By Megan Sheppard
On the WSBeat, for West Seattle Blog

From reports on cases handled recently by Southwest Precinct officers:

*Around 3 p.m. Saturday at 16th and Holden, an officer recognized a man driving by as a habitual offender who was wanted on a $5,000 warrant. When he spotted the officer, the man stopped his car and threw the keys between the seats (ostensibly giving reason that he should be rooting around near the floorboards). After hesitating, he finally complied with officers’ order to exit the vehicle and show his hands. After he was taken into custody, one of the officers found a .45-caliber Colt with a magazine holding six cartridges. Its location? On the driver’s side floorboard, in easy reach. The 21-year-old, a convicted felon, is forbidden by law from possessing a firearm. He was booked into King County Jail on the warrant and for investigation of weapons violations.

*The non-member was caught on video sneaking into a local fitness club Friday morning of last week around 7:30. While he was in the shower, employees locked up the locker where he had stashed his clothes. The man didn’t wait around for police (possibly because of the crack cocaine later found in his pocket): When he discovered he couldn’t access his duds, he ran out of the building and down a wooded trail wearing only a towel.

9 more summaries after the jump:

*A soccer game turned ugly at Hiawatha on Sunday evening: An adult female player was attacked by as many as ten opposing players after a dispute on the field. The victim was kicked in the head multiple times and punched and scratched. Fellow team members who tried to help were attacked as well. Medics transported the 21-year-old victim to Harborview for treatment. One of the suspects? The forty-year-old father of an opposing player. He was seen kicking the victim as she lay on the ground trying to cover her face and head.

*Just after midnight Monday in the Admiral area, a young woman and her aunt heard someone trying to open their front door. Looking out a window, they saw a high school classmate of the girl. When the young woman stepped outside to see what the visitor wanted, she got punched in the face, shoved to the ground, and pummeled. The victim doesn’t know why she was attacked.

*While investigating a car prowl on Marine View Drive, an officer encountered a possible suspect. For safety, he asked if the man was carrying anything the officer “needed to know about.” The man admitted to having a knife. It turned out to be an illegal one with a six-inch fixed blade. It was confiscated but the man was not detained, as he was not the prowler.

*Early Saturday, the 911 center received a hang-up call from a screaming woman in the 4100 block of SW Austin. The operator could also hear a child crying in the background. Officers got no response to their knocks and — hearing screams themselves—forced the door open. They found a woman at the bottom of the stairs screaming, “He’s up there!” Officers found a four-year-old crying uncontrollably in the bathroom. Mom finally calmed down and explained she had panicked when she woke to find the boy having a seizure on the floor. (He had suffered from a high fever for several days.) Medics checked the child and told mom to call again if his condition changed.

*A citizen called 911 to report a disturbance between a man and a woman walking in the 9000 block of 30th SW on Thursday afternoon. The officer, waiting for backup, didn’t see anything physical between the two, but the argument was obviously heated and loud and it was obvious that the woman had been crying. Neither would identify themselves, and the woman spent most of the interaction directing loud and lewd comments toward officers, alleging police harassment. (The male suspect was so agitated that he was handcuffed for a short time.) An officer tried to explain to her their “duty and obligation to identify them and intervene for their safety.” The man finally identified himself but refused to identify the woman. A little research on multiple domestic court records gave officers a pretty good idea of who she was, and through questioning they were able to confirm her identity. They also confirmed that she was wanted on a $7,500 warrant. Although, as the report states, “her demeanor warranted the service of the warrant,” officers did not arrest her, primarily because of the three children on the scene. The pair was released, and amid a “barrage of insults and profanity” the officers provided their names and badge numbers, as requested.

*If you have a suspended license and you’re wanted on a $3,100 domestic violence warrant, you have to be a pretty dim bulb to drive around with one headlight burned out…and then lie about your identity to the officer who stops you. The 21-year-old was booked into King County Jail.

*Thursday evening of last week, a visually impaired woman reports that she was attacked from behind and groped about three blocks east of 35th and Morgan by three men. Pinned to the ground, she was convinced that she would have been raped had it not been for some children’s voices which apparently scared off the attackers.

*Two “profoundly intoxicated” men paid a visit to a local bowling alley early Thursday of last week. One dropped his pants; the other grabbed one manager in a headlock and punched another in the jaw. Three employees took the combative suspect to the ground and held him until officers arrived. Undeterred, he kicked officers, refused to obey verbal commands, and knocked a taser from one officer’s hands. It took several officers to get the man into a patrol car. Both the suspect and his friend were transported to the SW Precinct, where the loose-belted friend once again dropped his pants and both men urinated in the holding cell. The friend was taken to the hospital for detox. The suspect? Officers booked him into King County Jail for investigation of assault, trespassing, and resisting arrest. Before sending him downtown, they removed the bowling shoes so they could be returned to the alley.

*A man called 911 around 7 a.m. Saturday to say he had heard eight shots and found blood inside his apartment in the 5000 block of 38th SW. Since no other citizens made a report, officers determined that the man might be having a mental-health crisis. The other clue? He had barricaded the door to his house with a heavy TV set. When officers finally made entry, they found the victim extremely paranoid, insisting that people were in his bedroom. The 52-year-old was transported to Harborview for a mental evaluation.
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WSB Editor’s Note: The WSBeat has an archive category of its own, though we’re still linking the weekly reports on the WSB Crime Watch page, so you can catch it there if you miss it in the main news stream. We also continue to publish crime reports the rest of the week, when we get tips or hear noteworthy incidents via the scanner, so don’t be shy about letting us know when you see/hear something happening.