UPDATE: Rollover crash in High Point

| High Point | West Seattle news | WS breaking news

(WSB photos)

2:11 AM: If you’ve heard yet another round of sirens – this time it’s a “heavy rescue” response sent to a reported rollover crash in High Point, near 30th and Graham. Scanner indicates the response is already being scaled down.

2:26 AM: The car is upside down on a block of Graham lined with townhouses. It damaged at least two parked cars, according to one car’s owner, who says two people were in the car that flipped. One person can be heard loudly sobbing that they were going home and trying to get away from someone. No life-threatening injuries apparent.

Mike July 5, 2016 (7:22 am)

it takes a lot of effort to flip that car, how they even accomplished that is amazing. glad nobody was seriously hurt, sorry for the owners of the parked cars.

Alan July 5, 2016 (9:44 am)

Mike, this comes up every time there is a rollover. I said the same the first time I saw someone flip a car on a residential street, wondering why they were going so fast. Google “low speed rollover” and you will find them caught on cam, as well as discussions. It sounds like they were trying to get away from someone, so there may have been speed involved, but it isn’t necessary. They could have hit the traffic circle and then spun the wheel in the wrong direction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sbNBZvSx_A
Oakley34 July 5, 2016 (9:47 am)

I know flips can occur at very low speed, but damn 30th and Graham?!? That is a super slow super congested residential street (about 3 minutes walk from my home). A car is a lethal weapon people. Slow the F down. So damn irresponsible.

Trickycoolj July 5, 2016 (10:09 am)

I had to call 911 for a domestic dispute in the street on 30th 2 blocks down just about a week ago. If this is the same couple I hope they get help or the one being abused gets out soon. No one should feel like they have to run from a partner.

WSB July 5, 2016 (10:27 am)

I have no idea if it was that kind of situation or not. It sounded more as if she was saying someone random was in pursuit … I’m looking for the incident number to see if there’s a written report from which I can find out anything more. Given the speculation and questions that tend to arise in car-flipping cases, I thought it was worth mentioning, since it was audible to all in earshot (and I was half a block away photographing the car). Definitely, as you know, a narrow stretch of street, when cars are parked on both sides as they were at the time, and while headed there, I wondered if the flipped car would have wound up on the sidewalk or someplace else besides right in the middle of what relatively little open street there is.

Alan July 5, 2016 (11:12 am)

There is a Frank1 tweet at that location for a DUI. The time on the tweet seems very late (8:52) to be related to this incident, but I still don’t quite understand the timing of these tweets or what prompts them.

Beat:F1, DRIVING WHILE UNDER INFLUENCE (DUI) at 30XX BLOCK OF SW GRAHAM ST reported on 7/5/2016 8:52 AM, Call# 16000239473

WSB July 5, 2016 (11:15 am)

The time stamps on Tweets by Beat are often useless. They used to send two tweets per incident, one near the time it happened and one when the report was filed; now it’s more often the latter. So that might be it.

David July 5, 2016 (1:39 pm)

Yes, that is the correct incident number.

The driver claimed to be running from a blue “old school” car that was shooting at her, however there were no reports of gunfire in the area she claimed this happened in (on 16th Ave SW). She also thought that she was in Tukwila and was theatrically emotional and very uncooperative with the police. She had blown out a tire somewhere before reaching our block and came around the roundabout on the corner fast enough to have her car go up on the bare front rim and one back tire before careening into a couple of cars and flipping over, hitting a third car.

Her “fiancé’s” behavior was very suspicious, starting with leaving the crash site as soon as he go out of the car to wander around the corner where he apparently stashed something very important that he didn’t want the authorities to find out about. He became visibly upset when the police began searching the area with flashlights, and he chose to stay behind rather than go to the hospital with his fiancé. That was very suspicious to the police since, as a passenger, he had no further business at the crash site yet was still there nearly 2 hours later, after his fiancé was long gone. The police said they expected him to return to get whatever he was so worried about and that we should call 911 if we saw him return, because he is a felony parolee and they considered him armed and dangerous.

Around 5:40 this morning, nearly 2 hours after leaving the crash site he returned with a large, heavy-set black man. They were standing on the sidewalk near where he had mysteriously gone the night before. They had a brown Kia Forte parked on the corner of Graham and Lanham, and headed for it after being spotted this morning. They remained near or in the car for another 20-30 minutes, but unfortunately I think they left before the police arrived.

The fiancé is black, slender build around 5’7″ in height. He was wearing a long sleeve North Face jacket and acid washed jeans, and red underwear (he wears his pants with the waste below the butt). He had a red zip up hoodie in his hands and was wearing red tennis shoes. His associate when he returned this morning was also black, around 6’2″ and probably 300 lbs. They were both wearing dark clothing and both of them stood around on the corner of Graham and Lanham for awhile looking over in the direction of where he’s mysteriously wandered off to the night before. I don’t know if they found what they were looking for or not.

WSB July 5, 2016 (1:56 pm)

I just heard back from SPD … the report is still “in transcription” so the narrative isn’t available, but they couldn’t find a booking, so apparently the hospitalization kept the suspected drunk driver out of jail for now. – TR
Alan July 5, 2016 (2:27 pm)

Last night would have been the least likely night for someone to report gunfire. Even though fireworks calmed down by midnight, they continued on sporadically. I wish I could say that it is hard to believe that someone was chasing and shooting at them, but that just seems to be standard operating procedure these days.

MJ July 5, 2016 (4:18 pm)

David thank you for the detailed report, I’ll keep an eye out. Wish they could lock the parolee up for awhile due to their involvement.

Jack July 7, 2016 (11:01 am)

I just bought a house in the area of this incident. Is High Point a safe place to live? This is pretty scary.

Alan July 7, 2016 (11:41 am)

Jack – This is an old story, so you may not get responses. If you do get responses, I would warn you that there is some prejudice with people drawing the line at 35th and then whatever main street happens to be south of where they live. Use the SPD map to look at your neighborhood and see for yourself.

http://web6.seattle.gov/mnm/incidentresponse.aspx

This incident was scary, but it sounds like this driver was running from another part of West Seattle and thought they had run to Tukwila, so this incident really had nothing to do with Highpoint other than being victimized by it.
AMD July 7, 2016 (12:28 pm)

High Point is a great place to live, as is all of West Seattle in my opinion. There are problems in every neighborhood, but in my experience the neighbors are all really great at keeping an eye out for one another and reporting what they see to keep things in check. Get to know your neighbors! They’re great people.

If you’re new to the Seattle area in general, I will warn you that we’re having a car prowl epidemic to take care to clear your vehicle of any items when it’s parked on the street. West Seattle doesn’t have it as bad as North Seattle (or most of the city) and High Point isn’t even the worst area in West Seattle (my neighborhood, Highland Park, gets that distinction) but it’s a problem everywhere.

Other than that, welcome to the neighborhood!