(Photo courtesy of Amanda)
The SWAT standoff that shut down three blocks of Delridge through the morning commute today started with an incident at Camp Long late Thursday night that raised additional questions today. Jena, who was camping in the park’s cabins with a group of 4-to-7-year-old children, voiced detailed concerns in this comment following our original coverage, so we followed up with the Parks Department.
First, we should note that the 20-year-old man police were seeking at the home in the 5000 block of Delridge – until he turned up instead at the Southwest Precinct – remains in jail as of last check, under investigation for two felonies, domestic-violence assault and domestic-violence harassment. Police say he threatened his girlfriend with a gun.
Now, to Camp Long. Parks spokesperson Joelle Hammerstad answered our inquiries about what commenter Jena reported, including, in part, “Around 11:30 pm a huge party broke out in cabin 8, loud music, drugs and alcohol, and a young man started punching out the windows of the North bathrooms, fifty feet from our cabins (9 & 10).” First – we asked about damage from the window-breaking report and whether the reported party had led to cabin damage. Hammerstad’s reply: “The cabins are fine and do not have any damage. Four windows are broken in the men’s bathroom, but that is not affecting their use. They are more like ventilation windows over six feet off the ground.” To the more complicated issues Jena raised regarding security and communication – read on:
Jena wrote that “The staff at Camp Long knew NOTHING of the incident or the broken windows in the north bathroom until I informed them at 10:45 AM this morning,” and also mentioned a large number of “juveniles” in the park, as well as the fact that she had to let police into the gated park.
Hammerstad was able to speak to Camp Long policy in general, as well as a few points of the park aspect of what happened: “We rent the cabins only to those 23 and older. This usually helps us avoid large parties of juveniles like we saw last night. The person who rented the two cabins in question indicated that there would be a total of 12 people in his party. For campers who cause problems in the park, we typically pursue an exclusion order. We intend to do that in this case.” She says drinking is against the park rules, and “This is also in the contract that campers sign when they rent cabins.”
Regarding camp access and security: “When campers rent overnight, they are given a key to the front gate. This is in case of emergency, since the gate is locked at night. We also provide several emergency telephone numbers, which campers can call after hours, at night and on the weekends. All of those numbers are provided on the contract. … We contract with Olympic Security to check the park and lock the gates. Last night, Olympic Security checked the park at around 10:30 p.m. While they did notice large numbers of juveniles, they did not see any unruly behavior at that time. They locked the gate around 10:30 p.m. and left. … We do not have overnight security in the park when we have campers there. This typically has not been a problem.” That was about an hour before the trouble was reported.
As for why commenter Jena was told that park staff had no idea about last night’s incident until she told them, Hammerstad told us: “The staff at Camp Long was not aware of what had occurred on Thursday night because no one had notified them. The maintenance guy who comes in early does not go to the cabins to clean them until after checkout, which is 12 noon. The front desk staff came in around 9:30 a.m., and they were met by the camper who had been there with the children the night before.”
That would be Jena, who has added another comment since our last late-in-the-day exchange with Parks. Other commenters have noted that Camp Long is not a frequent trouble spot, including this park neighbor who says last night was only the second time in 9 years they have called 911 about something heard in the park.
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