West Seattle Crime Watch: 2 quick followups from the weekend

Brief followups tonight on two weekend incidents. First, several people e-mailed us Sunday afternoon about an incident early that morning in the 4500 block of 40th SW (map), involving police using a bullhorn to call to someone. We got a bit of info today from Southwest Precinct Lt. Norm James, who says it was ultimately a false alarm of sorts, first called in as “a burglary in progress where the complainant did not know the address. Officers arrived in the area but the witness refused to come outside to contact the officers. A loudspeaker was used to try to contact the witness and have him come out. Once the officers made contact with the complainant, it was determined that there was no burglary or any other type of criminal activity.” Second, we also asked a question brought up by several commenters on Saturday – whether there are any indications that the two burglary suspects arrested on The Bridge (WSB coverage here) were linked to other burglaries beyond the one in which they’re suspected of involvement that day; so far, says Lt. James, no.

Leroniusmonkfish January 5, 2010 (3:14 am)

@ the 4500 block incident the complainant didn’t know the address of the burglary and then the officers had to use a bullhorn to get them to come out? Way to go loooosers! Like the SPD didn’t have anything better to do…quit scraping your bong!

beachdrivegirl January 5, 2010 (11:28 am)

I know- soo annoying that this individual decided to waste our law inforcements time and resources like this.

Kelly Williams January 6, 2010 (1:02 am)

What brave and courageous policeman we have! You get such foolishness as this: using a bullhorn to call out a witness, for goodness sake! Such an example of the job when you just don’t know what to expect, and what you have to endure from us, your civilians, in any type of dispute you’re called on to investigate.

Thank you West Seattle policemen, and Washington State police for all the suffering fools — me included (in all humility). As for me and my household, I hope to make your job easier and safer. And BTW, thank you for making our neighborhoods safer.

P January 6, 2010 (9:06 am)

I live right there, was woken up by the police offer speaking into the speakerphone, and watched this unfold for an hour or so. Something is fishy based on the explanation above, given the force the police demonstrated. Here’s what I saw: there were 4 or so police cars, mostly parked on Oregon between 40th ave and 41st ave. One officer was using the PA system built into the front of the squad car, calling a guy and his friend to come out of the alley on Oregon between 40th and 41st. About 5-10 minutes later a shirtless guy in his 20s walked out of the alley and towards 41st&Oregon with his hands up while at least one officer had a shotgun trained on him. They arrested him and put him a squad car, and then appeared to be searching for his friend. A bunch of cops went into the alley, one of whom had an M-16 style assault rifle out. They were also checking out the townhouse on the SW corner of 40th ave and Oregon, shining flashlights in the windows. It didn’t appear they found anyone. About 20 minutes later an amulance showed up, and the officers moved the one guy they arrested to the ambulance stretcher – there were restraints in the stretcher holding him down. I didn’t see any obvious injuries on him though. Then 5-10 minutes later a fire truck showed up, and a couple fire fighters went into the townhouse and were doing something up on the top floor for about 10 minutes. They came out, and then soon after the police cars and the fire truck left.

I’m really curious what was going on here

Sorry, comment time is over.