Update: Police investigating South Delridge shooting; 2 people hurt in car, bullet hits parked van

| Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

(Photo added – SPD still investigating as of just before 5 pm)
2:36 PM: Police are investigating a report of shots fired in the 9400 block of 15th SW (map). No reports of anyone being hit/injured; radio communication monitored via scanner says it’s believed to have involved some kind of argument between people in a car and people on foot – we haven’t heard whether the shots came from the former or latter.

3:23 PM: Police reported finding at least one shell casing.

4:13 PM: Now there’s word someone WAS hit and wound up at Valley Medical Center – just tweeted by SPD, which says the victim has non-life-threatening injuries.

4:56 PM: Just talked to police at the scene. The man previously reported as hit was in the car involved in the incident, which took him directly to a hospital, and that’s why there was no medic callout. Separately, a stray bullet hit a parked van behind a local business (The Live Butcher – photo added below).

No one was in the van and no one was hurt by that bullet, nor was the business itself affected. And as we write this update, an SPD Blotter post has just been published, saying a woman in the car was “grazed” by a bullet in addition to the man who was shot in the leg. Police are still on the scene looking for witnesses.

l July 6, 2014 (2:40 pm)

Just left walgreens at 15th Roxb inury. Cops everywhere. Scary that on a Sunday afternoon this could happen.

alki Resident July 6, 2014 (3:11 pm)

My kids should be coming here right from that area. Still havent heard from them .I hope they didn’t get caught up in this. Nobodys answering phones.

Mr Elliott July 6, 2014 (4:24 pm)

I was just at Thriftway, the cashier and I were making small talk about the weekend. “No shootings this weekend,” she said. So much for that statement. Thank goodness there were not any fatalities.

WSB July 6, 2014 (4:27 pm)

Working to find out more since there were no medic calls anywhere even remotely near the area, and no assault-with-weapons medic calls anywhere. So, updates to come …

Mike July 6, 2014 (5:25 pm)

And sadly enough, it’s likely that noone will admit to seeing anything or knowing anything. Someone could have been killed, either a participant or a bystander. And, usually in these incidents, we pay for the medical care. Disheartening.

WSB July 6, 2014 (5:29 pm)

Actually, scanner traffic has already indicated otherwise (regarding witnesses/info). Meantime, can’t speak to who’s going to pay for the medical care nor whether the victims were insured, if that’s what you mean – they wound up at Valley Medical Center, whereas they would likely have been taken to Harborview Medical Center IF they had stayed at the scene to seek help, and that’s the trauma center for people regardless of their insurance/economic status. – TR

Kravitz July 6, 2014 (5:35 pm)

That particular corner is a malignant tumor on the neighborhood.

wsrambo July 6, 2014 (5:40 pm)

There’s got to be cameras all over up there. If not then, then now, especially Walgreen’s. Rapid Ride drama again?

WSB July 6, 2014 (5:50 pm)

RapidRide does not go to 15th/Roxbury It ends a ~mile west. Route map: http://metro.kingcounty.gov/maps/routes/rapidride/c-673.html

CJP July 6, 2014 (5:40 pm)

Knock it off already! Enough with the f’ing guns in my neighborhood!

( sorry for the rant, I have no acceptance/understanding on tap today, only anger :/ )

miws July 6, 2014 (6:06 pm)

Glad to hear that Tom and Crew are okay.

Mike

howdy July 6, 2014 (6:06 pm)

The people at the Live Butcher are great. I’m thankful that nobody there was hit by a stray bullet,

Kadoo July 6, 2014 (7:02 pm)

Alki Resident, I hope you’ve heard from your kids by now.

DarkHawke July 6, 2014 (7:24 pm)

Hey, what a great kickoff to Mayor Incompe, er, Murray’s “Summer Of Safety!”

Yikes. Who didn’t take that for unbounded hubris the instant he came out with it? Any bets on the new police chief having any effect at all?

alki Resident July 6, 2014 (7:32 pm)

Yes,20 minutes later. Typically they’d come from that direction of the incident but for some reason they went a different route. I was in a bit of a panic. But thanks for asking. They’re adults but as a mom,I still worry.

fiz July 6, 2014 (8:56 pm)

Moms never stop worrying. Mine still did it at 92+. Just keep them in your heart and prayers.

Bradley July 6, 2014 (9:56 pm)

@CJP: “Enough with the f’ing guns in my neighborhood!”??? How about enough with the criminals and gangs in our neighborhood? There are guns in every neighborhood (and way more in most than around 9400 15th). Seattle has a far lower (legal) gun ownership rate than most cities surrounding it. Unfortunately, we also have more felons and gang members who are armed with stolen guns than most other Washington State cities. We have a violent youth problem that needs to be addressed and knee-jerk reactions and misplaced blame aren’t going to solve the problem(s).

buckwheat July 6, 2014 (10:19 pm)

Now there was another shooting in the CD. Apparently the Mayor’s Procolmation of the Summer of Safety is not being adhered to by our lovely gang bangers! What a shocker.

HLWD July 6, 2014 (10:39 pm)

glad to hear tom and the ladies are all ok i was just in there yesterday getting my weekly fix :)

ChrisR. July 6, 2014 (10:46 pm)

Bradley, your distinction is lost when seemingly every other week 16 or 17 year old individuals are “borrowing” or “obtaining” legal guns to flash and shoot at unarmed citizens. Knee-jerk and causality are different notions no matter where you live.

Darryll July 7, 2014 (12:11 am)

The problem has nothing to do with the Mayor. It’s bad police. Officer McDaniels, the former CPT officer in the area, stands accused of purchasing illicit drugs from another crooked cop. And he was supposed to be a resource for the community! I complained about his lack of engagement with our block for nearly three years, and not one single officer did a thing to help.

With this kind of representation from law enforcement it’s hardly a surprise the problem is getting worse. Anyone with one eye open knows exactly which houses these gang banging morons live in. They might as well have a neon sign on the front door! If SPD are not able to crack this “tough case,” then it’s either because they’re playing politics, or they’re just plain incompetent. Either way, it’s bad for the people who actually pay the taxes around here.

I’m actually starting to think that SPD just pays lip service to the whole crime prevention and law enforcement thing in our neighborhood. If they actually enforced laws in this neighborhood, they’d drive the street trash into higher rent areas and might be forced to do some proactive policing and basic enforcement, after all.

I’m starting to think that selling our house and letting this neighborhood slip back into the bad old days is the only real plan of action to take for people that expect a decent quality of life and basic public safety.

Bradley July 7, 2014 (1:45 am)

@ChrisR: It is illegal for 16 or 17 year olds to obtain or possess “legal” guns. It is also illegal for anyone to sell or otherwise transfer them to minors. Attacking law-abiding gun owners when young thugs try to kill each other with illegally-acquired guns is tired and pointless rhetoric. From the reports coming in from SPD, the occupants of the victim vehicle were not random targets but active participants in some sort of altercation with the shooters. The gang unit is also involved now and it is appearing that this conflict started in White Center in King County’s jurisdiction and spilled into the 9400 block of Seattle’s. White Center and the area around Roxbury and 15th has been troubled and dangerous for a long, long time and we should not be surprised when violence erupts in this location. This area is also much improved and safer than it was 25 years ago when we used to avoid even driving through there during the day.

Robert July 7, 2014 (6:49 am)

what do you expect ?when some dummy pulls a gun on a cop and the local /imports get up in arms and PROTEST when the cop shoots and kills the idiot. do you think the youth /hoods. have any idea what a dumb stunt like flashing a firearm at somebody can result in their death????? if they score high on GRAND THEFT AUTO or one of the other violent head-game video games that the fools in hollywood and the sillycon valley have marketed to the youth of america as recreational , they can do anything they want to. quit coddling these idiots , start slam-dunking them with maximum sentences for gun related crimes .

Nick July 7, 2014 (7:49 am)

I’m glad SPD officers were going door to door asking if anyone saw anything and those that did spoke up. I talked to one of the officers myself and asked if it was gang related and he said of course it was.

CD July 7, 2014 (8:59 am)

I just finally got brave and decided that I no longer was going to be intimidated into staying home. I live one mile from White Center and all it has to offer, including the Live Butcher. I want to walk in my neighborhood with my 9month old and run errands. We can have lunch, go to the bank, pay bills (White Center Pharmacy), get fresh veggies and meat and be home in two hours, no gas no parking and exercise and getting outside are so important!
Now, I am nervous again. I always have a dog with me when I walk but a dog cant make a bullet change it’s mind about where it is going to hit. How awful that we can’t seem to take back our neighborhood.

T Rex July 7, 2014 (2:27 pm)

WOW!! White Center is slowly becoming the new “Little Chicago”. More and more shootings and more and more people pointing the fingers at the GUNS instead of the people.

Thugs is a nice word as far as I am concerned. I pretty much avoid even driving through White Center for this very reason. I know there are a lot of good people who call this their home, but sorry guys, the bad folks are taking over.

I will stay on my side of 35th and if you decide to bring your violence into my neighborhood, I will defend my family and property no matter what. And to those of you who flip back and say violence happens everywhere, why is there very little violence in the winter months at Alki? Because our wonderful little “thugs” come a visiting, that is why.

As soon as we the people start defending our rights and our neighborhoods, they will go elsewhere because they are nothing but punk ass cowards.

WSB July 7, 2014 (3:00 pm)

This did NOT happen in White Center. It happened in West Seattle. And on the White Center side of the county line, the crime rate tends to be lower – we cover that area as well as this area, as we’ve had a site there for six years, and get the briefings. If you want to compare for yourself, the King County Sheriff’s Office maps are at http://crimereports.com (configure for 98146 and uncheck the “registered sex offender locations” which is handy info but not a crime stat), which the Seattle Police map is at http://web6.seattle.gov/mnm/policereports.aspx . As for the ancient “west of 35th is safer than east of 35th,” please – we heard that misconception when we got here in the early ’90s. Our first personal experience with crime was a window-shooting-out rampage including our car … when we lived on Beach Drive. But never mind ancient history. Take a look at the aforementioned SPD reports map (which shows roughly the past week or so). West of 35th incidents outnumber east of 35th incidents in the current view. And last but not least, re: Alki – remember the stabbing a week or so ago? The report finally became available. The key players were from West Seattle. Yes, the police also acknowledge people come from all over the region to our beach. The troublemakers include locals as well as visitors, I’m sorry to say.
.
Fight back? Absolutely. But nothing will be solved by the perpetuation of misconceptions such as “western West Seattle is safer than eastern West Seattle” or “the troublemakers are all outsiders” – TR
.
PS – The other “assault with weapons” of the weekend in WS, which most people probably missed because of (a) the format in which it appeared here and (b) because of course it was a holiday weekend and you probably weren’t checking in here, was at a house in the Alki Point area. See the 2 am-ish entries here: https://westseattleblog.com/2014/07/west-seattle-4th-of-july-2014-notes-as-the-night-proceeds

Josh July 7, 2014 (3:20 pm)

I totally agree with the WSB post! Within the last couple weeks, Westwood has become MUCH more dangerous than downtown White Center! I don’t worry about walking around White Center as much as around the Barton/Sealth areas. Seattle or Metro must address the SEATTLE problem.

Bradley July 7, 2014 (3:29 pm)

@WSB: I would tend to agree with you that most West Seattle crime is caused by West Seattle’s criminals, with the exception of a lot of the troubles at Alki in the summer months. The sheer amount of visitors from all over the region who flock to Alki between May and September certainly includes a lot of criminal opportunists as well as our local young, violent criminals who taunt outsiders during the warm months. Also, the new expanded Rapid Ride has absolutely brought a new element of transients and shoplifters to Westwood Village if you ask the business owners, close-by residents (like me), and shoppers who have been there for going on 3 decades. However, I do agree that we have enough of our own “home grown” young, violent criminals to cause our current levels of havoc….many times over.

CD July 7, 2014 (3:29 pm)

White Center, West Seattle, splitting hairs….either way I want to feel safe in my neighborhood, this for me includes both side of Roxbury…again bullets are not concerned with logistics..

joel July 7, 2014 (10:55 pm)

westwood, roxbury, 15th ave, 16th ave etc….regardless of what neighborhood they are technically in it’s all the same part of town.

Barton July 8, 2014 (9:45 am)

@T Rex: while I agree with you that we don’t have a gun issue, rather a VIOLENCE issue–countering a knee jerk reaction with a knee jerk reaction makes you sound as ridiculous as the gun grabbers.

Rick July 8, 2014 (9:47 am)

Bullets fired from south of Roxbury are required by law to not cross city limit lines, so the “Summer of Safety” is working!

AJP July 8, 2014 (8:48 pm)

I’m with you CD, walking and biking around that area all the time, with my kids. Not going to let the thugs get me down. Stand proud, make eye contact, smile a friendly smile to everyone. The more of us that are out there, the less comfortable the thugs will be.

Sorry, comment time is over.