West Seattle Crime Watch followups: Puget Ridge assault charges; North Admiral incident details

| Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

Two followups on three incidents we’ve covered in West Seattle Crime Watch over the past week and a half:

CHARGES IN PUGET RIDGE DOMESTIC-VIOLENCE ASSAULTS: The 17-year-old arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend twice in five days is now charged in both incidents. Both led to high-visibility searches, on August 21st and on the 25th; the first one involved the Guardian One helicopter, and both involved K-9s. He is charged with first-degree domestic-violence assault and felony domestic-violence harassment (court documents say the two had lived together off and on at the victim’s home for the past six months). The harassment charge carries the special circumstance of firearm involvement – he was alleged to have been armed and threatening to shoot and kill her. In the first assault, he hit her and pushed her down, court documents say; the second time, he choked her until she lost consciousness. While police couldn’t find him the first day, they found and arrested him after the August 25th attack. Police found three guns he was believed to have discarded, one checking as having been stolen in Renton in 2009. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office says he remains in custody, in juvenile detention; since he’s being prosecuted as a juvenile so far, we are not identifying him by name.

DETAILS OF NORTH ADMIRAL CONFRONTATION: The police report finally became available today in last Thursday’s North Admiral incident involving a man who got away from armed youths he believed were trying to carjack him. For one, the report puts the address as the 1600 block of Palm Avenue, not California as we were told Friday and therefore reported in our first brief story. Ahead, the full narrative, minus names:

The SPD report says this happened just after 6:30 am:

The victim left his residence (Thursday) morning preparing to drive to work. The victim’s vehicle was parked in the driveway. The victim entered his vehicle and proceeded to drive away from his residence. The victim waited for the gate to his residence to open. After the gate opened, the victim attempted to drive away onto Palm Av SW. Before the victim could drive away onto Palm Av SW, he saw two B/M’s [black males] to his left. One of the B/M (listed as the suspect) approached the victim. This B/M (suspect) approached the victim aggressively. The suspect was wearing a blue bandana over his mouth and had a handgun. The suspect pointed the handgun at the victim as he approached. The victim described the handgun as a “black automatic”. The victim quickly made a right turn onto Palm Av SW escaping what he described as a car jacking. The victim drove NB dialing 911. The victim said the suspect and the other B/M ran SB
toward California Av SW. The victim circled the block and drove SB on California Av SW while talking to 911. The victim saw the suspect and subjects at California Av SW and Palm Av SW. The suspect saw the victim driving. The suspect reached into his waistband and ran towards the victim vehicle. The victim sped away and saw the suspect and 2 subjects fleeing WB on SW Holgate St. The victim stood by until Police arrived. Subject was contacted and detained on SW Bonair Dr by Sgt Guballa. Subject was with a B/M that was the possible suspect. The possible suspect fled and is at large. The victim made a positive identification of Subject as being with the suspect on California Av SW. Subject was transported to the SW Precinct. Subject was I/R’d [interviewed and released] at the SW Precinct. … Subject was released to family friend [redacted]. There is no further suspect information available. K94 Officer Dupleich responded and conducted a track with negative results. Suspect is still at large. The blue bandana was recovered during the K9 track and placed into SPD Evidence by Officer K. Belshay.

What’s in that narrative are the only description details in the report.

JTB August 31, 2015 (5:56 pm)

Seems the intended victim was pretty resourceful. It would be interesting to know what the 911 person said about him following the suspects. Of course, if he hadn’t done that, I wonder if the police would have apprehended anyone? Still the scenario makes it clear that even following the suspects was risky.

JMC August 31, 2015 (5:59 pm)

So you attempt to carjack someone, maybe kill them with your weapon in the process, get caught, asked a few questions, and released. Are the laws to protect the victim or the assailant? What a joke

WSB August 31, 2015 (6:13 pm)

JTB – I missed the scanner traffic on this one but did hear a different call recently in which the dispatch-center voice on the radio was telling officers that they had instructed a victim to stop following his/her attacker/robber/whatever it was. I think they are required to say that if they are told “I’m following him/her/them” …
.
JMC – “Subject” means this person was possibly with the person, but not the main “suspect,” who as described, was still at large at last report.

JJM August 31, 2015 (6:22 pm)

In response to JMC,

I agree that it is too bad the subject was released. However, I doubt you are fully aware of all laws pertaining to this matter. Just to clarify, the person the Police brought in was the “subject” not the “suspect” who approached the car and had the gun. They cannot convict a person who did not actually “do” anything.

Laura August 31, 2015 (8:13 pm)

Still no details on the “carjacking” at 30th & Genessee from two Sunday’s ago?

WSB August 31, 2015 (8:45 pm)

No incident #, so no incident report; I just checked again in the various levels of the online system, and it does not appear to have ever panned out into anything. If you have firsthand information to the contrary, let me know; otherwise, this happens with calls sometimes, it’s reported as X, it doesn’t turn out to have led to a report, or it turns out to have been something completely different.