2 arrested in weapon, robbery investigation near Admiral schools

Thanks to everybody who called/texted/e-mailed to ask about a police response earlier this afternoon in the Lafayette Elementary/West Seattle High School area. It’s taken a while to assemble the information from multiple sources, but now the Southwest Precinct has filled in the blanks. From Lt. Ron Smith: The original call went out as “man with a gun” in the WSHS vicinity just after 12:30 pm. The accompanying description matched someone officers saw walking with others on SW Lander (near Lafayette). They saw one person putting something behind a recycling bin; police stopped the group and found what appeared to be a black handgun behind the bin. Lt. Smith says, “The handgun was a pellet gun painted black to appear like a handgun. When questioned, the suspect observed placing the weapon admitted to hiding the weapon.” The investigation didn’t stop there – police discovered that suspect and “another male” were believed to have robbed someone at a nearby bus stop, asking for a cell phone and a wallet, and taking a pack of cigarettes from a victim’s pockets. Lt. Smith says they found evidence of more victims – and now they are investigating to see if this has anything to do with car prowls and a stolen vehicle that was foundin the same general area. For now, two male juveniles are in custody, for investigation of robbery.

P.S. Here’s the SPD Blotter version of all this, published a few hours after our story.

CMeagh January 26, 2011 (3:54 pm)

Good work SPD. Not too smart to have any type of weapon in a school zone, especially a pellet gun painted to look like a real gun. These suspects are lucky, this could have easily turned out much worse for them.

Cclarue January 26, 2011 (4:29 pm)

Someone waiting at a bus stop…. And Seattle Public Schools transportation dept Thinks I am being unreasonable wanting my 12 year old daughter on a school bus rather than a Metro bus. She goes to Madison if she got on a Metro bus it’s on california ave 3 blocks from the school where if she’s getting on the school bus it’s in front of the school with multiple staff outside. I need to forward this link to them.

Traci January 26, 2011 (4:38 pm)

My car got broken into a couple nights ago in this area… The jerk(s) broke my water bottle.

Manolita January 26, 2011 (7:16 pm)

I was driving by when they were geeting handcuffed. They looked pretty young. I guess not to young to be stupid.

irukandji January 26, 2011 (8:35 pm)

TYPO in the next to last sentence (foundin).

Known or new miscreants for this neighborhood? Any names coming up yet?

WSB January 26, 2011 (8:37 pm)

They’re juveniles; until and unless charged as adults (which would take at least a couple days), no names will come up anywhere.

wsguy January 26, 2011 (8:43 pm)

I think it’s about time we get the parents more involved in the story. The current system doesn’t seem to be working.

ellenater January 26, 2011 (10:00 pm)

I am heartened by the recent catching of crooks. Go SPD!

NotMe January 26, 2011 (10:05 pm)

The police have been pretty quick and pretty good at getting the bad guys. And… they aren’t shooting anybody. Things seem to be improving.

Paul January 27, 2011 (1:34 am)

I am guessing if the parents were involved this would have never happened to begin with.

AM January 27, 2011 (8:52 am)

i live a few blocks behind the high school and have had my car broken into clearly by kids (took the iPod, left the gas cards). I’ve also witnessed a kid peeing on my neighbors fence. It’s ridiculous. When people at my high school started acting out at lunch time (stealing from the Fred Meyer, etc.) they took away our off campus lunch privileges. I think it’s a very good idea.

KCH January 28, 2011 (1:53 am)

Why do they even give kids off campus lunch privileges? That’s a little ridiculous, no?

persephone January 28, 2011 (9:34 am)

“Open” lunch is a bad practice. Only 6% of our nation’s high schools have open lunches because research shows that it correlates with increased substance abuse and truancy. It is a dangerous practice because students get to mingle unsupervised with unknown persons off school grounds. Who knows how many “hook-ups” happen between drug vendors, gun runners, gang members and school kids? It blows my mind that we allow our high school students to leave campus during lunch, yet the same students are not allowed to have any candy or soft drinks on school grounds. We let them make decisions about leaving campus, but try to decide for them what they can and cannot eat. How convoluted is that?!! I’m not pro-sugar, but I don’t support a setting where kids can walk away unsupervised to buy drugs or guns. They may be teen-agers, but they are still children and they are being abandoned to the street.