source, otherwise, I’ll check in the am for a followup.

MaryKaye June 25, 2009 (3:00 am)

messaged/followed you on Twitter about this. thank you, great job.

Ivy E June 25, 2009 (3:02 am)

I searched google when I heard the chopper for “developing news west seattle” and it led me straight to this site. I’m newish to this particular area, and i can tell already I will be visiting this space a lot. Thanks for the hard work!

Sissy June 25, 2009 (3:05 am)

For those of you who were monitoring the scanner during all of this, I’m pretty sure the SPD were referring to my husband when they said they were going see if the person outside of the park matched the description of the suspect. As I heard the SPD say this over the scanner, my husband came in from the front yard to tell me a SPD car was sitting in front of the house. I’m not sure what the suspect looks like but the officer outside our house was able to determine my husband was not who they were looking for without talking to my husband. Kind of weird to realize the police are talking about you!

My husband has gone down to ask the SPD what’s going on. We’ll keep you posted!

WSB June 25, 2009 (3:06 am)

Thanks, Ivy E – yes, 24/7 news is our specialty. Two of us work on this site fulltime — I stay up really really late, and my co-publisher gets up really really early. But tips/questions from people are VITAL – so thanks to MaryKaye, who was my first word, via Twitter, that there was a chopper search happening – I was away from the keyboard/scanner for the preceding 15 minutes. We are based near Lincoln Park so this was too far for us to have heard the chopper ourselves – Tracy