WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Gatewood gunfire; business burglary; theft attempt; plus, ‘dumped/likely stolen’ find

| Crime | Gatewood | Seaview | West Seattle news

Four reader reports:

MORE GATEWOOD GUNFIRE: Late last night, we heard a dispatch for possible gunfire in the 7100 block of California SW. Did not hear any report of what if anything officers found at the time, but we just received this via text:

Shots fired again in Gatewood last night, same alley as the car shooting 3 weeks ago. This time shots were fired directly into our neighbors’ house, through the kitchen and bedroom windows. Police have been notified. Fortunately no one hurt.

BUSINESS BURGLARY: The report and photo are from Mark:

Just popped in the Rite Aid on California Ave south of the Junction, saw a shattered window to right of door. Asked the employee on duty, says around 5 am someone broke in and stole cartons of cigarettes and about 30 or so airplane bottles of liquor. They were caught on camera, though.

RACK THEFT ATTEMPT: From M:

Someone tried to steal the kayak rack off my SUV (Friday) night, while it was parked in my driveway in Seaview. Both the rack and the crossbars have locks, but they still managed to break off the end cap and try to slide it off the crossbar. My car was broken into a few months ago in the same location, though there was nothing in it to take. There’s a very bright motion light in the driveway, but doesn’t seem to bother them. They must’ve spent a good deal of time trying to get the rack off.

FROM THE ‘DUMPED/LIKELY STOLEN’ FILE: Recognize these camping chairs?

Texter just spotted them at the California/Fontanelle bus stop.

REMINDER – CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL MEETING TUESDAY: Hear from and talk with Southwest Precinct police at 7 pm Tuesday (August 18) during the first West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting in six months. Online, of course – connection info is in our preview.

East Coast Cynic August 16, 2020 (12:14 pm)

Never fear, the social workers that will be coming on board in wake of the SPD budget cuts will help offset what appears to be an uptick in violent crime and burglary in West Seattle.:/

Carey August 16, 2020 (2:37 pm)

If we have social workers or others handling issues that don’t require the police, maybe the police will have the time to manage actual crimes. Like, why is that so difficult to grasp?
- Mel August 16, 2020 (3:50 pm)
  
  Carey- the point so many people seem to be missing with defunding is that we will be greatly reducing the number of officers (personnel is 82% of their budget). There’s only 8 on at a time currently in all of WS. They will not have more time. If anything there will just be less of them.
  - AMD August 16, 2020 (6:28 pm)
    
    But they won’t be sent to deal with every homeless person sleeping in a car or bad parking job or a myriad of other things that don’t need an armed officer to handle. That’s the point. The other point that never seems to be discussed in these crime threads is that the police haven’t been cut at all yet, and these crimes are still happening. At the exact same rates as when we spent $100m a year less and had 500 fewer officers. We’ll be fine.
    - Bradley August 17, 2020 (12:13 am)
      
      I could use that same argument about the homeless crisis money too.
- Chuck August 16, 2020 (4:39 pm)
  
  Fewer cops is fewer cops, period. But keep spinning it however you want if it helps you sleep better at night. Me? I sleep better knowing there is adequate police presence/protection both when needed and as a deterrent. The society we have created barely recognizes and respects authority now (read: armed police). Frankly, anyone brave enough to take on the role of “social worker” is putting their life at risk in the real world. And you know who they will call when threatened? One of the last remaining cops that our mayor and council have not somehow run out of town. Sleep well.
  - JES August 16, 2020 (5:52 pm)
    
    Chuck, it’s great that police make you feel safe. That is not the case for many of your Black neighbors. Maybe you’ve seen something about that on the news?
    - Wags August 17, 2020 (7:36 am)
      
      JES, there’s actually a lot of confent out there that shows there are a lot of black people that not only support police, but would like more police in their neighborhood. You shouldn’t make generalizations and assumptions.
    - Sarah August 17, 2020 (9:59 am)
      
      So your Black neighbors will be better off with fewer police officers? This is the question you should be asking. The ‘defunding’ proposals WILL hurt black and brown neighborhoods / populations the most. It just doesn’t fit the activist story so it’s brushed aside. It will take MORE money not less to improve policing for all. Inconvenient truth. What you save on ‘body armor’ or ‘overtime’ etc. is more than made up for on trainings, additional staff, oversight… just look at the recent Federal oversight framework for SPD.
  - Richard August 18, 2020 (9:46 am)
    
    Can you people stop politicizing every damn story? Or at least stop buying into the hype? The council is full of s–t but that cuts both ways, they didn’t do anything material either. “Budget measures approved Monday will trim about $3 million of the department’s $400 million annual budget this year.”So it was a 1% budget cut. Thats it. That’s it and that’s all. It was just for decoration.
- East Coast Cynic August 16, 2020 (4:42 pm)
  
  Honestly, how could a social worker have handled a person firing gunshots into homes and cars?? Breaking into cars and stealing possessions, not drugs?? They sound like actual crimes to me. Maybe those added social/community workers can drive around neighborhoods with banners – “Before you fire your pistol, talk to your friendly community social worker first for your anger management issues”; “Thinking about breaking into a retail outlet for cigarettes and alcohol? Don’t bother, we provide nicotine patches and AA referrals”. Maybe this is the kind of creative problem solving the city council was thinking about as alternatives to police.
- WS Resident August 16, 2020 (4:48 pm)
  
  Because currently, we’re just firing police officers. That’s not freeing up more time, that’s just cutting an already understaffed department. Your logic would hold if we were actually investing in other services and not just firing the younger, more diverse officers.
- JES August 16, 2020 (5:36 pm)
  
  It’s not difficult to grasp at all, people like east coast cynic are fear mongering intentionally rather than having productive conversations. My question is, why?
  - JW August 17, 2020 (7:35 am)
    
    In defense of east coast cynic’s post, the charge of ‘fear mongering’ is without merit. The real question that remains for those supporting defunding , the question that no defunding supporter dares answer, is the issue of how do we suddenly reach the utopia assumed by defunding?——————I would like to re-imagine myself as being able to fly, fine. I act on this re-imagined concept of myself and jump off a cliff expecting to fly.Will this re-imagined self be able to fly? The answer is, “We don’t know, until we try.”——————-That is the re-imagining our city council has given us. We are in the air now… Can we fly?
- Alki Resident August 17, 2020 (6:17 am)
  
  Want to see de-policing in action? Look at Alki Beach bonfires and other beach activity. Instead of the police clearing the park like they used to, now we pay Park employees to drive around and meekly ask people to kindly leave and the people tell the Parks people to “F off” and then continue on as if there is no law at all. Granted, the police have much better things to do than babysitting a beach. My “rant” is not about piddly beach stuff. I am just using it as an example of what appears to happen when we attempt to use non-enforcement civilians to try to enforce laws. Nice try but people quickly realize the civilian people have seemingly no authority so they just ignore them and absolutely nothing is done. Maybe we can have City council members come down at 3 am when the fires are blazing and people can’t sleep from the noise and see the glaring shortcomings of de-policing.
- Kelly August 17, 2020 (7:11 am)
  
  It’s hard to grasp, because it’s a lie.I truly wish there we more social worker and there were better laws to help them. Right now, the system is a mess. No one really seems interested in doing the hard work to make it happen.
  
  First, without universal healthcare, most of the treatment seems to be catch and release. We need long term treatment for both mental heath and addiction. Apple Care, while a step in the right direction just doesn’t cut it.
  
  Second, we need better laws. Ricky’s Law was passed 3 years ago… but there are still zero beds in all of King County to implement it. Nobody wants to fund it. They said maybe well have 10 beds in a year. We need 100+.
  
  Finally, our state hospital system is collapsing. Please…. google ‘western state hospital’. Tons of stories like: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/western-state-hospital-report-washington-psychiatric-hospital-is-like-going-into-hell/.
  
  So, if you haven’t figured, the lie is that somehow cutting police funding will fix this system. It will not. Fixing it, which we need to do, will cost MORE then the police. We’re using the police because they are the cheapest option.
- Dan August 17, 2020 (8:17 am)
  
  Want
  to see de-policing in action? Look at Alki Beach bonfires and other beach
  activity. Instead of the police clearing the park like they used to, now
  we pay Park employees to drive around and meekly ask people to kindly leave and
  the people tell the Parks people to “bug off” and then continue on as if there is
  no law at all. Granted, the police have much better things to do than
  babysitting a beach. My “rant” is not about piddly beach stuff. I am just
  using it as an example of what appears to happen when we attempt to use
  non-enforcement civilians to try to enforce laws. Nice try but people quickly
  realize the civilian people have seemingly no authority so they just ignore
  them and absolutely nothing is done. Maybe we can have City council
  members come down at 3 am when the fires are blazing and people can’t sleep
  from the noise and see the glaring shortcomings of de-policing.
Brian August 17, 2020 (9:20 am)

The police don’t stop crime, they just react to it (poorly).

Sue H August 16, 2020 (1:46 pm)

I live 2 blocks north of the shooting in Gatewood. Late last night I heard what I thought mght be gunshots, but then I figured it was probably fireworks and ignored it. So that’s really unnerving to know it WAS gunshots and so close to home. I’m glad no one was hurt. I’d be curous to know if there is any connection between the owner of the home and owner of the car that was shot 3 weeks ago.

Bryan August 16, 2020 (2:06 pm)

Hey Sue – owner of the car and home are different people, but could have been confused given how the parking is
- Dan August 16, 2020 (4:21 pm)
  
  Was this in the alley to the east or west of California?
  - Bryan August 16, 2020 (6:45 pm)
    
    East
  - Neighbor August 16, 2020 (8:05 pm)
    
    East

Mel August 16, 2020 (2:27 pm)

Criminals aren’t stupid. They know an already low number of officers on patrol, and a revolving door (prosecutors office and jail) criminal justice system allows them to get away with crime. We will continue to see an uptick in this until our community has had enough and starts demanding that people be held accountable for their actions instead of making excuses for them. Think it can’t come to your door? Think again. This is already too close to home for me.

John August 16, 2020 (6:07 pm)

“Every society has the criminals it deserves”. Very, very hard to disagree. Now, discuss.
- Resident August 16, 2020 (6:55 pm)
  
  That is a horrible quote. You think criminals only exist in Seattle or the US? We don’t “deserve” any criminals.
  - Lbalm August 16, 2020 (9:25 pm)
    
    The source of the quote is Emma Goldman, an anarchist political activist, active in the first half of the 20th century. Robert Kennedy had this take on the quote:”Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.”Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, said:”We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”Anarchist, Democrat, Republican. The question has been discussed for centuries. Inequities, whatever they may be, appear to be the main thread.
  - JW August 17, 2020 (7:59 am)
    
    I agree. We have made the bed, and must now rest in it.We have systematically eliminated and criminalized activities and individuals. We have created a private prison industry. We have the largest prison population in the world.The data suggest that we in Seattle and the U.S. do indeed create the criminals we deserve.Providing food, housing and medical care might go a long way to correcting the situation we have created.

Yma August 16, 2020 (4:59 pm)

Timing of the shots?we believe 1:01am, about 10 shots in rapid succession.

Sleeper August 16, 2020 (7:02 pm)

Sounded like 7 to me.
Neighbor August 16, 2020 (8:07 pm)

Yes camera recorded it at 1:01AM, 12 shots total

Davd August 16, 2020 (5:12 pm)

Anyone concerned about the increasing crime rates in West Seattle might want to sign the change.org petition “Recall Lisa Herbold” due to her failure of following through on her campaign promises. As late as October 2019, she was running her reelection campaign on a promise to add more officers to the Seattle Police Department. But on Monday the 10th of August, she voted to eliminate up to 100 officers from the Seattle Police Department, in direct conflict with the promise she made to the residents of District 1. So far approximately 1300 people have signed.

KM August 16, 2020 (6:34 pm)

Hard pass. I’m comfortable with the overall decrease in crime we’ve experienced the past several years, and interested in working toward a less militarized and more just society. Bravo to Lisa for changing her tune. Now, do you have a petition to recall Mike Solan I can sign?
- Resident August 16, 2020 (6:56 pm)
  
  Just for whom? In what specific way?
- LLR August 16, 2020 (8:00 pm)
  
  KM. Exactly which decrease in crime are you referring to? Or were you joking?
- JW August 17, 2020 (8:07 am)
  
  KM, the problem with Lisa changing her tune is that Lisa has no tune to change to. Not only without tune, Lisa is re-imagining the music scale. Music lovers wait in anticipation.

Josh August 16, 2020 (5:41 pm)

Friends live right next to the area where both those shootings took place. I believe that the car that was shot up may have been the same make and/or model that the previous owner of the just shot up condo/townhome drove. Seems possibly targeted at someone specific who no longer lives there/recently moved to Canada.

Kristi August 16, 2020 (11:48 pm)

my car was ransacked last night again in the Gatewood community if anyone sees a set of keys on a green spiral bungee please let me know, I’m sure they chucked them at some point because they were of no use to them and could care less of the inconvenience this causes hard working members of the community, but it would be incredibly appreciated if anyone in the WS community happens to spot them and pick them up. :)

Lynda Jao August 17, 2020 (9:13 am)

Our car was also ransacked yesterday morning in the Morgan Junction area. Thief (pictured below) stole my backpack, which had my work laptop and wallet. They then used my credit card in Burien to rent a UHaul (which has not been returned yet and is going to be reported stolen). Same as other poster, my wallet is less important than my personal belongings. They likely discarded it somewhere – please let me know if anyone has seen this backpack or a laptop with Amazon stickers on it. Thank you!We have the name and driver’s license associated with the rental. Amending our police report with that information right now.

WSB August 17, 2020 (10:17 am)

Hi, I don’t see a suspect pic but you are welcome to email us info/pic so we can post separately…
- Lynda Jao August 17, 2020 (11:19 am)
  
  Thank you! I’ll email separately as there is always a small chance the person used a fake identity The photo is of them at time of rental though.