West Seattle Crime Watch: 2 street holdups; break-in; more
We start this West Seattle Crime Watch roundup with two incidents we’re still working to find out more about – 
two gunpoint street robberies in the past four nights. We requested the details from Seattle Police today but did not receive them; reports with narratives are unfortunately not usually available online for up to a week, if at all. Anyway, what little we do know: The most recent one happened at 34th and Myrtle early Saturday, just after midnight, and neighbors saw police searching the area; the one before that was late Thursday night in the 5200 block of 16th SW, and we know a few details because a safety bulletin was subsequently circulated over the weekend by South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) – someone with ties to the school forwarded it to us. It noted that the robbery happened off-campus: “A student was reportedly robbed at gunpoint by four individuals at approximately 11:30 pm on Thursday, August 1. The student was uninjured but shaken up; the robbers reportedly stole the student’s iPhone and approximately $150 in cash.” Again, we are still trying to get the detailed reports on these two street holdups and will publish more information in Crime Watch when we get it.
Ahead, a burglary today, and a suspicious person spotted Sunday night:
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Sentenced to ‘life,’ kidnapper/rapist in West Seattle/Kitsap County case is now out of prison
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Thanks to a WSB’er for the tip on this: Convicted kidnapper/rapist Donald Randolph Hooper is out of prison, after a ruling by the Indeterminate Sentencing Review Board.
Longtime West Seattleites might recognize the name. In December 1982, at which time he happened to be working for Washington State Ferries on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route, Hooper kidnapped a 14-year-old girl at gunpoint from a bus stop in West Seattle. She survived an ordeal that also included molestation and rape, at multiple locations in King and Kitsap Counties, before Hooper dumped her in the water of Hood Canal after binding her hands and partially binding her feet. She managed to struggle to shore after he left, and found someone who called police.
Hooper also was eventually convicted of a separate incident that had happened weeks earlier, involving raping a hitchhiker at gunpoint, though that conviction was reversed on appeal because of a technicality; ISRB documents say he admitted he committed the crime.
His sentence for the West Seattle kidnapping and Kitsap County rape was life in prison. But because Hooper’s conviction and sentencing predated our state’s mid-’80s fixed-sentence laws, Hooper was eligible for the equivalent of parole, which is granted by the aforementioned ISRB.
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Man revived by SFD, in hospital after bike fall at Lincoln Park
In case you wondered about the Seattle Fire Department response at Lincoln Park early this morning: A 75-year-old man is hospitalized in critical condition this morning after falling off his bicycle. Seattle Fire spokesperson Kyle Moore says witnesses saw the man fall on the path near Colman Pool around quarter past 6 and called 911, then: “When firefighters arrived, the man was unconscious, not breathing, and did not have a pulse. We immediately used a defibrillator and performed 1 hour of CPR on the man. We were able to get his heart beating again and have him breathing on his own.” Moore says the call was handled by Engines 32 and 37 as well as Medic 10, which took the man to a hospital downtown. No word on whether the fall was the result of a sudden health problem or something else.
West Seattle Monday: Election Day Eve; K-5 STEM meeting; Walking Papers live @ Easy Street…
(Spot of color on the Duwamish River shore, by Flickr member “old desolate,” shared via WSB Flickr group)
From the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:
JUNCTION TRUE VALUE’S 60TH ANNIVERSARY: The family-owned-and-operated store in The Junction is celebrating 60 years in business with festivities all week, leading up to a celebration on Saturday. See JTV’s WSB ad here and special discount coupon here. (4747 44th SW)
BALLOT DROP-OFF VAN: It’s Election Day Eve, and the King County Elections ballot-dropoff van is back today, 10 am-5 pm at West Seattle Stadium (10 am-8 pm tomorrow, too). There also are fixed, around-the-clock drop-off boxes – see the list here; the nearest ones are downtown and in Burien. You also can mail your ballot as long as it’s postmarked by tomorrow; don’t forget the stamp (NOT needed if you drop it off at a county van or box).
MEETING AT K-5 STEM: As Seattle Public Schools prepares to finalize decisions in the fall about boundaries as well as the future of campuses including reopening-next-year Fairmount Park Elementary and vacating-in-2016 Schmitz Park Elementary, West Seattle’s newest public school finds its own future in the eye of the storm, and has announced proposals to solve much of the puzzle, as reported and discussed here last week. Tonight, a special PTA/community meeting is planned to discuss those proposals and strategize advocacy for them. 6:30 pm at the Boren gym. (5950 Delridge Way SW)
LIVE AT EASY STREET RECORDS: In-store performance by Walking Papers (featuring Duff McKagan) – free, all ages! 7 pm. (California/Alaska)
TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Monday updates and notes
(Live view from the west-facing WS Bridge camera; other cameras are on the WSB Traffic page)
Good morning! Here’s what’s ahead for this week:
TUESDAY & THURSDAY: Road work 7 am-7 pm each of those two days on the westbound side of SW Roxbury. On Tuesday, one westbound lane will be closed between 15th and 16th SW; on Thursday, one westbound lane will be closed between 23rd and 24th SW.
OVERNIGHT TUESDAY INTO WEDNESDAY: 10 pm-5 am Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, the southbound Battery St. Tunnel will be closed on Highway 99. There will also be a northbound closure but it won’t start until about midnight, or “two hours after the Mariners’ game ends.”
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