Update: SWAT standoff on 31st SW ends peacefully

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(photo by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli shows SWAT team members, with shields)
Just got word from the scene, the standoff is over. Relatives tell WSB it started about 1 pm when the suspect tried to cut himself with a knife; a relative called 911, and the standoff ensued from there. Again, according to what we have been told at the scene, no one was hurt, and things in that area (5400 block of 31st; map) should begin returning to normal.

UPDATE: Here’s some pictures from WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli.

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Just after 1 pm the initial response included a City Light truck.

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That’s the house where the suspect lives. It’s about 100 yards west of 31st. Police kept residents and the media on 31st and allowed no one to go no further for the first hour – except the suspect’s aunt, who went in with a negotiator:

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About 30 minutes before the standoff ended, neighbors were allowed back into their homes:

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ADDED 7:18 PM: This video clip shows an unusual side effect … two school buses that needed to get through the area, which is on a narrow, steep street, and had trouble getting around everything from police to fire to TV crews:

4 Replies to "Update: SWAT standoff on 31st SW ends peacefully"

  • amused May 9, 2008 (7:15 am)

    Police negotiators stood face to face with an armed man. The man was demanding that police kill him. The negotiations took over two hours. Police negotiators ended this peacfully. I guess the PI and Times won’t be reporting this. They only report when the police kill someone.

  • Aidan Hadley May 9, 2008 (9:11 am)

    Yes, nothing at all in the PI or the Times. I guess if they don’t cover it then it didn’t happen. Makes you wonder what else happened in Seattle that we’ll never know about because they are incapable or unwilling to cover it. And they wonder why newspapers are dying.

  • WSB May 9, 2008 (9:28 am)

    Hey, just because I have the unique perspective of having worked in citywide media (here for more than 15 years, and other cities, not to mention national online media) as well as in the emerging neighborhood-level media world … when you are covering an entire city/region, not everything makes the cut, and that’s exactly why organizations like ours are here. Although if I were them, I would at least have a little roundup “a standoff ended peacefully in West Seattle on Thursday afternoon.” But I also realistically know there are news bosses at those levels (I was one of them) saying “guy holds self hostage for two hours, ends without incident, who cares.” We care because it happened here but their circulation (what’s left of it) stretches from Neah Bay to Wenatchee, Bellingham to Centralia, and so it’s usually just the biggest/baddest things that get space. Not saying that’s the way it should be but that’s the way it is. And meantime, we will be here for everything WS-specific.

  • Aidan Hadley May 9, 2008 (10:37 am)

    WSB: You have a valid point. But you only seem to be looking at it from a business perspective. What about being a paper of record? How will future historians know what happened in these here parts? And by your logic, why would I care, for instance, about a Key Peninsula clamdigger who was stuck in the mud for a while but then freed as reported on the front page of the Seattle Times website right now?

Sorry, comment time is over.