West Seattle, Washington
03 Wednesday
(From left, Melissa Chin from Seattle City Attorney’s Office, Cheryl Bishop from ATF, Jill Otake from U.S. Attorney’s Office)
From tonight’s meeting of the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council at the Seattle Police Southwest Precinct, toplines on topics from the latest property-crime rate, to last fall’s White Center-area raids, to an impromptu primer on the criminal-justice system, with three guests (above), all ahead & more:Read More
Two announcements from organizers of the third annual Chief Sealth International High School dinner/auction benefit, coming up in a week and a half – you can still get tickets, and they’re still rounding up auction items. Here’s an updated announcement:
3rd Annual Seahawk Spirit Dinner & Auction!
Co-Sponsored by Chief Sealth PTSA, Chief Sealth Performing Arts, and Chief Sealth AthleticsSaturday March 3, 2012
Doors Open at 5 pm ~ Hall at Fauntleroy
Tickets are $60 and include sit-down dinner and big fun!Entertainment includes performances by Chief Sealth High School student musicians as well as local group Choro Tocanda, performing Brazilian choro music. Taking elements ranging from European dance forms to African-rooted beats, this popular music was the first to express the many cultures that meet at the crossroads that is Brazil.
We are still gratefully accepting sponsorships from local businesses as well as item donations for both the silent and live auctions. Ticket sales, item or cash donations, and sponsorship opportunities can all be handled online:
https://csptsa.ejoinme.org/?tabid=326316
Contact chiefsealthptsa@gmail.com for more information.
Huge congratulations to Jean Robinson, a West Seattle Soccer Club coach who has just won a 2011 Coach of the Year award from the U.S. Youth Soccer organization (details here). WSSC’s Tim McMonigle tells WSB that he nominated Coach Robinson after the 2010 season, “and it has taken this long to get to the national level” – he coached a boys’ U-18 team with her that year (going 12-0), and then, he says, “She went back and started with a girls’ U-7 team last spring, and last fall coached a girls’ U-8 team. She is starting over. And the parents love her.”
Todd hopes you might be able to help him find his stolen truck:
This white Mazda B2600i 4×4 truck, with silver-gray canopy, was stolen from 4215 SW Myrtle st – one block east of California – sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning (2/19-2/20). The canopy rear window, shown in one picture, is now broken and covered with black plastic. In the other picture you can see a silver American Automobile Association sticker on the canopy front window. There are roof racks, with a bicycle holder on the passenger side, and on the rear of the truck is a towing insert, instead of a bumper. License plate is WA B89770H.
Call 911 if you see it.
(Photo by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
Gusty winds are in the forecast, and they’ve led to some high surf, as you can see at Beach Drive Blog. Meantime, there’s a rescue callout along Beach Drive right now – WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli is there and says that somebody reported a sailboarder possibly in trouble, though they’re believed to be OK.
One more postscript to the process, now in high gear, of selling the 87-year-old former Fire Station 37 (Othello/35th). Last Friday, we published an update with photos from a brief tour with broker Arvin Vander Veen – how about that mega-garage, above!? – plus the dates set for open houses and submittal of offers. Today, the brokerage, Colliers International, has announced the website for two ex-fire stations they’re representing, including 37, is live – seattlefirestations.com (with more photos). Again – the open houses are 10 am-2 pm March 10th and April 7th, with offers due by 5 pm April 20th.
Thanks to Pete for the tip on this (as well as an unsigned text message): Eastbound SW Holden should be open again at any time, since a tow truck was arriving at the scene where a white Jeep Cherokee crashed just east of 15th SW and blocked that side of the road. Its driver walked away (with a passenger, according to witnesses). No injuries reported.
1:46 PM: Police are searching right now for two armed men who are reported to have broken into a residence in the 4300 block of 30th SW. The only description they have of the intruders is, black men, late teens, with hoodies pulled up over their faces. More to come.
1:56 PM: Additional description information: The armed man had a silver .45 handgun, and was wearing a black windbreaker and blue jeans. (If you saw a helicopter in the area, by the way, it wasn’t a law-enforcement chopper – tipster Mary says it was a news chopper, though we’re not seeing it now.)
If you happen to spot the seal pup in the photo – no, it’s not in trouble, and the unusual item by her head is nothing to worry about. Robin Lindsey from Seal Sitters says Sandy (the rehabbed, tagged pup mentioned here 3 weeks ago) may just turn up in West Seattle:
Sandy, the satellite-tagged seal pup, has made her way back to our area, according to the most recent satellite hits. Yesterday, she was hanging out on Vashon’s West side in Colvos Passage. This morning the data reveals that she is at the north end of Vashon, near the Port Orchard/Southworth ferry run. We are asking folks to keep an eye out for her – and to stay back (of course) and call our hotline at 206-905-7325 (SEAL) if you spot her. Sandy’s homing instinct may well be sending her back to West Seattle and we’ll be waiting with open arms and lots of yellow tape!
It is incredibly exciting to watch this little pup we rescued from West Seattle back in August and her progress back in the Salish Sea; and, thus far, she seems to be successfully adapting to her new lease on life after a very long rehab at PAWS. People can follow her on SeaDoc Society’s “Sandy” page and receive almost daily e-mails of her travels.
We want to assure folks that her satellite tag was applied with glue and will fall off as she molts her coat in a few months, if not sooner. The tag does not impair her in any way and provides invaluable data for research that will help other seal pups. Here is a link to the blog posts about Sandy, including a video of her release.
P.S. Want to be a Seal Sitters volunteer? A training session is coming up March 3rd. We have a separate story in the works on that, but you can find out more right now by going here.
LOTS going on around the peninsula. From the WSB West Seattle Events calendar:
BRIDGE ADVISORIES FOR TONIGHT: The Fauntleroy Expressway is scheduled to be closed overnight as the Seismic Retrofit Project continues, and lane closures are scheduled because of the Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project. Details here.
MID-WINTER BREAK CONTINUES: School’s out all week for Seattle Public Schools and other schools that follow its calendar.
ROTARY CLUB OF WEST SEATTLE: If you’re going to the Rotary Club of West Seattle weekly luncheon meeting today, we’ll see you there, since your editor here is guest speaker today. Noon at Salty’s on Alki.
‘THE SHARING REVOLUTION’: Tonight, it’s a “Share Fair” and panel discussion at Sustainable West Seattle‘s meeting, 6-9 pm, Senior Center of West Seattle (California/Oregon) (details here)
SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT THE DESC PROJECT IN DELRIDGE? New advisory committee convenes a public hearing on the DESC Delridge 66-unit homeless-housing project, and would like to hear from everyone in the community with something to say about the project, to help define community concerns/interests going forward. 6:30 pm, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW).
NEW P-PATCH IN WEST SEATTLE: Parks and Green Spaces Levy money has been awarded to create a P-Patch community garden at Westcrest Park in Highland Park, and tonight’s the orientation and design criteria meeting. Organizers say, “You don’t need any experience gardening or community organizing, just an interest in being involved.” 6:30 pm, Highland Park Improvement Club, 12th and Holden.
TOASTMASTERS’ SPEECH CONTEST: 6:30-8 pm tonight at The Kenney: 7125 Fauntleroy Way SW, West Seattle Toastmasters 832 will hold their International Speech Contest; guests are invited to watch the competition free of charge. Club contest winners move on to area competition next month in Renton.
WEST SEATTLE CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL: At tonight’s WSCPC meeting, new precinct liaison Melissa Chin from the City Attorney’s Office will be introduced, and Jill Otake from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Violent Crime Task Force will speak. 7 pm, Southwest Precinct (Delridge/Webster) – full details here
West Seattle diver Laura James shares the photo at left – flowers at Cove 2, off Seacrest, left in memory of the diver who died on Sunday. As noted here Sunday night, Laura was one of the divers who went down to mark the spot where another “civilian” team had discovered him, so that police and fire divers could subsequently, and quickly, finish the recovery. Tonight, more information:
*In comments on Sunday night’s report, the diver who died is identified by his girlfriend and others as Tareq. We have learned his last name as well, but are not publishing it yet, while awaiting King County Medical Examiner confirmation that next-of-kin has all been notified (their usual daily media report was not available today because of the holiday). One commenter mentions that he was a ham-radio operator; we are told he was active with an emergency-preparedness group.
*Also commenting was Johanna Raupe, one of the divers who found the body at 110 feet down; she was taken to the Virginia Mason Center for Hyperbaric Medicine after a problem during her ascent. Via e-mail, she shared with WSB the account of what she told her dive group had happened, writing of a “major equipment failure” at 95 feet. As for how she’s doing, she wrote, “I am doing fine, I only experienced pain-related symptoms with some poor balance. The doctor told me I executed the best practices perfectly and my being here was testament to that fact. I had to do a preventative Table-6 decompression. I was released (Monday) morning a little after 4 AM. I am under observation and evaluation for a week.”
*If you missed our original coverage – Tareq was reported to be with an advanced dive class when something went wrong before 11 am Sunday; another diver tried surfacing with him, but lost track of him. Authorities were called, and Seattle Police/Fire and the U.S. Coast Guard searched in the water, from the air, and even from land (atop an SFD ladder) until late in the afternoon. After the dives involving Johanna and Laura, as detailed above, recovery operations were concluded successfully just before 8 pm.
4:34 PM UPDATE: The KCME now officially identifies the diver who died as 29-year-old Tareq Saade. Cause of death is listed as accidental drowning. According to information we have found online, Mr. Saade was a Microsoft employee who lived on Capitol Hill.
ADDED 11:28 PM: In further correspondence with Johanna – who identifies her diving buddy as Patricia Gunderson, and also has words of thanks for Yvonne Renick, shore support – we asked her how she and Patricia came to be the ones who went down looking after the official search was suspended, something we had not yet heard:
My dive buddy and I originally planned to dive at Redondo. When we got there, there were hundreds of divers in the water. Not a good environment for photography. So we went to Salt Water state park. We couldn’t get in the water there because of the logs baring the beach. We then decided to go to Alki and arrived around noon.
When we go there, Pat looked at me and said “Something is going to happen to us today because all of the cards are lining up. We’re supposed to be here for some reason.”
We stayed at Alki all day watching the entire event unroll. When the team started calling off the recovery for the day (~4:15 PM) I decided to go and talk to two different officers onsite. I let both of them know that I would be locating the body and what did they want me to do with it when I found it.
My buddy and I immediately started checking out our gear and setting it up. (I had to get clearance from the police to enter the water) We got in the water about 5:00 PM and found Tareq about 5:05 based on the clues I mentioned in a prior recount. We moved the body to the new location and headed in.
Why did I do this? I’m a diver and a mother. I have both a son and a daughter that are divers as well. I know what goes on under the water when the sun goes down over the sound. I know how many divers have been lost and never recovered or found maybe years later. The conditions were prime to find him before the marine life came in and before the big exchange happened. I wouldn’t want my children left behind. I could not leave him behind, not if I had the skills to locate him.
I have a gift. I’ve been really successful on my searching, rescues and then this one recovery. I’ve brought three people up successfully. I knew without a doubt that I could find this guy.
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