West Seattle man hailed for quick help after police-motorcycle crash

Quick shoutout in honor of a West Seattleite’s fast action after a collision involving a police officer: You might have heard about what Michael Katz did when he saw a driver hit a Seattle Police motorcycle officer in SODO yesterday – as explained in the SPD Blotter summary, “A man ran over to our officer and notified dispatch by using the officer’s radio. His quick-thinking and calm demeanor alerted officers to the situation and sped up emergency response.” A WSB reader tipped us later that the man was a West Seattleite, and we made contact with Katz today to confirm. No, he’s never used a radio like that before, he told us, but “they’re pretty user-friendly.” P.S.: We have an inquiry out to SPD to ask how the officer is doing.

Kap November 19, 2013 (5:15 pm)

Mensch! Gratzi

Kelly November 19, 2013 (5:32 pm)

Thanks so much to Michael and thanks to the WS Blog for the update. My bus driver witnessed the accident just before he picked me up–he was really shaken, understandably. I’ve been hoping to hear good news about the officer’s health!

heather November 19, 2013 (5:48 pm)

Pretty awesome Michael. Nice to hear about good things people do without a second thought.

happy November 19, 2013 (5:55 pm)

Way to go, Mr. Katz! Thank you for keeping calm and for helping the officer.
Hope all is well with the officer.

Poncharella November 19, 2013 (6:23 pm)

Mr. Katz is a great American.

Wendell November 19, 2013 (6:49 pm)

Great story. Thanks Mr. Katz for your quick and unselfish act.

miws November 19, 2013 (7:04 pm)

Good job, Michael!

Mike

Rachel November 19, 2013 (7:05 pm)

Well done Michael! I’m happy there are people like you out there. Thank you.

Kayleen November 19, 2013 (7:25 pm)

Wouldn’t expect less from a quality guy like Mike. Way to go.

sam-c November 19, 2013 (8:00 pm)

Woo hoo, Mike Katz, that quick thinker!

Galilix November 19, 2013 (9:04 pm)

Mr. Katz is a shining example of why the vast majority of Seattle officers in other police precincts request to transfer to West Seattle as soon as open positions become available. Why would anyone want to work on the hill when they know they can keep people like Mr. Katz safe and receive community support in exchange for their efforts.

Thanks again sir… hopefully they will recognize you at the 2014 awards banquet for your service.

yincer November 20, 2013 (5:28 am)

Good job, Mike!

D November 24, 2013 (11:26 am)

I’m going to call out your writer and editor for borderline theft of words. Last spring I wrote a comment to the mysterious art around west Seattle.
In that commentary I dubbed west Seattle citizens as west seattlites.
You journal thefts dropped my comentary because it was to poingant for your northwest thin skin.
Then you started using west seattlites like its your favorite new term.
You my follow west Seattle citizen are a theft and a copy cat. Two qualities that are shunned in professional journalism.
So take down this comment too because it exposes you has the word stealing fraud that you are :)

WSB November 24, 2013 (11:33 am)

No idea what you are talking about for some of that, D. However, I just searched the archives, and we have used the term “West Seattleite” (and are far from the only news organization that uses it) going back to just months after we launched the website. 1,253 of the 27,662 stories we have published since launching the site Christmas Eve 2005 include that term. This was the earliest:
.
https://westseattleblog.com/2006/02/in-honor-of-the-olympics
.
thanks,
Tracy

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