No, not this morning’s robbery – no photos from that have been made available so far. These are from a holdup at the Harbor Avenue 7-11 early last Thursday. Seattle Police and CrimeStoppers have put these photos out with word of a $1,000 reward.
SPDBlotter says there were three robbers – one with a gun – and they punched the clerk in the face. They got away with cash and cigarettes. The three are described as follows:
Suspect #1 is possibly Samoan or black, 20’s, approximately 6″2″ tall, stocky build, black hair (tied up in the back), with a black jacket, jeans with a large red pattern on the back and black gloves.
Suspect #2 is possibly black, 18-20’s, approximately 5′8″ tall, medium build, dark hoody, jeans, white gloves and armed with a black handgun.
Suspect #3 is approximately 5′5″ tall, medium build, gloves, white and gray hoody with skull designs all over it and dark-colored shorts.
(added) Here’s a third photo, taken outside the store, from the SPDBlotter post:
Info? Call 911 or the Seattle Police Robbery Unit at (206) 684-5535. To be anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or send a text to CRIMES (274637) – with a message including TIP486 so it’s routed to the right case.
There’s less than a week to go to Valentine’s Day! Why not give a Valentine that will endure through the coming years? The Alki Community Council still has engraved bricks for sale. You might want to include an appropriate symbol on your Valentine Brick. Symbols depicting a single heart or a pair of interlocking hearts are available. You can download an order form at www.sealady.org or from the ACC’s AlkiNews.com site at alkinews.wordpress.com.
All orders placed before the end of February will be installed this spring in the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza by Seattle Parks & Recreation. Orders placed after that date will be installed in the fall. Please visit the listed websites for additional information. Funds raised through this sale will be turned over to Seattle Parks & Recreation and used to maintain the statue and plaza.
Thanks to Madison Middle School PTA president Kim Early for sharing word of two days of special events at the school, tomorrow and Wednesday, because of Take Your Family to School Week … everything from cooking demonstrations, to class observations, to learning something you might not know about the art of raising a middle-schooler (for example, “breaking the code” of texting — do you know what KPC stands for?) .. Read on!Read More
The city has just added a few new facets to the search for the next Seattle Police chief – including three public forums (none in West Seattle), a new website (here), and the chance for you to answer four key questions from the mayor, online or by phone if you can’t make the forums – read on for the official announcement:Read More
Police have finally published an SPDBlotter report on this morning’s West Seattle Jack in the Box holdup, with many more details than were available this morning (here’s our previous report):
Two adult male suspects entered the open back door of a restaurant located in the 4200 block of SW Admiral Way. Both suspects were wearing face masks and gloves and one of them was armed with a large silver revolver. The suspects ordered everyone to get down on the floor.
The suspects then took one female employee to a back room containing a safe and ordered the employee to open it. When she didn’t open it fast enough for them, the armed suspect struck her on the head with his gun. The victim employee opened the safe and the suspects fled the scene on foot with cash taken from the safe. The suspects remain at large.
Both suspects are described as adult black males, 5′8″ to 6′0″, with medium complexions. Both suspects were wearing hooded sweatshirts. One suspect was wearing all black clothing and the other all gray clothing.
The employee who was pistol whipped is a female in her 20’s. She was treated at the scene by Seattle Fire Department Medics and transported to an area hospital by ambulance for non-life-threatening head and facial injuries.
As promised when we dropped by for a sneak peek two weeks ago, Tony’s Produce at 35th/Barton (map) has opened for the season as of today. 8 am till 7 pm. When we talked to Tony last month, he mentioned stocking more organics; today’s specials include organic blueberries. They were still stocking the stand when we dropped by around noontime, so you’ll have to see for yourself what else they’ve set out. Just a few blocks east of Tony’s, Becky snapped and shared this:
That’s Justice the police horse, seen at Westwood Village. (If you didn’t know this already – SPD’sMounted Patrol has its headquarters in Highland Park, adjacent to Westcrest Park.) Now, we head north, for a West Seattleite’s view of today’s high-flying milestone – Scott C shared this photo of the aviation milestone everyone’s watching today, the 747-8’s first flight:
Speaking of the sky, the skyline shot you’ve seen a thousand times nonetheless had a nice touch when we stopped by Seacrest early this afternoon, with the drifting clouds:
Today we welcome one of our newest WSB sponsors, META Architects LLC, located in West Seattle’s North Admiral neighborhood. META offers a full range of professional architectural services for residential and small commercial projects. Recent residential work has included remodels, additions and detached garages. Pamela Allen, META‘s owner, is a licensed architect with more than 20 years of experience. Her current practice has been active for four years, and much of her work has been located in West Seattle. Pam is also a LEED Accredited Professional and encourages sustainable design practices with an eye toward cost-efficiency. Pam encourages those considering a construction project to take advantage of the current slump in building material prices and contractor labor costs. For a limited time, META Architects is offering a complimentary 1-hour consultation to discuss your potential building project. Find META Architects online at www.metaarchitects.com, or contact by phone at 206/854-0452.
We thank META Architects LLC for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative 24/7 neighborhood news on WSB. Find our sponsor team, and info on joining, all here.
We have a followup from Kristina Surface today re: Alki Elementary School‘s Friday night events to benefit Haiti earthquake relief:
The two Alki Elementary fundraisers for Haiti (penny drive and movie night) raised a grand total of $2717.17! We are incredibly grateful to PCC and Safeway for donating snacks and drinks to sell at our movie night, as this enabled us to donate 100% of the proceeds to The American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund. It’s amazing what we can do when we work as a community.
Kristina shared the photos, too – above, the cafeteria full of families awaiting the movie (“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”); below, from left, Alki parent Jill Rose and principal Clover Codd. Kristina adds, “Without Jill’s leadership and Clover’s support, we couldn’t have done it. We are so proud of our Alki families for coming together as a community and helping the people of Haiti.”
Speaking of Alki and Haiti – beach resident Angela Williams has announced more details of her Valentine’s Day event (we talked with her for a WSB story last week) – you can now get the full scoop here.
(Photos added at 1:58 pm)
Your help is requested in the search for a stolen car. WSB’ers have spotted some others recently, so perhaps the track record will continue here. From Clare and Dave:
Our black 1993 Honda Accord (license # 084–H) was stolen from its spot at the back of our apartment building on 42nd Ave SW and Admiral Way (between Admiral and Lander) last night. We filed a police report this morning. If anyone sees it, would you please dial 911 to report it? Thank you for your help.
(Editor’s note – we omit some digits from license plates in cases like this; otherwise, crime victims’ personal data may be publicly accessible, using that information.) With this morning’s restaurant robbery nearby as context, we asked them if they had any idea of the theft time frame – they last saw the car 11 am Sunday and noticed it missing 9 am today.
(Video shot as we arrived at Admiral Safeway while crews were checking out Sunday’s small fire)
With questions raised in discussion of the pre-Super Bowl Admiral Safeway deli fire, we wanted to follow up with Seattle Fire Department sooner rather than later, regarding what firefighting equipment was on hand and whether the store should have been evacuated. SFD spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen has talked with the crew that was on scene, and here’s what she just told us: The range at the store has an in-hood system that “did what it was supposed to do” – it’s got built-in chemicals that dropped down onto the grease fire and put it out, while also shutting off power. “The fire was out when firefighters got there,” she said, adding that they “checked for extension” – whether it had spread (that’s why you see firefighters on the roof in our video clip) – and it hadn’t. Regarding whether the store should have been evacuated, Vander Houwen said some smoke “vented” but the “smell of burning food” was the biggest consequence of the grease fire and it “wasn’t a life-safety concern.” (1:50 PM P.S. – The deli’s back open today.)
(P.S. Only related because it’s the same site, but we’re always looking for excuses to publish reminders – the next Design Review meeting for the Admiral Safeway redevelopment project is this Thursday, 6:30 pm, Youngstown Arts Center.)
From this morning’s Land Use Information Bulletin, just sent by the city: First, key land-use approvals have been granted for 5020 California SW, a 91-residential-unit/4,000-sf-retail project south of The Junction, once being developed as “Spring Hill” (rendering at right) by BlueStar, the original Fauntleroy Place (Whole Foods etc.) developers, then foreclosed on last year, as reported here. The decisions are linked here; the contact listed for a project is a representative of Shoreline Bank, which owned the site (home to three vacant multifamily buildings) at last report, and put it up for sale last fall (reported here). – we have a message out to ask if they plan on proceeding, but in the meantime, the city documentation notes that anyone interested in appealing the new decisions has until February 22nd – how to do that is explained here. (P.S., before you ask, nothing major new on the Whole Foods site, just a continually growing sheaf of legal documents in the ongoing lawsuit – 269 separate documents; we check the file frequently.)11:35 AM UPDATE: Just talked to Shoreline Bank’s contact re: 5020 California. He says they are pursuing the permits while continuing to offer the property for sale; the bank does NOT intend to develop the site itself.
Also from the land-use bulletin: The city has officially received the street-vacation petition for 46th Place SW (Google Street View map), as part of The Kenney‘s redevelopment. That means it’s time for public comments. The petition, and comment process, are explained here, on the notice.
MADISON/WSHS PRINCIPALS @ GATEWOOD: The district’s new Student Assignment Plan has Gatewood Elementary feeding Madison Middle School and West Seattle High School, instead of Denny/Sealth. So the Gatewood PTA has both schools’ principals speaking at its meeting tonight, 6:30 pm @ Gatewood’s library (we’re now told it’s in the cafeteria; 4320 SW Myrtle).
Police confirm the Jack in the Box on Admiral Way was robbed around 5:30 this morning – police are looking for two suspects described as black males wearing ski masks, one described as about 6 feet tall, 160 to 180 pounds, gray sweatshirt and black pants, armed with a gun; the other was described as about 6 feet tall and carrying a green backpack. There’s a report that someone was hurt during the robbery – hit by one of the robbers, according to SPD media unit Det. Mark Jamieson. A sergeant on the scene tells us the injury wasn’t serious. K-9 officers have been out trying to track the robbers, but they haven’t been able to find anyone so far. 7:47 AM: Police have now taken the tape down, though we haven’t yet confirmed whether the restaurant has reopened. 8:17 AM: Went back to check. There are signs on the door and drive-up saying it’s temporarily closed. (P.S. THANK YOU to everyone who called and e-mailed about this. Best way to alert us when you see a huge police presence is our 24-hour phone line, 206-293-6302, so please consider adding that to your mobile contacts! Thanks!)1:18 PM NOTE: The restaurant was open again in time for lunch.
“Vibrant!” is the word Highland Park resident Kay Kirkpatrick offered to describe both the turnout and the discussion during Saturday’s second public design meeting for her neighborhood’s future park atop the under-construction West Seattle Reservoir lid.
Turnout for the first meeting at High Point Community Center two months ago was certainly good (here’s our story) – but this one was even better, despite the tantalizing sunshine outside. A long line stretched through the lower lobby at Southwest Community Center, even as the scheduled starting time came and went; the meeting didn’t start until about 10:20, when most finally were seated and signed in.
(All photos in this story courtesy Dina Johnson) Parks Department project manager Susanne Friedman started by asking for a show of hands regarding attendees’ specific interests. One such show explained some of the turnout:
Police have finally published 
META offers a full range of professional architectural services for residential and small commercial projects. Recent residential work has included remodels, additions and detached garages. Pamela Allen, META‘s owner, is a licensed architect with more than 20 years of experience. Her current practice has been active for four years, and much of her work has been located in West Seattle. Pam is also a 
From this morning’s 
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