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Just got about half a dozen notes about a helicopter over Morgan Junction/Seaview/etc. We can hear it from WSB HQ in Upper Fauntleroy but can’t see anything. We’ve had some previous Friday night helicopter visits linked to high-school football but the reports so far say this one is using a spotlight to sweep for something. Scanner’s on, listening to see if we can pick up what it’s about, we’ll post if/when we find something out; if you see any obvious police search on the ground, please post a comment to help solve the mystery – thanks! 9:06 PM UPDATE: Just talked to the folks at the precinct, and it’s NOT a police call – they’re not on anything major – might be King County-related, but definitely not one of their cases. The info-quest continues … 9:17 PM UPDATE: Closer to our ‘hood and it looked like two choppers. Plus a knowledgeable source in e-mail says one is definitely King County’s “Guardian One” (Seattle doesn’t have its own police chopper so Guardian One works for multiple agencies). We left a message for the Coast Guard on the offhand chance it has anything to do with this. 9:25 PM UPDATE: Absent official information to this point, we’re going to head down toward L-Park (which is just down our hill) in hopes we might bump into someone on the ground who has actual info. Keep posting in the comments – if we don’t crack the case, you just might. (And as we typed that – an SPD cruiser just went past our house.) 9:30 PM UPDATE: OK, scratch that, whatever is going on, they’re zeroing in on “a house” somewhere and have just mentioned the helicopter on the scanner. No address heard, we’re going to stay here and keep listening. 10 PM UPDATE: KING 5 news says sheriff’s deputies were looking for a murder suspect in White Center, but they don’t have much info about the case – who was killed, when, where why. The suspect is reportedly in custody. That doesn’t entirely explain all the West Seattle searching unless it turns out (and we will be pursuing KCSO info too) that they were first looking here. 10:14 PM UPDATE: Actual information! Thanks to King County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. John Urquhart for calling back. He says a man “assaulted his girlfriend by cutting her” — not serious injuries — she went to the Texaco station at 16th and Roxbury to get help — he ran to a friend’s house — officers, with helicopter help, zeroed in on that house to arrest him — he is in custody. Sgt. Urquhart says there was a report the man MAY have had a homicide warrant from SOMEWHERE ELSE but he has not verified that so far. As for what all the helicopter action over West Seattle was about – he doesn’t believe it was related except that it may have been the chopper setting up and waiting to get the signal to move in and help with this arrest. 10:32 PM UPDATE: TV says the suspect is believed to have been linked to a Kent murder in July. 10:36 PM UPDATE: Sgt. Urquhart just called us again to confirm that information — the man arrested in White Center tonight was wanted in a summertime murder in Kent. 10:49 PM UPDATE: Also got a note back from Lt. Ron Smith at the Southwest Precinct, who says two of his officers did help KCSO handle calls in White Center for a short time because of this incident — Seattle Police are all clear of the WC incident now — and also adds one other detail, that the location was “11th SW just south of Roxbury.”
West Seattle, Washington
24 Wednesday
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