40 Replies to "Update: 1 stabbed, 1 arrested at 35th/Morgan"

• sad panda January 7, 2015 (7:45 pm)

  Drove by, the girl that seemed like the victim was sitting upright inside the ambulance. She looked a bit shocked but was conscious and 3 medic unit folks were keeping her company. Looked like situation was under control. Lots of police officers standing outside the corner store.

• Mike January 7, 2015 (8:07 pm)

  Hopefully she has a quick recovery, seems the violent crimes have gone up lately. Getting pretty disturbing how little people care for another human beings life.

• East Coast Cynic January 7, 2015 (8:31 pm)

  Did that happen in the Walgreen’s parking lot? I do see quite a few “bad” looking characters hanging out there.

• the truth January 7, 2015 (9:03 pm)

  I would guess it was the gas station next to Walgreens. That is the sketchiest half block in WS.

  • WSB January 7, 2015 (9:35 pm)

    Hi – it’s in the story now – outside the convenience store, northeast corner.

• Bos617 January 7, 2015 (9:08 pm)

  So very sad. I vote to shut that corner down.

• td42 January 7, 2015 (9:46 pm)

  These are pretty unfair classifications of a corner that is a transit hub for a good part of West seattle. Stuff happens there because lots of people are coming and going right there. The stuff that happens seems to be isolated to the folks involved (not innocent bystanders being assaulted)

• Lynn January 7, 2015 (9:54 pm)

  That gas station And Walgreens parking lot is a disgrace to the west Seattle community. Crime is allowed to happen outside of it with no consequences. The only time the police are there is after a violent crime is committed. But they don’t care about the blatant drug deals occurring in plain sight.

• rocky raccoon January 7, 2015 (10:27 pm)

  Nor should they. Locking up drug users and dealers has been a colossal failure for 40 years.

• trickycoolj January 7, 2015 (10:30 pm)

  I wish they would tear that place down and build something useful to the community.

• evergreen January 7, 2015 (10:49 pm)

  Hope the young gal is OK, that is a traumatic thing for a 17 year old to face.

• Lynn January 7, 2015 (10:50 pm)

  they should because it leads to other crime like a 17 year old being stabbed or the other 17 year old that was shot in the foot one block down in the summer, or the attempted robbery of the woman going to the redbox at the Walgreens parking lot. Or the man robbed leaving the atm. I live there…what’s going on there is not victimless pot smoking.

• John January 7, 2015 (10:54 pm)

  I would agree that this has become a very undesirable part of WS. Too unsafe. Would love to see more police presence there. I avoid both the Walgreens and gas station at all possible costs.

• Bradley January 8, 2015 (1:48 am)

  @rocky raccoon: Locking up drug users and dealers has been a colossal failure? You would prefer them terrorizing our neighborhoods by killing each other for territory, taking over gas stations and pharmacy parking lots, and poisoning our kids? The only thing that has been a colossal failure is lenient judges letting drug dealers have shorter and shorter prison terms, frustrated police refusing to enforce the laws, and a lack of proper drug treatment.

• Eric January 8, 2015 (3:21 am)

  Yea, we shouldn’t arrest the drug dealers to make for a colossal success. *ends sarcasm*

• Jeanine January 8, 2015 (5:12 am)

  It’s not even a gas station anymore. Hasn’t been for quite a while.

• Brian January 8, 2015 (6:24 am)

  @Lynn: You’re 100% right! Why, if SPD were arresting more drug dealers & users, that obviously would have lead to them thwarting this 54 year-old woman’s plan to surreptitiously stab this young girl!
  .
  Man, you’re so smart. I don’t understand why the city doesn’t keep you on permanent retainer. You’ve just got all the answers!

• Milo January 8, 2015 (6:39 am)

  Rocky – locking up drug users and dealers worked in NYC – it led to the biggest reduction in crime the city has seen in modern times. The ‘softly softly’ approach in Seattle simply isn’t working – crime has markedly increased since the police had their hands tied by civil rights activists. But, of course, don’t let facts get in the way of your political beliefs.

• JoB January 8, 2015 (7:47 am)

  i pick up my medications and stop to shop in that Walgrens.. and despite warnings have yet to encounter a situation where i felt it was unsafe to get out of my car to do so.
  there are generally a fair number of people around.. often in the process of boarding or exiting the bus…
  and they are most often the kind of people who hold the door open for an older woman having difficulty walking … not those who see that woman as an easy target.
  .
  stereotypes about people who don’t have the same advantages you do prevent you from interacting with a lot of kind and caring people

• lynn January 8, 2015 (8:15 am)

  Brian- My guess is you dont actually live near the corner. So you get to be on your high and mighty horse from afar.

• lynn January 8, 2015 (8:47 am)

  I think the biggest stereotype is the belief that because you are low income or live in low income housing you are ok with crime, drug dealing, robberies, shooting, stabbings. So its ok for the police to ignore if it is in a neighborhood with low income housing.

  I live in subsidized housing, so I guess I shouldn’t care about having a safe place to catch the bus, shop at walgreens without being robbed, pick up my kids from the elementary 3 blocks up the street from the drug dealing.

  Talk about sterotypes

• JoB January 8, 2015 (9:08 am)

  lynn.. i think you should care.. and i suspect the majority of your neighbors care as well…
  just because the police aren’t dong what you think they should do when you think they should do it doesn’t mean they ignore your neighborhood.
  i reported obvious drug dealing in mine some time ago and was certain that my reports had been ignored until i saw the report of a major arrest… literally over a year later.

• Dave January 8, 2015 (9:31 am)

  I use that bus stop every day, and actually seek out reasons to visit that Walgreens. The staff there are the nicest folks you will ever meet. If you want the “bad element” to leave, then “good” people need to go more often. Criminals do not like an audience. We can’t hide and give up major parts of our neighborhood because we feel uncomfortable. That is cowardly.

• Dan January 8, 2015 (10:14 am)

  Milo – Actually, “locking up drug dealers and users” has absolutely nothing to do with NYC’s crime drop. You’ll find the absurdly harsh Rockefeller drug laws and enhanced enforcement were enacted decades ago before the crack epidemic and crime continued to spiral upwards.

  Removal of lead from gasoline was in fact the largest factor in the overall reduction in crime experienced by just about every US city. This is an empirical fact. Lead exposure and brain damage/poor decision making/criminality go hand in hand.

  If we want to continue the positive trend, removing the immense financial incentive to deal drugs by legalizing is the right way forward.

  It astounds me the lack of faith drug warriors have in markets. You can lock up as many dealers as you want: the market rewards the one you didn’t catch and life continues as before for the addicted, except they have to pay more (steal more) to feed their habit. Vancouver BC is leading the way on breaking this cycle.

• lynn January 8, 2015 (10:24 am)

  Job- I dont think you actually read my comment. I live here and we do care, even if we live in low income housing.

  It insulting to hear comments from people who dont live in the neighborhood that believe that its ok for drug dealing to go on because they dont actually have to live with the consequences.

  And yes there are many nice people at the walgreens and the bus stop. It’s me and my neighbors and we deserve the police to actual police the area.

• ~Hockeywitch~ January 8, 2015 (11:21 am)

  I live at that intersection, beside the Pizza Hut, I’m surprised I didn’t even know this happened. I saw it on the news this morning…had to check here. Didn’t hear or see a thing.

• Diane January 8, 2015 (12:19 pm)

  kiro7 noon tv news just reported that the victim was a woman, stabbed in the chest, and recognized as regular food bank volunteer; do we know if any/all of that is accurate?

  • WSB January 8, 2015 (7:00 pm)

    Yes, she was stabbed in the chest, that was known last night, I wasn’t going to get into the grisly details regarding why that wasn’t a life-threatening wound etc. I’m going through the paperwork from the suspect’s bail hearing this afternoon and the victim is described as “working” at the food bank, sounds more employee than volunteer, but I’m doing a little more research before writing the update. The suspect’s age is different (but not much) from what SPD reported – 52, not 54. What little I can find out about the victim does sound like she’s close to the age reported last night – she was mentioned in a teenage context in an online item from four years ago.

• furor scribendi January 8, 2015 (12:46 pm)

  Lynn, you are 1000% correct. Drug ‘n crime culture have addled that corner since at least 1990. Anyone who says different is not paying attention or trying to sell you something…

• Brian January 8, 2015 (1:22 pm)

  @Lynn, actually I live just down the street from this intersection at Morgan Junction. Thanks for asking, I appreciate it.

• Brian2 January 8, 2015 (2:10 pm)

  Police services in Seattle are dismal. Often times there are as few as six police officers on patrol from the southwest precinct (which covers west seattle and South Park). The numbers of officers in this city really should be doubled. Pipe dream.

• Brian9 January 8, 2015 (4:23 pm)

  Actually, we should add over 9,000 more police officers. The $51,000,000,000+ we spent on the drug war last year has almost got them licked guys! We’re winning!

• Brian4 January 8, 2015 (4:34 pm)

  “You would prefer them terrorizing our neighborhoods by killing each other for territory, taking over gas stations and pharmacy parking lots, and poisoning our kids?”

  I’d prefer them operating out of 21+ storefronts, taking credit cards, and keeping their money in the bank like everyone else. Problem solved?

  You also allude to treatment as well as increased enforcement. The left (drug treatment, mental health counseling) or right (locking people up and paying to babysit them) approach will both take more than lip service. It’s easy to say we need better social services, more cops, &c.

  Good luck raising taxes to pay for it.

  And lastly… nothing will stop a crazy person with a knife from stabbing someone else. Ban knives? There’s nothing in this story about drug crime whatsoever (I’m aware it’s a known issue for that corner).

• Cheetah fast dad January 8, 2015 (9:20 pm)

  This might be an off-topic inquiry, but does WSB have a policy about the timing/availability of including pictures of the accused with a story? Is it appropriate only after formal charging of a crime, etc?

  The commission of egregious crimes (assaults, stabbings, rapes and bludgeonings, etc.) puts me on alert, and I want to see these individuals identified throughout the community, even if they are legally entitled to an initial presumption of innocence. Thanks.

  • WSB January 8, 2015 (9:46 pm)

    CFD, as per ethics/policies under which I’ve worked in many newsrooms of all sizes, we identify people once they’ve been charged, sooner with some exceptions (police put out a be-on-the-lookout, for example.). Photos are generally not available unless (a) someone is a registered sex offender and has a photo online as a result or (b) we happen to photograph the arrest or (c) we are able to photograph the suspect in court or (d) the person has served time in the state prison system and therefore has a mugshot available upon request. If surveillance video is offered, we will show it if it clearly shows the person committing the crime (see the numerous package-thief videos and some others that we’ve published). You mention violent crimes, though; those are thankfully quite rare. – TR
    .
    (Added) – I should also add that in many cases, we don’t know the suspect’s name, so even looking for a photo is impossible. Names are not routinely made available, and some of our workarounds such as checking the jail register don’t work when it’s a common crime – assault, burglary – there’s no crossreference of incident numbers.

• Wsrez January 8, 2015 (9:59 pm)

  I live a 1/2 a block from here and feel safer then I did in the admiral area. Our neighborhood is delightful, loaded with many young professionals and families low and high income- stop judging because until you’ve lived somewhere you have no idea what the community feels like. Keep your head up, you live in a city densely populated with multiple demographics and you’re bound to run into crime everywhere. It’s a city, not a suburb. I’m sorry for the girl who was stabbed. Was this a familial disputed? What is a 14 year old doing fighting with a 54yr old.

  • WSB January 8, 2015 (10:32 pm)

    Hi, we’ve published updated information in a new story currently atop the site. The suspect is 52; the victim’s age is not mentioned in the probable-cause documents at all, though a little bit of research suggests that she is indeed a young adult.

• Bob January 9, 2015 (11:55 am)

  The police can do nothing until a law is broken, unfortunately. However, we can discourage the business owners/operators on this northeasterly corner of 35th and Morgan by boycotting these stores. We don’t need the riff-raff collection of characters who use this corner and the nearby sheltered bus stops as their “business” addresses.

• Cheetah fast dad January 9, 2015 (7:45 pm)

  WSB — thanks for the info and all of your fantastic reporting, not just in the crime section.

• Eric January 10, 2015 (7:00 am)

  Brian4: “You would prefer them terrorizing our neighborhoods by killing each other for territory, taking over gas stations and pharmacy parking lots, and poisoning our kids?”

  I’d prefer them operating out of 21+ storefronts, taking credit cards, and keeping their money in the bank like everyone else. Problem solved?

  Eric: Problem solved? Are you seriously considering that legalizing hard drugs would solve the problem? Well lets see, a lot of property crime is said to stem from the fact that addicts are trying to get money for their drugs. So do you really think that putting up a legal meth amphetamine storefront is going to cause people to find a legitimate way to raise money for their addiction?

  Taking credit cards? Really? I guess the question would be whose credit card considering that identity theft is rampant among meth users. You also seem to be under the assumption that using meth, crack, or heroin is the same as using marijuana. A person under the influence of hard drugs often reacts completely different and often times morality, rationality, responsibility go all out the window and the addict is simply concerned with getting their next fix. Hence the reason why stealing property, identity, or resorting to sexual acts to raise the money is of no concern to the addict.

  Even with marijuana storefronts, there is store robbery. I couldn’t imagine the robbery stats if hard drug storefronts were installed. Problem solved? Hardly.

Sorry, comment time is over.