West Seattle Crime Watch: Admiral gunfire; reluctant robbery victim; gym-garage car break-in

Three West Seattle Crime Watch reports:

ADMIRAL GUNFIRE: What sounded like gunshots just before midnight last night in the 2600 block of 45th SW (map) did turn out to be gunshots – but neighbors didn’t know for about 18 hours.

A neighbor who heard them texted us after calling police. Via scanner, we heard officers dispatched to check them out, but heard nothing more, until seeing an SPD auto-tweet this afternoon mentioning “property damage” in that same block. We texted our original tipster to ask if they’d ever found evidence of gunshots. She went out to check – and discovered shell casings had turned up in the street. We were in the area so we stopped by the neighborhood to photograph the shell casings in the street and planting strip as neighbors waited for police to return. Turned out, they told us, the “property damage” was a shot-out car window down the block (no photo, as we couldn’t find it), close to the far southwestern corner of the back playground at Lafayette Elementary. Silver lining to the non-silver bullets: Neighbors who hadn’t met before were out in the street getting acquainted.

UPDATE: We have since heard from the owner of the car window hit by a bullet, who sent this photo:

While the windshield wasn’t technically “shot out,” they pointed out, it still has to be replaced.

(back to original report) 18TH/BARTON ROBBERY: Also early this morning, an e-mail question came in about a SPD tweet logged as “armed street robbery” on Thursday evening in the same area that was the topic of a discussion by neighbors and police at a community-council meeting this week. We hadn’t heard anything about it at the time but have since procured the report from SPD. The robbery was reported to have happened around 4:15 pm; officers finally found the victim a few blocks from the scene around 5:30 pm and reported that he seemed intoxicated and did not want to file a report. Nonetheless, they wrote one from what few details he had given – that two people described only as “Hispanic males” had held him up at knifepoint and taken a gold ring and glasses from him. They asked the victim repeatedly if he felt safe staying in the area, and said he would not answer.

CAR PROWL IN NEW GARAGE: First Crime Watch reader report since the Spruce/LA Fitness underground garage at 39th/Alaska opened recently: Jim e-mailed to say, “My Subaru Outback was broken into on Thursday evening between 8 and 8:30 pm June 4. I was on the p1 level under the new LA Fitness club in West Seattle. Two windows were broken out and a backpack stolen.”

9 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Admiral gunfire; reluctant robbery victim; gym-garage car break-in"

  • Eric1 June 5, 2015 (9:53 pm)

    Just so tired of the losers in life. Shooting off firearms indiscriminately, robbing drunk people, and stealing a backpack while doing $500 in damage.
    .
    If you can trespass people from a property, can you trespass them from the city? Anytime you find them you can either jail them or drop them off at the state line (longer walk that way). Heck, I’d pony up for some Bolt bus fare.

  • good grief June 6, 2015 (5:20 am)

    Half a block from the last drive by late night target practice a month or so ago.
    Speeding on Admiral Way, racing down 45th, looping down Charlestown Hill back Alki. Shooting fireworks or guns on their merry way. One West Seattle warm weather tradition that I wouldn’t mind disappearing.

  • Buckwheat June 6, 2015 (10:09 am)

    Too bad the mayor won’t give up his protection detail for his trip to Israel in order to fund more police in west seattle.

  • Neighbor June 6, 2015 (11:58 am)

    Odd that there is no mention on this blog of a separate drive-by incident at approximately 4:00 am this morning 6/6/16 with multiple gunshots and multiple police response in the Alki waterfront area.

    • WSB June 6, 2015 (12:06 pm)

      Don’t have any info about that so far; we did get a 4 am text of a loud party with possible gunshots. Was proof of gunfire found? It’s categorized by police only as a “noise disturbance”: https://twitter.com/SeattlePDW1/status/607153732292182016 but if casings or damage turned up, please let us know – that’s the only reason the Admiral incident became a story; damage/casings turned up many hours later, confirming gunfire. Thanks! – Tracy

  • Again? June 6, 2015 (11:20 pm)

    How come this seems to be a recurring theme on 45th? Is it the easy drag strip with no circles or stop signs? Maybe the neighborhood ought to insist on some traffic calming measures – speed bumps, stop signs, and maybe some road spikes for those people.

  • Lola June 7, 2015 (6:16 am)

    Wow first of many I am sure on the break-in of the car in the LA Fitness Parking Garage.

    Sorry to hear this as it has not been opened very long.

  • good grief June 7, 2015 (12:32 pm)

    We aren’t allowed traffic circles because 45th is the fire department emergency route for Lafayette, West Seattle High School and Madison Middle School. It would cut off emergency response time. Making Lander one way at 49th and on the west side of California was all the traffic calming the neighborhood is allowed by the city. SW Stevens st at 45th is in most need of a rotary.

  • Thomas M. June 8, 2015 (9:19 pm)

    Is there such a thing as hydraulic speed bumps? The fire department could have automatic override on every vehicle that simply let the juice out. The rest of the time, some nice square-hit tooth looseners ought to slow the idiots down.

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