Alki gun incident update: Armed Army sergeant arrested

| Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

(Friday night WSB photo, taken on 63rd just south of 63rd)
Last night, we happened to be driving in Alki when police passed us, rushing to the scene of a report that someone had “brandished” a weapon; here’s what we reported at the time. This morning, in addition to commenters providing more detail following our first report, we now have full details from police via SPDBlotter, which identifies the suspect as a 25-year-old man and tells the story:

On 06/05/09, at approximately 7:00 p.m., a suspect was at 60th AV SW and Alki Av SW with a female friend, when he got into a confrontation with a group of juveniles (young teenagers — middle school students). The suspect hurled profanities at the teens and pulled up his shirt to display a holstered handgun, frightening the juveniles and many onlookers. Officers arrived on scene and quickly located the suspect at Alki & 63rd SW. Officers recovered a .357 magnum revolver from the suspect’s waistband. He appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, and was also carrying a flask of whiskey. The suspect, produced a US Army ID, identifying him as an active duty sergeant, and a CCW permit issued by the state of Ohio.

After interviewing victims and witnesses, it was determined that the display of the handgun did not appear reasonable in response to any real or perceived threats from the juveniles. The suspect was arrested without incident and transported the Southwest Precinct. The suspect’s immediate commanding officer was contacted and made aware of the situation. The suspect was booked into King County Jail for unlawful carrying/display of a weapon. The revolver and Ohio CCW card were placed into evidence.

Washington does honor Ohio concealed-weapons permits, by the way, according to data we found online. As for the suspect’s status, while we don’t have his name, the jail register does show one man booked into jail last night on this type of charge, and he’s still in custody right now in lieu of $950 bail.

Kap June 6, 2009 (10:09 am)

How can I help to post bail for him?

CD June 6, 2009 (10:32 am)

seriously- he was drunk and scaring middle school children with a gun? Nice.

JunctionMonkey June 6, 2009 (10:42 am)

While he was legally carrying a weapon, it appears that the combination of alcohol and testosterone had the usual negative impact on IQ.

carraig na splinkeen June 6, 2009 (10:49 am)

Kap–if you weren’t being sarcastic…
instead of using your money to bail him out, make a donation to the family of the Loomis Guard who was shot in the WalMart robbery.

Mike June 6, 2009 (11:02 am)

Oh awesome, this guy is in the Army. That’ll make his penalty that much harsher. He’s not a civilian, he doesn’t get the same rights. He’s property of the U.S. Government.

carrieann June 6, 2009 (11:06 am)

You stay classy, Alki.

JunctionMonkey – My thoughts exactly.

vincent June 6, 2009 (11:22 am)

So a dude ( drunk granted ) gets harassed by jr gang members on alki, yells at them and during the escalation shows that they cant “jump him” as I am sure they offered… and everyone sides with the cops.

Way to teach the next generation of gang bangers how to play the system. Don’t worry about hassling your average joe, they are defenseless against you.

Before everyone goes off on how the widdle children are innocent, innocent kids don’t get into screaming matches with couples on alki, and this blog has a least half a dozen complaints about roving packs of teens on it. I can freely acknowledge the dude was drunk, and in the wrong for but assigning him as the sole guilty party sends a very bad message.

Mike June 6, 2009 (11:31 am)

vincent, where did you get that these kids are in a gang, that these kids started anything, that these kids are in the wrong in any way? As far as everything I’ve read here and according to the people that were there, this guy was drunk and threatened these 13ish year old kids. Honestly, where did your comment come from?

WSB June 6, 2009 (11:44 am)

For what it’s worth, just before the fast-moving reinforcements arrived, we drove past what I now understand to be the original scene. A cruiser was in the parking area right by the bathhouse, on the water side, lights flashing, with officer(s) talking to a group of young-looking teenagers. No gang colors/clothing unless gangs are into pastels these days. More girls than boys. Not that you have to dress gang to be gang, I suppose. But I’m mentioning this since a commenter brought it up – TR

arborheightsdad June 6, 2009 (11:44 am)

Vincent,

My son was in the group of kids harassed by this guy and I can assure you he is NOT in a gang. You seriously need to think and get the facts straight before spounting off about something you know nothing about. All kids at Alki are not gang members. In fact, the majority of the kids at this party who were being harassed by this guy are honor students and a group of parents were with them yesterday evening. If you don’t know the facts give your keyboard a rest.

bridge to somewhere June 6, 2009 (11:47 am)

i think it might be fair to say the SPD blotter account of the story has left off some of the details that might help us to better understand the situation that resulted in the arrest. in the comments here i can see that some folks think (probably quite reasonably) that the situation the sergeant found himself in might have been potentially scary for him, per other stories we’ve heard on WSB about people getting harrassed on alki. on the other hand, other folks (probably quite reasonably) believe in giving the benefit of doubt to the kids.
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ultimately both responses are valid from my point of view. i think in this situation we simply don’t know enough about what happened that lead up to the arrest. i for one do not advocate in the slightest showing a .357 on alki, don’t get me wrong, but i do know what it’s like to be scared and picked on.

WSB June 6, 2009 (11:53 am)

To “Bridge”‘s point, I will be looking for the actual police report at the precinct, though even that can never tell the full tale of what any incident was like from both the perp and the victim standpoints. But on occasion they do indeed have more details. Reports usually take a couple days to get through the system so I doubt this one will be media-viewable before tomorrow night or Monday.

Jo..Joe June 6, 2009 (2:04 pm)

Vincent, I for one am with you. I realize you are not lumping all teenagers in with whatever confrontation went on at that moment. And yes, the guy was drunk? That is his fault. But, I have lived here since ’88 and I have seen Alki go from a sleepy quiet beach full of families and sun-bathers during the day and of fun loving bomb fires at night to a place where I have to pick the times when I feel safe to even go for a walk or a run. I have been harrased before by want-to-be tough guy teens (I want to be “PC” and not call them gangs). I don’t know what to do to take Alki back before it gets out of control. But sometimes I do feel like I need to be prepared to defend myself in some way. The police can’t be there all the time. And yes, I wasn’t there, and these particular kids in this situation may have been innocent. I am just saying; I know what you mean.

alki_2008 June 6, 2009 (2:38 pm)

I get it…people think the kids/teens must’ve been partly to blame because they got into a confrontation with the guy in the first place. However, according to arborheightsdad’s comments in the original article (https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=17572), the kids/teens confronted the guy because he was harassing a beached seal.
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If the kids/teens were trying to “defend” the seal, then that would be different than kids/teens just harassing a guy for no reason the way the gangbangers and posers do.
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Is there any way to confirm that there really was a beached seal in that area? Anyone else see it or report it?

56bricks June 6, 2009 (2:38 pm)

All teens must be presumed to be innocents. Until they beat or kill you. And of course that’s societies fault.

student June 6, 2009 (4:29 pm)

i was there and i did c the .357 hand gun but yes there was a beached seal and that the kids at this party and i did know all of them are not in any kind of gang at all.
and i cant understand why ppl who comment this thinked that we were harassing this man. and that its r fault in any way. this 25 year old man threatening us and using the “n” word several time towards us and “mocking us” over and over still shouldnt have threatened us with his gun.

shane June 6, 2009 (5:16 pm)

I’m a card carrying NRA member, gun owner and concealed pistol license holder. No matter what was said, or if this soldier felt threatened, all I see is this

“Officers recovered a .357 magnum revolver from the suspect’s waistband. He appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, and was also carrying a flask of whiskey.”

Guns and booze mix like cars and booze. The minute the Sgt mixed the 2 he put himself in the wrong….nothing else is relevant.

Dante June 6, 2009 (6:06 pm)

Simple solution: Don’t carry concealed, carry open. Don’t threaten. Don’t be threatened.

WSB June 6, 2009 (7:19 pm)

And the seal angle has now been verified, in a very sad story we have just published at the top of the page:
https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=17621
… although the time frame is a little off (it was between 7 and 8 when the gun incident played out last night)

Brent June 7, 2009 (2:40 am)

Guy with lady friend feels threatened by large group of unknowns and shows firearm in self defense? His fault for not contacting police first. Whoever calls first wins. Fact.

Babs June 7, 2009 (3:44 am)

Why would this loser need to carry a big and powerful Dirty Harry 357? Concealed also? And he was a Army Sargent, which includes being a role model to other soldiers? Yeah I bet the seal he was beating/harassing was “threatening” him. I do not want to hear, “well he was drunk.” Please spare me.
I hope he gets locked up FOR A LONG TIME because this man is a ticking time bomb with many mental and life issues. Lucky for the community he was taken down before a horrible tragedy happened. WSB: please continue to report this.

Gray Sky June 7, 2009 (8:16 am)

Anyone carrying a weapon who is drunk enough to threaten, or imply a threat, to a group of people deserves to go to jail. And I hope his CO throws him in the brig when he is sent back to his base.

mike June 7, 2009 (8:33 am)

This guy has a lot of things he’s going to be charged with. He had a loaded weapon on him while intoxicated, he threatened a group of people with the loaded weapon while intoxicated, he harassed a protected species of wildlife, intoxicated in public, and to top it off… he’s active duty Army and intoxicated while carrying a loaded weapon and used it to threatened children.

The harassing of the seal alone can be $20,000. He’s probably going to be dishonorably discharged from the military, serve a lot of time in jail and pay well over $20,000 in fines for this incident.

c@lbob June 7, 2009 (11:55 am)

I cannot believe the number of folks who have tried to pound out a defense for this drunk loser.

I don’t think it is typical of enlisted military folks to feel threatened by middle school kids on a beach in the USA. If they do, they should get their PTSD treated, NOT carry a gun, and stay off the sauce.

The person doing the threatening was the 25-year-old “adult”, who thought he’d scare the kids from reporting him. Good thing he was wrong.

WSB June 7, 2009 (12:09 pm)

Update, the suspect is out of jail as of a couple hours ago. Will post separately.

wutwut99 June 7, 2009 (4:27 pm)

Ya, Dante, get wasted while brandishing a weapon. Let’s all pack heat and get blasted! It’ll be a gun party!

johnson June 8, 2009 (11:03 am)

I guess more proof that Americans just don’t value life like the rest of the world — any yahoo can carry a gun, brandish it at juveniles, and gun nuts will whine about their rights being taken away.

Alana June 8, 2009 (4:25 pm)

I was one of the kids at this party and who saw all of this go down. We didnt want to sit back and watch this guy harass an innocent seal on the beach…so we confronted him thats all. but he took it way to far using the n word many times with his smart remarkes then proceeding to show us his gun. And i am not a part of any gang and will never be. We arent stupid kids who were on the beach just trying to start something. It was our friends birthday and we were just trying to have some fun. Cant get mad at us.

Sorry, comment time is over.