UPDATE: About the police response in South Admiral

(Added: Photos by WSB’s Christopher Boffoli)

2:40 PM: Thanks for the tips – we’ve been monitoring this on the scanner but we didn’t get location information until people started texting about the sizable police response and mentioned where it happened. Officers are dealing with someone who is reported to have barricaded themselves in an apartment on California south of Hanford. No injuries reported. WSB’s Christopher Boffoli (who happened onto this while on an errand) says police tell him this began with an attempt to serve a court order.

3:30 PM: Not resolved yet.

3:45 PM: From SPD via Twitter: “Negotiators, SWAT attempting to resolve situation with barricaded, armed subject in apt. building on California Av SW. Officers were attempting to serve court order when subject produced gun.”

4:08 PM: Per scanner, one officer got hurt falling in a stairwell and is going to the hospital.

4:11 PM: Also per scanner, there was a medical situation involving the subject of the standoff, and SFD medics are now reported to be in the apartment with them, so this is apparently winding down.

4:29 PM: SWAT and other responders are “demobilizing,” we’ve confirmed. The formerly barricaded person, who we’ve confirmed is a woman, is being taken to the hospital. (Added: SPD confirms she is receiving “medical treatment after she attempted to harm herself.”)

8:48 PM: Posted tonight to SPD Blotter:

A woman who had armed herself with a gun and barricaded herself in her apartment after officers attempted to serve a court order is now in custody.

Officers responded to the 3200 block of California Avenue SW Saturday afternoon to serve a temporary protection order. The order required that the respondent surrender a firearm and vacate the residence immediately, but the adult female armed herself and refused to comply.

Negotiator and SWAT units responded while a search warrant was prepared. During that time, it appeared that the suspect ingested a large quantity of prescription medications. The woman collapsed due to the medical issue, allowing officers the opportunity to intervene and render aid. Seattle Fire transported the woman to Harborview Medical Center for further medical treatment.

Quora December 29, 2018 (3:09 pm)

Just drove by…do they need 9 cop cars there?

Dw December 29, 2018 (4:06 pm)

It’s up to 16 police cars, 4 swat, 1 firetruck, 1 ambulance, and 1 bearcat.
- GW December 29, 2018 (4:28 pm)
  
  What’s a bearcat? All I can think of is man-bear-pig from south park.
  - WSB December 29, 2018 (4:48 pm)
    
    Type of vehicle SWAT teams tend to use.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenco_BearCat
  - Lynn December 29, 2018 (5:46 pm)
    
    Lol manbearpig. A bearcat is also a type of animal found in Southeast Asia. They’re also called binturong. They had them in Malaysia where i grew up.
dflt December 29, 2018 (4:46 pm)

Thank you, armchair quarterbacks of the world. Your expertise in these matters is very appreciated.
- JR December 29, 2018 (5:11 pm)
  
  Exactly. Pretty sure they know what they’re doing.
- Mitch December 29, 2018 (6:11 pm)
  
  Sorry, DFLT, but if it takes a half a dozen SWAT teams and dozens of other cops to contain and arrest one woman holed up in her apartment with a gun it seems like the current quarterback may need to be replaced. Calling this kind of response anything but absurd is, well, absurd. Unless, of course, it was a really really big gun.
  - my two cents ... December 29, 2018 (7:00 pm)
    
    @MITCH – In all fairness – and giving the benefit of the doubt to the professionals, we are reading this as a post-mortem. Prior to and during? What do you know/what don’t you know? Yes, it seems “overboard” for “1” person – but did they know that? what about the surrounding environment? Before making grand proclamations about this – maybe you should research the issue, find out the rationale prior to contributing to half-baked “thoughts”. I don’t proclaim to be an expert – but I do know enough to know that I am not an expert on public safety protocols.
  - Jort December 29, 2018 (7:19 pm)
    
    Hey. Maybe SPD could have taken some tips from other police departments and just run in and shot her on sight. I don’t mind them taking the time and resources to resolve this issue without fatalities. This kind of restraint is something I appreciate about our police force. Honestly, in Bumfiddle, Texas, this woman would probably be dead instead of getting help. Sorry that this “response” hurt your feelings so much.
  - Calires December 30, 2018 (4:03 am)
    
    Thanks, Mitch, for reminding us that nothing too serious can happen when a lone person is holed up with a gun. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Las_Vegas_shooting
- Beth December 30, 2018 (8:41 am)
  
  dfkt – my hero!
Dp December 29, 2018 (5:27 pm)

I’d rather have nine than none. That was a stupid statement!!!! They are doing their job!!!!!
- Mitch December 29, 2018 (7:25 pm)
  
  If takes dozens of them and enough fire power to invade a small country to subdue one suicidal women locked in her apartment, they don’t seem to be very good at it(!!!!).
  - my two cents ... December 29, 2018 (7:59 pm)
    
    @mitch … ok, will play along.1. how many would have been enough from your expert/professional view?2. hyperbole … a small country? really? Come on, you can do better than that … also, were shots fired? weapons discharged?3. Did I miss something – was anyone hurt? IMHO – would have rather have X too many on scene than Y too few and have someone hurt.4. Not a huge fan of SPD … but here, they did their job – situation resolved, no one hurt, attention/resources being directed to the person in question.
  - Quora December 29, 2018 (8:11 pm)
    
    Thank you. Please tell me if you have been the victim of a non-violent crime over the last few years like I have and literally (hate the use of that word) had to wait 8 HOURS for the SPD to show up and take a police report. And it wasn’t a completely non-aggressive crime; some a-hole broke into my car in my driveway and drove the damn thing away.The point is resources are resources; do we need that many cops showing up for something like that? What in the hell is the point of the comment saying “leave it to the professionals”; last time I checked there is plenty wrong with the way cops do things and there is no issues being critical of them if things like this go unchecked. What did these cops expect, was there a Branch Davidian compound in that apartment armed with automatic rifles?I’m just sick and tired of the deference that local police are given with how they fight crime. “Leave it to the professionals” hahahahaha is that a joke?
    - my two cents ... December 29, 2018 (9:16 pm)
      
      @quora – couple points to consider … (apart from the rather dubious analogy to “Branch Davidians”) … this was a reported incident with someone barricaded and armed. How did they know, or not know it was just a gun versus someone with multiple guns? What type of guns? Automatic weapons? The person was barricaded – unless something has changes, SPD doesn’t have x-ray vision – how did they know what that person was armed with and to what danger they posed to themselves and others?. Someone armed presents a danger to the community as opposed to a break-in, hence the response. As I stated, they (SPD), did their job – resolved a situation where no one was hurt. Let me ask you this – WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN the appropriate response (again, you need to respond like SPD .. you don’t have the benefit of hindsight)? Do you think the the people in that building were going “I wish only 1 officer was here”. The number of officers are just not present for the individual in question – crowd control, etc. play into it. I don’t mind holding SPD accountable – and the overall track record obviously leaves a lot to be desired – but I would like to think I am objective enough to acknowledge that the situation was resolved.
  - West Seattleitte December 29, 2018 (9:36 pm)
    
    If that woman started shooting, having that many officers might be beneficial when it comes to crowd control, informing neighbors, assisting potential victims, directing traffic, etc., etc. They aren’t all there to get into a shoot out. Think beyond the single suspect. Maybe she had hostages, maybe small children, the police wouldn’t know until they got inside. Maybe she had explosive devices and they needed that many police to get the word out to evacuate. Would you be okay with them all leaving but 2-3 to handle a situation with that many unknowns? Please use your heads and stop thinking they are overreacting. I assume they have thought about all the potential scenarios and staff accordingly. Some of you seem to think they should plan for the simplest scenario so the other officers are available to take police reports for non-emergencies.
    - Brian December 29, 2018 (9:55 pm)
      
      “having that many officers might be beneficial when it comes to crowd control, informing neighbors, assisting potential victims, directing traffic, etc., etc. “I live in the building and none of them informed me. I could have died.

Kenneth R Rastello December 29, 2018 (3:23 pm)

One wonders if there are any SPD that aren’t responding to this event.

WSB December 29, 2018 (3:37 pm)

The person is believed to be armed or to have access to a weapon, and that generally results in a sizable response.

Pat December 29, 2018 (3:41 pm)

Is this at the Springline Apartments?

T. Kumar December 29, 2018 (3:47 pm)

There are bow 15 SUVs there. Just drove by. They should block off that area. God forbid there is any shooting. Bullets don’t care where they land.

TreeHouse December 29, 2018 (3:54 pm)

I just saw a bunch of SWAT cars with the flashers on flying towards west seattle on bridge just now. I wonder if it’s related at all.

WSB December 29, 2018 (3:56 pm)

Yes, it’s related. SWAT is part of the response.
- Anon December 29, 2018 (4:09 pm)
  
  Definitely related. I live at springline

Adam J Pearson December 29, 2018 (3:56 pm)

Apparently this guy is a few doors down from me (as I discovered upon walking outside of my apartment and finding police in full riot gear on each side of me).

Pat December 29, 2018 (4:11 pm)

Are they telling you to vacate? I live in B and you must be in C Building.
- IC December 29, 2018 (4:24 pm)
  
  I’m in C and I don’t see anything happening on this side of the complex
- Adam J Pearson December 29, 2018 (4:32 pm)
  
  Yes I’m in the C building. They told me I can go in another unit or the lobby until the situation was over. I just went to Eagles instead.
  - Jollyjingles December 30, 2018 (2:10 pm)
    
    LOL
Brian December 29, 2018 (9:57 pm)

was she in B building?
- H December 29, 2018 (10:49 pm)
  
  A building, second floor

West Seattle Person December 29, 2018 (3:56 pm)

More coming. Two more vans coming up the West Seattle Bridge.

WestSeattleitte December 29, 2018 (3:56 pm)

SWAT just arrived.

Ws res December 29, 2018 (4:05 pm)

Situation over. Medics attending to patient

WSB December 29, 2018 (4:10 pm)

One medic crew was attending to an officer reportedly hurt after a stair fall. However, there was also some indication of a possible medical situation involving the subject standoff and now officers are reported to be entering the apartment.

S December 29, 2018 (4:58 pm)

I live in Springline and nobody notified me about anything. Did the police knock on any tenants’ door?

Mj December 29, 2018 (5:00 pm)

It appears to be over now, just walked by the site.

Man Bear Pig December 29, 2018 (5:08 pm)

Why does the Swat truck look like a food truck?

Pamela December 29, 2018 (7:27 pm)

So glad there was a good response, no one beyond the person being served and an officer were injured. Such a populated area, if spd and swat weren’t able to keep order it could have been ugly. We were directly across the street so sending our Thank You for doing your job.

Yma December 29, 2018 (8:27 pm)

A woman in crisis. A response to ensure nobody else got hurt. Thank you SPD.

Rick December 29, 2018 (9:50 pm)

Didn’t read about the coroner’s truck showing up so that’s a good thing. Been there,done that.

Greg December 30, 2018 (10:53 am)

One grim reason to have so many Cops show up to a ‘person with gun’ scenario: they were all wearing bullet-stopping vests.If someone opens fire in a typical apartment, the bullet could easily pass through many doors/walls before finding an unfortunate target.Fill the hallway outside the unit with kevlar vests and the bullets can’t fly quite so far.How many Cops is too many, given this possibility?

Paul December 30, 2018 (11:54 am)

Thanks SPD for keeping all of the folk in that apartment building safe. For get the B* comments around over response. I’d prefer public safety and your safety over a potential tragic or of life threatening incident.

Richard Curtis December 30, 2018 (1:09 pm)

The absurd amount of resources used to deal with this situation calls out for a different approach. What the person involved needed was a social worker and some resources. But instead of taking care of people the resources are used with an absurd number of officers and equipment. It is just one more sign of how dysfunctional our society is. This was not a hard problem but it became a crisis because society did not simply respond in a humane way to someone with a problem. Just send social workers instead of the police and huge number of problems would be solved much easier, effective and cheaper for we, the taxpayers.

Canton December 30, 2018 (4:37 pm)

Let’s say you, were said social worker. What would you have done to diffuse the situation involving a gun. What guarantees, would you have, for the safety of yourself and others? The police got this done, without a single round being discharged.
935 December 30, 2018 (6:18 pm)

1815 – 12/30And have the person in crisis kill those lambs sent to the slaughter…This woman was professionally trained with firearms. The response was overwhelming and appropriate. This was not a kumbaya situation.
Dftl December 30, 2018 (10:02 pm)

Your idiocy is showing

momosmom December 30, 2018 (2:01 pm)

And then if the person “holed up” should had started shooting killed someone or themself and only a couple of SPD showed up then all these post would had been “why weren’t there more SPD here.Never completely happy here…

Jim December 30, 2018 (8:56 pm)

Didn’t we anticipate mayhem when the massive Springline and its teeming residents were in the planning stages? Goodness, what’s in store at Jimmy W’s monstrosity? Time to order some new Bearcats!