By Megan Sheppard
On the WSBeat, for West Seattle Blog
This edition of our periodic feature The WSBeat contains summaries written from reports on cases handled recently by Southwest Precinct officers – generally cases that (usually) have not already appeared here in breaking-news coverage or West Seattle Crime Watch reports, but that might at least answer the question “what WERE all those police doing on my block?” Or on the bridge, or the beach, or …
*Thursday afternoon, a man in a silver Audi drove erratically on Delridge — so oddly that a female driver pulled over to let him pass. Instead, he pulled up behind her, got out of his car with a black handgun, pointed it at her and said, “I’ll blow your head off!” She hit the gas and he kept following, pulling alongside her in the 5400 block of Delridge, yelling and waving the gun. (At times during this incident, the man was described as wearing a skull mask.) When he saw her talking into a phone he suddenly broke off his chase, driving off southbound on Delridge. The license plate allowed officers to identify the driver, whose non-masked description matches the vehicle’s owner–a twenty-year-old Westwood-area resident. He is at large.
*Also on Thursday, a tow truck (with a company logo) showed up in the 5100 block of 47th early Thursday, and one of two men inside jumped out and started a car on the street…not with a key, but with a screwdriver. A citizen saw this and confronted the pair, who claimed to have permission to take the vehicle, which belonged to an elderly gentleman in the neighborhood. Suspicious, she called 911. Officers first called the towing company, and the person who answered the phone denied that the vehicle was on their lot. Officers found differently when they arrived at the business and saw the car in question on a flatbed truck. The two men at the scene told some convoluted stories “that made no sense,” according to the officer’s report. Upon running their names, officers found that one had a felony escape warrant from the Department of Corrections. (He was also carrying a gram of heroin.) This man, a North Admiral resident, was booked for the warrant, and for investigation of vehicle theft and drug possession. The other man, who claimed he had been duped into towing the car by the arrestee, was released at the scene.
Four more summaries ahead:
*Around 8 p.m. Tuesday, a Morgan Junction store manager called police after catching a woman shoplifting. He explained he only wanted her identified and trespassed (banned) from the premises for a year. But a routine records check showed that the West Seattle woman was wanted on over $14,000 worth of warrants from Renton, Burien and Federal Way. She was taken into custody and turned over to Renton Police.
*A man snoozing on private apartment property at the Alaska Junction was cordial when officers woke him and said he couldn’t sleep there. He declined medical help, but did confess that he had an outstanding felony warrant from the Department of Corrections. (He also had 11 aliases.) The West Seattle resident (who actually has an apartment just down the street from where he had laid his head) was booked into King County Jail.
*Late on Friday the 19th, someone described only as “a white male” walked into a church on Roxbury and began yelling. He grabbed two microphone stands and screamed, “I’m going to kill you!” (He did not make reference to any race or religion.) He ran from the hall with the mic stands and grabbed several soft drink cans on the way. Running down Roxbury, he dropped the mic stands in the 700 block and then turned south on 8th Avenue. He remains at large.
*Sunday evening, in the 5200 block of 45th SW, a jingling sound alerted a resident that her dog (trained to ring the bell) needed a potty break outside. When she went to let him out the door, she found a stranger standing in the doorway, bells in hand, and speaking in a language she didn’t understand. She ushered him out the door as he apologized. He didn’t threaten or harm her. He was transported to King County Jail, where he was booked for investigation of criminal trespass.
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EDITOR’S NOTES: Remember, the CRISIS CLINIC hotline is a resource for those in crisis, including thoughts or acts of self-harm, or trying to find help for someone in crisis: 206.461.3222 … Previous WSBeat roundups are archived here. We also publish crime reports when we get tips or otherwise hear about noteworthy incidents – they don’t all turn up on the scanner, so please don’t be shy about letting us know when you see/hear something happening = call or text 206-293-6302.
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