Shooting reported at Me-Kwa-Mooks, suspect on the run

Unfolding on the scanner: Police were flagged down at Me-Kwa-Mooks Park on Beach Drive (map) – the first officer there has found someone with a gunshot wound to the “back of the head” but also described as “conscious and alert.” The suspect, said to be armed with a handgun, is reported to have fled “on foot.” Police are asking if a helicopter is available (apparently it is not). The suspect is described as a mixed-race male running southbound in white T-shirt and jeans. 1:17 AM UPDATE: Just got a call from someone who lives just south of Beach Drive, who says police advised them to stay inside. No word yet on the victim’s condition. 2:18 AM: No further info so far; thanks to those who have added in comments what they’ve seen near the scene. 11:28 AM NOTE: Continuing to pursue additional information – will publish a separate update as soon as it’s available. 11:38 PM UPDATE: Have just published a separate update with new information from police. See it here. Bottom line – the man said he had been shot but turned out not to have been. He and the alleged suspect believed to have “assaulted each other.” Neither seriously hurt.

35 Replies to "Shooting reported at Me-Kwa-Mooks, suspect on the run"

  • Mookie July 5, 2009 (1:03 am)

    Was just about to send you an email about it…just heard that no Guardian helicopter available tonight. I hope the victim survives and that K9 units can get the s.o.b. shooter…

  • WSB July 5, 2009 (1:06 am)

    Thanks, I have been listening for a few hours now and heard it from the start when they were flagged down by someone at M/K/M.

  • JanS July 5, 2009 (1:09 am)

    it’s freakin’ incredible…just more and more sirens every minute or so up here. I didn’t have much in my neighborhood, but we’re so close to Alki and Beach Drive they all go past here…the SPD and fire fighters, I mean….

  • WSB July 5, 2009 (1:14 am)

    Compounded by the fire calls – there have been fire calls in the north as well as the south.

  • S July 5, 2009 (1:15 am)

    I pray for the victim… and that anyone considering a crime against somebody else will stop and think! It seems to be getting progressively worse here on Alki.

  • Beachdrivrgirl July 5, 2009 (1:17 am)

    So scary! A cop car arriving by the minute. Let’s ole everything turns out okay

  • Mike July 5, 2009 (1:18 am)

    Emergency lines are clogged up, you get put on hold.

  • Beachdrivegirl July 5, 2009 (1:27 am)

    Sorry about typos just got woken up and on iPhone

  • Karl July 5, 2009 (1:31 am)

    Is that news helo then?

  • ben July 5, 2009 (1:36 am)

    ya it started at the bamboo bar and grill not good hope everyone is ok

  • WSB July 5, 2009 (1:41 am)

    If you’re hearing/seeing a helicopter, maybe it became available. There wouldn’t generally be a news helicopter available at this hour, although KING likely had a chopper up for its fireworks show (but would have brought it down by 11).
    .
    Ben – There was a separate medic call at Bamboo, before this one, reportedly involving an assault. What info do you have that the two were related?

  • Rhonda Porter July 5, 2009 (1:44 am)

    I hate this stuff. Is the shot guy ok?

  • Beachdrivegirl July 5, 2009 (1:44 am)

    The cops have cleared out . No helicoptor that I can hear.

  • WSB July 5, 2009 (1:50 am)

    The only way to catch a condition (prior to an official info release, which may not happen tonight) is catching the medics on the scanner, and I have not heard them … I am sure they’ve transported him already as the fire portion of the call (involving the engines and medic units) has “closed.” So all I have is the original report of the first officer on the scene, that the victim was “conscious and alert” … but also that the gunshot wound was to the head. No description at that time whether it was a glancing wound, major, or what.

  • Beachdrivegirl July 5, 2009 (1:54 am)

    The medics cleared out about 20 minutes ago. My understanding is that the victims friend was pretty drunk so they were having done lack of communication as to what happened. The cops are still patrolling the area although crime scene has been cleared

  • ben July 5, 2009 (2:50 am)

    we were on admiral and what ever bamboo is on a little before 1 am when we saw a large group of people running from the alki area. we left area about 15 minutes later but wanted to see where the fire dept. went so we drove to alki and they were infront of bamboo (the owner was there Ted i think is his name) so we headed home down beach drive and came across the police and the two guys that had been shot they were holding bandages to their heads so no i wasn’t there but the guys i saw running across admiral LOOKED like the same guys i saw stopped infront of the park holding bandages to there heads and neck

  • JH July 5, 2009 (5:29 am)

    Huh? Did you call the police when you first saw people holding “bandages” to their heads and neck? I would be a little suspicious…

  • Dante July 5, 2009 (9:39 am)

    What exactly does the phrase ‘mixed race’ mean in there? Japanese – Native American? Middle Eastern – Pacific Islander? Inuit – Indian? African – Aborigine? Or is it just assumed to be black – white? This designation seems more than a bit racist and, even worse from a ‘catching them’ standpoint, not useful at all in figuring out what the person may look like. Any of you with LE connections want to clue me in on how ‘mixed race’ is useful or helpful?

  • Stacey July 5, 2009 (1:01 pm)

    Uh, Not wholly white and not wholly black etc narrows things down considerably, Dante.

    Save your outrage for when it matters.

  • Rhonda Porter July 5, 2009 (1:19 pm)

    Last night, we were at a neighbors home when a young man was running barefoot down the bulkhead. He was being chased by someone and was pretty upset. The police were aware of him and directed him back to his vehicle. At this time (around 1:15am) the police told us to get inside since they were going to unleash a canine unit and somebody could be bit.

  • WSB July 5, 2009 (1:37 pm)

    Dante, that’s a verbatim quote from the scanner so I probably should have put quote marks around it to make that clear. We have discussed here previously many a time the reason that race is included in suspect descriptions and after considerable discussion and debate, WSB policy is to include any information that’s available, however limited, because some info is better than none … TR

  • Living in West Seattle Since 1985 July 5, 2009 (2:50 pm)

    Really? Again?!? Scary!

  • Living in West Seattle Since 1985 July 5, 2009 (2:54 pm)

    When I said “Again” I did not mean Bamboo having troubles. I was just meaning Alki/West Seattle in general has had a rough year or 2. Bamboo is a good place, just had something bad happen there.

  • WSB July 5, 2009 (2:59 pm)

    And to clarify, I have no information confirming any linkage between the Bamboo call and the Me-Kwa-Mooks call. Until and unless I can see the police report myself (not likely before tomorrow at the earliest), I have to await whatever info is eventually provided by the SPD media-unit on-call officer (who has always been very helpful so I know he’s trying), at which time I will turn it around immediately … TR

  • Jeannie July 5, 2009 (3:11 pm)

    This brought to mind a murder that happened in the park in 1994, though the circumstances were quite different.

    http://www.seattlepi.com/archives/1994/9403200045.asp

  • Dante July 5, 2009 (6:02 pm)

    Thanks for pointing out the quote was from the scanner. Unfortunately, Im not sure I made my question / point clearly. I understand that’s what went out to help ID the subject, and I understand how a superficial race assessment can help in targeting someone. My question is how does the phrase ‘mixed race’ possibly help? Unless you assume mixed means black and while like Stacey does. If that’s what mixed is code for, fine. But if you’ve looked around lately, the people arn’t just black and white. If you’re white or black, maybe thats the first image that phrase calls up. Is there a different phrase for a person that’s latino and korean? Seems like mixed race as something to look for is completely unhelpful. This isn’t moral outrage, I just want to know how mixed race without other qualifiers is helpful. Not because it’s racist (whether or not it is) but because if cop #1 says mixed race and means latino/korean, and cop #2 starts looking for black/white, I dont understand how that’s useful. Is it just too unPC to say ‘light skinned black male’?

  • S July 5, 2009 (6:36 pm)

    Dante, it is helpful. If you have a better idea, offer a solution. Until then, I find white, black, mixed race, ANY and ALL descriptive terms and everything else incredibly helpful.

  • Dante July 5, 2009 (6:55 pm)

    Can you tell me what you find helpful about it? From the article, the suspect was described as mixed race – that’s it. I don’t get how that’s helpful. If they mean latino/asian and you’re lookin out for black/white, how does that help S? As for a better idea, yeah, how about ‘light skinned black male’ or ‘dark hispanic female’. That seems a hell of a lot more helpful than ‘mixed race’.

  • HomeOnBeachDrive July 5, 2009 (8:05 pm)

    I totally agree. ASSUMING mixed race means black-white is insanely childish. Believe it or not there are OTHER races and skin tones other than northern European and African. Those aren’t the only people on the planet. Asian is the biggest racial group on the planet. Then you can Indian, Native American/aboriginal, latino, etc. It’s not a PC bitch fest, it’s a simple honest straight forward point. If someone says ‘mixed race’ and you ASSUME that means partially black, that’s ridiculous. The world is bigger than that, hell, Seattle is bigger than that. I’m “mixed race” and I have no African/black heritage. Guess which I am? What would the police GUESS I am from that “description”? Not helpful isn’t it…

  • christine cannon July 5, 2009 (10:32 pm)

    We live on Beach Drive not far from Me Kwa Mooks park.
    At about 1:15 my husband and I were just sitting chatting and suddenly at the bottom of our driveway were three carloads of african american men in their early 20’s.
    they were honking their horns and talking loudly back and for between the cars. We went out on our deck to watch a bit because two of the cars were parked side by side (we thought perhaps they were going to street race) There was a white late model truck behind them. They pulled over across the street and continued their discourse for a while. One of the cars left back toward Me Kwa Mooks (they were gone for about 20 mins) .
    When they returned they had a few girls with them, they talked some more and all piled into the various vehicles and finally took off toward Lowman Beach. Hmmmm. My Husband and son had been down at Me Kwa Mooks for about 20 minutes about 11:45. They shot off a couple of fireworks and returned home. My husband said they did not see anything at that time that was suspicious. But they did not go into the park and were across the street and a bit closer to Jacobsen street.
    We did not think a lot about these kids because they did not look like gang kind a kids. They looked a little more like Eastside preppie kids. The cars they were driving were a late model BMW two door silver, An early 2000 ish Honda Accord (white) and a white late model Dodge Ram pick up with a work rack. I don’t know if I should report this as they were really only hanging out. They did not seem nervous. If others of you think I should report this then I will … sadly we have not lic. plates But it was around the same time the shooting occured… cannot believe we heard no sirens we don’t lie that far down from the park.

    It is getting really creepy to see this happening so close to families and this neighborhood that is normally so quiet now beginning to feel not so safe. Our family have experienced two different incidents in the past year, last summer some one shot a sea gull right as we were leaving the beach across from Me Kwa Mooks.
    The gull practically fell at our feet. I was actually the one who called that in. Then this spring walking on Alki (this occurred literally two feet in front of us) (husb, son 13 years and I) the Seattle police chase some guy down pistols drawn right through the pedestrians they trew this guy to the ground and cuffed him. Literally we could have touched the guy fortunately for us they guy did not have a gun and the cop who put his gun on the ground, sheesh any one could have grabbed it while he was cuffing the guy. Hmmmm just is not the same …. around here….. Then this last night … on top of it there was such a presence last night on the Alki Beach (we went down to watch the Gaswork fireworks) we thought it was a bit much… but they all must have waited till the cops left and then got into the stuff they may have done earlier …. seems like the police need to get these people to leave the area….. oh well.

    peace to us all….. sri by the beach

  • fluorescent carl July 5, 2009 (10:42 pm)

    one part day glow orange, two parts banana yellow…

    That race gun is always cocked.. even when were talking about a gunshot wound to the head… Explain away Dante, you know you wait for these moments. Good Job another problem solved on to the next.

  • alki_2008 July 5, 2009 (11:49 pm)

    As just posted on the main page…it was NOT A SHOOTING. Whew!
    .
    Regarding the race thing. If the description is “mixed-race”, then you’ll know that someone that’s obviously caucasian or african-american or hispanic or asian is NOT who you’re looking for. Seems to me that “mixed-race” would be used when they can’t determine what race the person is, just that the person doesn’t look obviously one of the common categories. Better for them to say “mixed race” than to say nothing at all?

  • WSB July 5, 2009 (11:51 pm)

    I have added the new update link to the main body of this story but for anyone who’s just looking back at comments, here it is directly:
    https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=18496

  • rhody July 26, 2009 (9:25 pm)

    Just noticed that on the sea wall/boardwalk across from this park is “tagged” with gang like graffiti, is this fresh? also has the seattle gang unit been notified I have seen alot of colors and groups of people in the area recently, anything new on this case I havent seen or heard anything on the news

  • WSB July 26, 2009 (9:53 pm)

    That wall has had tagging trouble for years. gets painted over a lot too. Meantime, since this turned out to be an assault case between two people who knew each other, by local crime standards it’s semi-minor so certainly no citywide news organization would follow it and I haven’t followed it up either … no suspects at large etc. – TR

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