West Seattle Crime Watch: Police search after mini-mart robbery

ORIGINAL TUESDAY NIGHT REPORT: For the second time today, police are trying to solve a robbery. They’re reported to be looking for four boys, around 14 years old, who robbed the California/Andover mini-mart. One showed a gun. They were last seen southbound on California. No other description so far – more as we get it. (11:48 pm) No police left at the scene when we got there; at this point we won’t likely be able to find out more until morning.

ADDED FRIDAY AFTERNOON: The narrative from this incident finally has appeared on the SPD website. From the report (“V” refers to the victim, the store staffer who was on duty):

V/ stated he was
working at the listed location when 4 juveniles entered the store. He described them as 2 black males and 2 Hispanic males, all of them approximately 15 years old. V/ described the juveniles as follows: Suspect 1/HM, 15yo, 4’10”, black hair, buzz cut, and wearing a jacket around his waist. Suspect 2/BM, 15yo, red hat, black T-shirt, black pants. Suspect 3/BM, 15yo (No additional information at this time). Suspect 4/HM, 15yo (No additional information at this time).

V/ observed the suspects take several candy products off of shelves and place them inside their pockets and clothing. They then walked past the open pay counter and out the front door, without paying. As they did so, V/ approached the suspects and said “Hey, put back the candy”. As he said this, S/2 stood between V/ and the other suspects and pushed him out of the way. S/1 then reached towards his front waist and said, “We have a gun!”. V/ was afraid S/1 would use the weapon and disengaged from the suspects, letting them leave. As the suspects exited the store, S/1 told V/ he would shoot him “if he tried= something”. The suspects were last seen headed southbound on California Av SW.

The threat of a weapon (none was actually seen) is what turned this from shoplifting to robbery.

26 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Police search after mini-mart robbery"

  • alki resident August 11, 2015 (10:30 pm)

    14 with a gun, zero experience and we’re all in danger of a stray bullet. Parents control your kids.

  • Jw August 11, 2015 (10:47 pm)

    Wonder if it’s the same bunch as the fireworks fires?

  • Nw mama August 11, 2015 (11:04 pm)

    Yikes. 14 yo w gun? Please people, lock up your guns! (Even the best parents can’t “control” their kids, AR).

  • Diane August 11, 2015 (11:53 pm)

    damn; I almost went there a while ago to get some gas; glad I got stuck at my computer
    ~
    so within a few days; a bank robbery in Admiral on Saturday, a street robbery today near PCC, and the California/Andover mini-mart gas station robbed tonight; not liking this trend

  • S August 12, 2015 (12:44 am)

    Ugh makes me sick. I think that’s a family run gas station and I’ve seen their young son there. Hope they got some good surveillance footage of the crooks.

  • nbp August 12, 2015 (5:48 am)

    There was also an egging last night on Charlestown and 44th ave SW that broke a window.

  • Clueless August 12, 2015 (7:50 am)

    Wasn’t this place robbed around a year ago?

  • sc August 12, 2015 (8:06 am)

    I need to get gas today so I will go there and support the store. The owners are a very nice family with children. I seem to remember they have been robbed before.

  • tonenotvolume August 12, 2015 (8:26 am)

    Robbed last December, hope they have security video
    https://westseattleblog.com/2014/12/west-seattle-crime-watch-search-after-mini-mart-robbery/

  • Debra August 12, 2015 (8:56 am)

    Any update on this
    With all the constuction seems like there has been increased crime and nusience activity
    Egging, attempted break ins, robbery not sure why this little section seems to be consistantly hit

  • Clueless August 12, 2015 (9:02 am)

    Thanks. Yes, I go there often and love to give them business. Nice owners/family. Hope they catch the perps.

  • Eric1 August 12, 2015 (9:05 am)

    Wow 4 kids that are headed down the wrong road. Most mini marts don’t even carry enough money for an XBOX game at night. Real gun or fake, it will get you shot by the police and sometimes by the store owner. I recall something like that going down at the cow market on 35th years ago.
    .
    Parents should know what their 14 yo kids are doing. There are surely exceptions to the norm but I’d say that >90% of the time, the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree.

  • Clueless August 12, 2015 (9:09 am)

    Good point Debra

  • Smokeycretin9 August 12, 2015 (9:20 am)

    It doesn’t matter. They are juveniles. They’ll get sent home to their parents.

  • ScubaFrog August 12, 2015 (9:35 am)

    What a nice family who owns the mini mart. I remember when they were robbed in December, they said it was a very young man with a gun then, too. How sad.

  • ccc August 12, 2015 (9:59 am)

    House got egged on 41st and Raymond :(

  • LS August 12, 2015 (10:15 am)

    I wonder if Seattle’s 25.00 per gun and 5 cent per round tax will stop this 14 year old from being able to aquire a gun?

  • Jon August 12, 2015 (11:24 am)

    I saw 4 guys walking south on California around that time last night when I was driving home. I thought it was an odd time for a big group of people, didn’t call the police because I didn’t want to be that guy. Just glad no one was hurt.

  • MotorMike August 12, 2015 (11:33 am)

    Suppose these parents are working 2-3 minimum wage jobs in order to provide for their families? Are they still bad parents?

  • Sarge August 12, 2015 (11:41 am)

    Any update on descriptions?

    I’ve seen a group of 3 to 6 very young kids (8 to 15 y/o)looking for open garage doors to prowl. They are becoming more brave with each attempt.

    I’ve personally run them off twice from my garage, caught them inside rooting around my next door neighbors garage once. In broad daylight I might add.
    Very mouthy and bold for their young age, yelled profanity’s and spit at me for catching them stealing. I made them put the bike back.

    If one is about 13 y/o, 5 foot tall with medium length small diameter dreadlocks and the other has very short hair, tall skinny, about 5’10” 95 lbs start looking around Highpoint, they’re residents and run in a pack on BMX and small MTN bikes.

    • WSB August 12, 2015 (11:46 am)

      I have had the request out for the reports since first thing this morning. Still waiting.

  • Westside45 August 12, 2015 (1:46 pm)

    It will get worse when all these new accommodations are full. There will be multitudes of people with no ties to the community looking for and creating trouble.

    • WSB August 12, 2015 (1:59 pm)

      Westside, I hope you aren’t insinuating that new residents are troublemakers with “no ties to the community.” If you live here, you have ties to the community, whether you just started renting a unit five minutes ago or you/your family got here five decades ago. And having longer-running “ties to the community” doesn’t keep some people from committing crimes – among the suspects/convicted criminals on whom we’ve reported, there are born-and-raised West Seattleites as well as newer arrivals. (And more often they are West Seattle residents than people who live somewhere else in the region and came here to burglarize, steal cars, whatever. Would seem to make more sense for criminals to do their “work” somewhere outside their own neighborhoods, but that doesn’t seem to be the case in most cases…) – TR

  • thisisagooddeal August 12, 2015 (6:38 pm)

    Jon, please be “that guy.” What can it hurt?

  • Matt S. August 13, 2015 (8:19 am)

    @MotorMike: Yes.

  • joel August 14, 2015 (8:00 pm)

    15 year olds with guns. one of them gets shot dead by a cop and the papers post school pictures of the punks when they were 11 years old dressed in their Sunday school clothes saying ….an unarmed kid got shot….look how innocent he looks in this picture.

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