West Seattle, Washington
24 Saturday
Sustainable local food is what Eat Local Now! is all about – and what you’ll enjoy during next Thursday’s 7th annual Eat Local Now! dinner – as long as you hurry up and get your tickets. WSB is proud to again be among the co-sponsors for this event that’s both delectable and educational, presented by Sustainable West Seattle, CoolMom, Herban Feast and The Seattle Good Business Network next Thursday (September 30th) at Herban Feast’s Sodo Park. Organizers have gone public with the final chef lineup, and the roster of local-food producers/providers – note West Seattle favorites new and old:
Ariel Bangs – Healthy Creations
Dalis Chea – Herban Feast (Fresh Bistro)
Marisa Lown – The Radical Cupcake
Traci Knight – Personal Chef
Hajime Sato – Mashiko
Jack Spiess – Seatown
Jacob Wiesberg – Blackboard BistroLocal food producers and providers include: Field Roast, Full Circle Farm, Bird on a Wire, Radical Cupcake, Mashiko, Spud, Elliott Bay Brewing, Thundering Hooves Farm, PCC, Platypus Breads, Seatown Snack Bar, Blackboard Bistro, The Grange Café, Blackboard Bistro, Alvarez Organic Farm, Big Al Brewing, Chef Tracy Knight, Chef Ariel Bangs, Salumi, Brian Allen, Charlie’s Produce, Willie’s Organic Greens, Hope Burundi Cooperative and the Somali-Bantu Farmers of Washington
Not only do you get dinner, you get entertainment, the chance to bid in a silent auction, and the opportunity to meet exhibitors providing information about growing and/or buying fresh local food. It’s at 6 pm Thursday, September 30th, at Herban Feast’s Sodo Park, with tickets available online now.
Tonight’s three scores are all in, and in each one, somebody got blanked: According to the scoreboard at the Seattle Times, it was Seattle Lutheran 44, Darrington 0. Meantime, we were at the WSHS-Franklin game (covered in progress via Twitter), final score Franklin 56, WSHS 0. And we’ve just received the Chief Sealth IHS score from Sealth, which lost to Rainier Beach 48-0.
We’ve reported before on Rebuilding Together Seattle‘s projects in West Seattle – part of their work all over the city handling repair/renovation work for people in need – and this week they were back out west to help WestSide Baby, thanks to a Pepsi Beverage Company grant.
Margie at RTS says 30 Pepsi volunteers pitched in to help WestSide Baby fix up the new space it’s using for more storage near its White Center headquarters; lots more photos on the RTS website
(Scroll down for statement from victims’ family, released by hospital this afternoon)
(Asst. Chief Jim Pugel’s remarks to the media from Seattle Police Headquarters)
2:02 PM: Police are now briefing the media on what they’ve learned about the shootings yesterday afternoon that left four people dead at a home on 14th SW in West Seattle. Here’s our original Thursday afternoon coverage.
BRIEFING NOTES, AS THEY HAPPEN: Police are circulating photos of the weapons they say were used. Here’s the 25 caliber handgun:
Here’s the 9 millimeter:
At least 20 rounds were fired inside the house, Assistant Chief Jim Pugel says. They are trying to figure out “the source” of the guns. They know they were not stolen, and that the woman “did not have a permit.” (They clarify that she would not have needed one just to keep them in the house.)
*They say they are going to play a recording of some of the 911 calls – they want to single out exceptional police work (they name Sgt. Tony Bailey).
*First, they are recounting how events unfolded after police got the call. So far, nothing has changed from the story that was disclosed yesterday. But they still don’t know the motive.
*2:10 PM: They’re playing recordings of communication between dispatch and officers. The tapes reveal the terse, precise, urgent communication between police who did not know initially where the suspect was and if there was still danger.
*2:16 PM: Police say they have heard that the 60-year-old alleged killer was suffering from mental illness, but they have not been able to confirm it independently. They say the lone survivor of the shootings “is expected to recover.” They do not yet know who was shot first.
*2:22 PM: Assistant Chief Pugel again singles out Sgt. Bailey for his exceptional work in keeping other officers from going into potential harm’s way when the reality of the situation wasn’t immediately clear – “he was very specific about getting what we call a contact team, properly trained and equipped one, before he let anyone get exposed – and he did it very fast.” Police were there when the last two shots were fired, he says: “You could actually hear the pops.”
2:27 PM: The briefing is over. We are still awaiting word on whether the Medical Examiner will officially identify the victims today – they usually update their daily media report after 3 pm. Meantime, the recording of police communication during the incident was played again after the briefing – here’s Media Unit Det. Mark Jamieson at the laptop:
Police tell us they likely will finish their work at the house later today.
3:09 PM UPDATE: A statement from the family, including information on how to help, circulated by Harborview Medical Center, where the shooting survivor is being cared for:
Statement from Phan, Harm & Sok Family
Yesterday afternoon’s horrible event cost us four family members. They will surely be missed by all of us.
We ask that the media please correct the currently published report. Saroeun Phan has been struggling with schizophrenia and depression for several years and has sought medical attention numerous times. She has been taking medication prescribed to her by physicians. It is not certain whether she has been properly taking her medication these past couple of months.
It is tough enough to grieve with the loss of family members, it’s even harder dealing with false reports. No arguments or fights took place the night before and no ill-will existed in the household. This has truly been an unforeseen, tragic event.
Our family would like to request solitude as we mourn the loved ones we lost. Thank you to all who have sent and continue to send their love, care & prayers. We will certainly need our friends in the coming weeks & months.
If you wish to contribute monetarily to costs of funeral & medical expenses, we have set up a benevolent account at BECU. That information is below. Deposits can be made at any BECU accepting deposits, by mail or electronically (for BECU Members only).
‘Phan/Harm Memorial Fund’
Acct # 3586082948BECU
PO BOX 34044
SEATTLE, WA 98124-1044BECU Members can call: (800) 233-2328
Thankfully,
Phan, Harm & Sok Family
7:23 PM UPDATE: Adding some more video from today’s press conference. This is the question and answer session with additional information:
The photo and report are shared by Kory Kumasaka from Chief Sealth International High School:
Chief Sealth International High School Senior Ebony Beauchamp was surprised in her third period class today when she was awarded the Nordstrom Diversity Scholarship worth $10, 000. Ebony’s family was also on hand to celebrate this great event. The good people at Nordstrom also brought cupcakes to share with her classmates.
(WSB photo from WSHS practice on Thursday)
All three of West Seattle’s high-school football teams lost last week – but none as visibly as West Seattle High School, which forfeited to O’Dea High School while down 48-0 at halftime, in pounding rain at West Seattle Stadium. We talked on Thursday with Coach Davis Lura, who says the team’s challenges include the fact they are going into tonight’s game against Franklin High School (7 pm, SWAC) with about 20 players dealing with some sort of injury: “(The number is) up, it’s down, it changes every day,” he told us, saying that’s been the situation since the season began with a non-conference match against Eisenhower HS (from Yakima). The emotional health of the team is good, though, according to Coach Lura, who says practice has been going well – he says no clear leader has emerged but about half a dozen of the players are sharing leadership roles, with spirits remaining high. The coach says Franklin has its best team in 10 years; last week, they beat Nathan Hale. And his players are aware they’re going in with a very limited squad – but they’re looking ahead to more players being able to come back in the weeks ahead, from academic probation as well as injuries, looking to the big Chief Sealth and Rainier Beach games later this fall.
This morning, police tape still ringed the Highland Park house where four people died yesterday afternoon (WSB coverage here) – when, police say, a woman opened fire on four family members – her son-in-law and two teenage granddaughters died, her daughter survived. They have not been officially identified yet, but a family member gave their names to our partners at the Seattle Times, saying the two youngest victims were 14 and 17 years old. We checked with Seattle Public Schools to see if they were currently enrolled in any area schools; the district tells us that while they were SPS students last year, they were not enrolled this year. Police have yet to release new information today but we expect to hear the latest when they brief media at SPD headquarters downtown at 2 pm. 1:38 PM NOTE: We expect to start a new story once the police briefing starts, with text highlights as well as a live stream (hopefully from the Seattle Times).
Two notes from local high schools: One more reminder of the Chief Sealth International High School community celebration tomorrow – parents/guardians are welcome at 9:30 am, everybody else at 10 am, get a chance to tour the newly renovated school, and be entertained by CSIHS students and staff. A tour also was offered for participants at last night’s Sealth PTSA meeting, which we hear had a big turnout. Earlier this week we invited other schools to let us know about their meetings and we’ve since heard from Lori with the West Seattle High School PTSA, who says their first meeting of the year is next Wednesday (September 29th), 7 pm in the WSHS Library: “Everybody is welcome and membership is not required.”
Thanks to Jessica (whose site Memoirs of a Weird Girl is one of the 100+ sites on the WSB Blogs page) for sharing that photo of demolition at the Admiral Safeway redevelopment site today – you can see the crews are proceeding toward the facade. As noted here yesterday, Safeway also now has a webcam you can check; we’ll add images later in the day as this proceeds. The new store – almost twice as big as the old one – is expected to be open by midsummer next year.
As the Seattle-area Susan Komen 3 Day for the Cure walk starts this morning, thanks to Glen Syvertsen for sharing that new video featuring Tracy Dart, the breast-cancer survivor who is namesake for West Seattle’s best-known 3 Day team, Team Tracy, with narration by Tom Hutyler, best known as the Safeco Field “Voice of the Mariners.” (Tom and Glen are both West Seattleites too.) Team Tracy did make the $40,000 fundraising goal mentioned in the video, by the way, and as Tracy mentions on her website, she’s carrying the “Courage” banner in the Survivors’ Circle. Team Tracy members and hundreds of others will leave Redmond this morning on an east/north route, concluding at Memorial Stadium downtown on Sunday. If you’d like to cheer the walkers along the way, “cheering stations” are listed on the 3 Day website. Good luck to all the walkers!
An employee of West Seattle’s GT Towing was killed in a hit-and-run overnight, according to the Washington State Patrol, which sent a news release saying two suspects are in custody, 31-year-old and 20-year-old men:
A tow truck driver was struck and killed on the entrance ramp from Spokane Street to southbound Interstate 5 at approximately 1:15 a.m. while securing a vehicle from an earlier collision. The driver, a 51 year old male working for GT Towing in Seattle, was kneeling down at the left front side of the disabled vehicle when a southbound 2000 Ford Explorer lost control while travelling in the HOV lane. The Explorer came across all 5 southbound lanes and struck the tow truck driver. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
After colliding with the tow truck operator, disabled vehicle, and tow truck, the Explorer spun back across all southbound lanes and came to rest facing northbound in the middle of the freeway. As the tow truck driver lay mortally wounded in the right lane, the driver of the Explorer turned the vehicle around and fled the scene southbound on Interstate 5. Alert troopers located the Explorer within minutes of the collision at the bottom of the Michigan Street ramp as one of the occupants was outside urinating. …
The cause of the collision is under investigation and detectives are working to verify who was driving the SUV. It is believed that both occupants were under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the collision. Vehicular homicide and hit and run charges are expected as the investigation progresses.
Metro‘s next “service revision” has some changes for West Seattle and White Center riders – including some trips being dropped entirely – and late tonight, the details came in. Read on for Metro’s full announcement of which routes will be affected:Read More
| 3 COMMENTS