UPDATE: Crash at 30th/Thistle after King County Sheriff’s Office pursuit

9:03 AM: Big emergency response for a crash at 30th/Thistle.- details to come.

9:14 AM: Witnesses report this followed a pursuit involving King County Sheriff’s Deputies, which we had just started hearing about before this call. Photo added. We’re still working to find out what led to the pursuit. Two people were in the car and both are out.

9:20 AM: Thistle will be blocked in that area for a while because of the KCSO investigation. SPD is assisting with traffic control until KCSO can send more units.

9:39 AM: KCSO tells us at the scene that this started with deputies trying to pull the car over for potentially stolen license plates. At some point, they say, the driver rammed one or more KCSO vehicles. No serious injuries reported; the driver and a passenger were being questioned.

9:56 AM: Just talked to KCAO spokesperson Sgt. Tim Meyer. He confirms a PIT maneuver was done to stop the car and that its driver had “rammed two patrol cars.” One deputy has been taken to the hospital “as a precautionary measure.” The driver is in custody and has “multiple warrants.” This all started outside the Roxbury Safeway.

One more note – Thistle is blocked about a block west of the city’s vaccination hub, so to get there, you’ll have to approach from the east – get to westbound Thistle from Delridge, for example. We’ll check back on the street’s status later.

12:45 PM: Thistle is still closed.

3:03 PM: Finally got back over to check again; the street has reopened.

77 Replies to "UPDATE: Crash at 30th/Thistle after King County Sheriff's Office pursuit"

  • JG May 6, 2021 (9:10 am)

    Older black car with junk all over the roof was trying to evade police up Barton between Target and Roxhill skatepark just before 9:00am. Sirens sounded like they stopped in the neighborhood in that area. 

    • Roxhill neighbor May 6, 2021 (9:33 am)

      Yup I was stopped at the light at WWV at Barton and 26th waiting to turn west onto Barton.  I saw the car coming straight towards me on 26th and turn west onto Barton through the red light with KCSO chasing.  It looked like they drove past 30th SW but then later on saw SPD and KCSO drive northbound on 30th SW between Roxbury and Barton.  They must’ve been chasing around the neighborhood before they stopped at Thistle.

  • Jack May 6, 2021 (9:40 am)

    That car with 2 cops following it drove by us in Sunrise Heights. Looked like young teens. I hope they survived. 

    • WSB May 6, 2021 (9:43 am)

      No one was seriously hurt. (added) KCSO tells us a deputy was taken to the hospital to be checked out.

  • Marco May 6, 2021 (9:41 am)

    Yes, JG. I saw them coming towards us. I’m kinda glad they turned East into Thistle, because with all the construction further North that could have resulted in a bigger incident easily.

  • Rjb May 6, 2021 (9:48 am)

    They drove right by us eastbound down othello st. Not sure if they turned south on 30th from othello but I suspect so based on the sirens. Glad it’s over and they didn’t hit anyone out and about in the neighborhood.

  • K May 6, 2021 (9:48 am)

    We were walking down 31st when the black car came down the hill from the direction of 35th heading east on Othello and then turned south onto 31st with two KCSO cars in pursuit. As he made the turn onto 31st, I was surprised he didn’t flip the car. Soon after we heard the fire trucks and Seattle Police Officers heading toward the crash scene on Thistle.

  • Chuck May 6, 2021 (9:50 am)

    Unless the suspects were wanted for a violent crime I can’t help but question the wisdom of a chase at this hour of the morning with so many people/kids on the roads.    Very glad to hear that nobody (especially innocent bystanders) were hurt.  

    • River May 6, 2021 (10:55 am)

      Did you miss the part about the perps ramming their car into the police vehicle?  Bad idea.

  • Blbl May 6, 2021 (9:51 am)

    Lovely. A police chase through residential neighborhoods during morning rush hour all for a “potential” property crime. 

    • OneTimeCharley May 6, 2021 (10:09 am)

      Once the perpetrators used their vehicle as a weapon, then it’s no longer just a property crime.

    • Susan May 6, 2021 (10:38 am)

      Must be nice being able to work from home and judge how others do their job. There’s a shortage of officers if you think you can do a better job.

    • Kram May 6, 2021 (10:52 am)

      Well they rammed a police car. 

    • Alki Bee May 6, 2021 (11:43 am)

      If they had succeeded in their “potential” property crime, the next time it might be your property.

      • CalmDown May 7, 2021 (4:51 pm)

        It is still just property. Not worth risking lives over.

  • AK May 6, 2021 (10:00 am)

    Suspect vehicle was parked at safeway surrounded by officers when he started his honda and backed out recklessly as officer ducked out of the way. Vehicles collided twice at safeway. Pursuits followed with Suspect vehicle crashing into pole. Suspect appears uninjured police officers being treated for minor injuries. No shots fired, thank goodness. 

  • RH May 6, 2021 (10:03 am)

    All this for stolen plates?

    • West Seattle Hipster May 6, 2021 (11:21 am)

      Just one of many bad choices made today.

    • Alki Bee May 6, 2021 (11:45 am)

      So if your plates get stolen, just “too bad, so sad.”  No consequences for the thieves?  Law enforcement shouldn’t try to apprehend them?

    • cpfd May 7, 2021 (8:51 am)

      Reading is fundamental – perp rammed law enforcement vehicles.

  • Adam May 6, 2021 (10:15 am)

    I saw the end of the encounter at the Safeway before the car got away. There were several people taking video, which would be interesting to see. I also question how the car was able to escape in the first place (2 patrols ramming the car) and why a potentially deadly speed pursuit all for possible stolen plates 

    • Tyr1001 May 6, 2021 (11:17 am)

      It started as stolen plates but escalated, by the suspect from the look of – the suspect vehicle was the one that rammed the squad cars and sped off. . . 

      • Brian May 7, 2021 (9:16 am)

        Weird I wonder which party is supposed to be officially trained to de-escalate situations yet wasn’t able to. Again. And again. 

  • Margaret May 6, 2021 (10:24 am)

    The elementary school on 34th and Kenyon had to do a lockdown ): I just got the a robo-call from the Principal.

    • WSB May 6, 2021 (10:32 am)

      They released that fairly early according to scanner traffic.

    • Blbl May 6, 2021 (11:43 am)

      Totally worth freaking out an entire school and all the families. PLATES may have been stolen!!! 🙄

      • My two cents ... May 6, 2021 (1:13 pm)

        @blbl this event and the actions were happening real time. The full extent of the motives and possible actions by the suspect were not know in the moment. Using a car to ram or hit another car in an effort to elude law enforcement is a safety danger to the people and property there and the surrounding area. Would much rather have an overly cautious approach than to throw caution to the wind and hope that nothing unfortunate occurs.

      • StopCuttingDownTrees May 6, 2021 (1:30 pm)

        Did you read the story? They rammed and injured officers, which is felony vehicular assault, assault with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest, assaulting officers, etc. They also had outstanding warrants. The stolen plates simply caused the officers to initiate the stop.

        • Brian May 7, 2021 (9:17 am)

          Sure is a lot of excuse making for why the police endangered the community over stolen plates. 

          • R May 15, 2021 (9:57 am)

            I totally agree with you Brian

  • Isa Coleman May 6, 2021 (10:37 am)

    I hope everyone is ok. 

    • Lisab May 6, 2021 (3:09 pm)

      Not terribly worried about the perps.

  • AK May 6, 2021 (10:44 am)

    I reviewed video and suspect backed out striking police car first, barly missing officers, then as he attempted to u-turn was lighty struck by police car. Attempted to excape by driving around back of safeway,  then blindly crossed sw Roxbury without stopping.  He was hell bent to get away.Glad he was not injured. His dog was not injured too.

  • EE May 6, 2021 (11:13 am)

    Any evidence of damage to police cars? I’m fascinated by the sudden interest in pursuing property crime. The Sheriff’s office repeatedly refuses to investigate felony level theft (say for instance, our recent break-in that has 4k footage of an unmasked thief entering our home, leaving with purse, and full depiction of their license plate. Then, the three box stores in which 10K in credit card fraud was committed, all retained footage from moment entry to the store, throughout shopping, check-out, and parking lot. Three stores were able to identify the same license plate from their outside security footage).But the sheriff’s office said, nah, they won’t be pursuing that. I guess a police chase just sounds so much more fun. A high speed police chase and flipping cars near a school — those 780 hours of training really did wonders. 

    • Mel May 7, 2021 (10:43 am)

      What a horrible take. Should they not approach anyone when they notice stolen plates? Just let them go? You do realize it would be detectives investigating your burglary right? And you do realize how limited their resources are considering they serve the whole county? What if this suspect had been backing out of the spot to evade police and smashed into your car instead of a police car and injured you? Would it then be OK in your mind for them to pursue? Do some research before you start throwing insults. I’m disgusted with these people who think they can do better. Maybe get out from behind your keyboard and go become a police officer then.

  • Mel May 6, 2021 (11:24 am)

    To all saying, “this for a property crime?” Once you use your vehicle as a weapon and ram a person or a deputies car, it’s no longer just a property crime. Maybe the question should be why someone rammed a patrol car over having stolen plates? 

    • momosmom May 6, 2021 (12:35 pm)

      Exactly Mel!

  • Jessica Dodge May 6, 2021 (11:59 am)

    The arrest of one of the occupants of the car happened across the alley behind our house. My sister took footage of it. If you would like it to post on this blog, let me know.

  • incredulous May 6, 2021 (12:05 pm)

    Why the chase? Stolen plates, multiple warrants, willingness to use a car as a weapon against police. People should be asking why he ran instead of why did they chase him.

    • Stacey May 6, 2021 (12:58 pm)

      Finally a rational comment! Why did they ram patrol cars and try to get away? I’m guessing even if no chase, those 2 angles would’ve been speeding through neighborhoods to get far away……with no police sirens to give people fair warning. 

  • Jessica Dodge May 6, 2021 (12:22 pm)

    The other passenger was allowed to just meander down the street calling for his pet (dog? cat?) that was also in the car with them and had run off after the crash, with no police monitoring him closely. The fellow that we saw get arrested and the cops arresting him were smiling and joking together. I found it very weird, especially after learning that there were outstanding warrants, they had RAMMED TWO SHERIFF’S CARS (sending one deputy to the hospital) in either a stolen car, or with stolen plates!I guess it’s super lucky for them they were white guys, otherwise we would most probably had a very different scenario here. This is a perfect example of White Privilege in action. 

  • k May 6, 2021 (12:41 pm)

    Can anyone identify make/model? A similar car was driving violently through the same neighborhood yesterday.

    • WhoTheyBe? May 6, 2021 (2:44 pm)

      I’m not positive about the car, but the pictured plates (APW3491) belong to a 1997 Honda Civic LX sedan with a 1.6 liter SOHC D16Y7 engine

      • uncle loco May 6, 2021 (8:07 pm)

        Sounds like the plates were stolen off a Honda.

  • skeeter May 6, 2021 (1:30 pm)

    Police officers have a dangerous job.  

  • Auntie May 6, 2021 (1:45 pm)

    Seems like a few of you are blaming the police for this activity, when you should be thankful that those people are no longer free (even if only momentarily) to torment the rest of us. Anyone who would try to run down a police officer (or anyone else) needs to be put in jail. Put the blame where it belongs – on the people who stole the plates and had warrants and tried to harm then elude the police. 

    • Mel May 6, 2021 (3:18 pm)

      Yes! Exactly! What happened to personal responsibility? Someone commits crime but let’s blame the cops….eye-roll. 

    • Jeff May 8, 2021 (6:37 am)

      Well said Auntie. Unless you know an officer you likely don’t know what they see and have to deal with on a daily basis to ensure that your family is safe. 

  • StopCuttingDownTrees May 6, 2021 (2:46 pm)

    EXCELLENT work by KCSO deputies and SPD officers. I’m glad it didn’t end in another  more serious officer-down incident like a couple of years ago when escaping thieves ran over a deputy in the Safeway parking lot, breaking his leg.

  • Jargon Hater May 6, 2021 (3:07 pm)

    A “PIT maneuver”? Find someone who looks at you the way WSB looks at needlessly complicated jargon. 

    • Tyr1001 May 6, 2021 (4:52 pm)

      PIT maneuver is a very common term used since the early 90’s. I assumed it was a household phrase at this point

    • Americans Against Acronyms (AAA) May 6, 2021 (6:31 pm)

      @Jargon Hater – Ask the King County Sheriff’s Office to say “pursuit intervention technique” out loud or in a report instead of it’s acronym and then complain. Or better yet, you read the Blog so you can use the internet to look up “PIT maneuver police” and let the Blog continue with its helpful local journalism. While you are at it you can look up SCUBA, NATO, and WTF. LMFAO. ; p

      • WSB May 6, 2021 (7:15 pm)

        I was going to link the term to an explanatory page but got sidetracked while trying to find one (I am not a Wikipedia hater but its page for PIT had a warning, so I didn’t want to use that). Either a commenter or Tweeter mentioned it first, otherwise we might not even have asked about it at the scene – TR

  • Jort May 6, 2021 (3:42 pm)

    Stolen plates, if I check my statistics here …. let’s see … yeah … stolen plates are responsible for zero (0) automobile fatalities in America in the last 200 years. But speeding killed nearly 10,000 people in 2018 alone. Maybe the police should be doing “PIT” manoeuvres on the drivers that are actually putting people at risk, rather than “just” the ones who aren’t sufficiently obedient to police orders. In any case, I am glad to see another car off the road.

    • Tyr1001 May 6, 2021 (4:59 pm)

      This is so far off base it seems like you are deliberately trying to get a rise out of people again. Poor form

      • Jort May 6, 2021 (7:34 pm)

        Not really. I’m mostly just saddened that automobile drivers, who are responsible for one of the country’s leading causes of preventable death, defiantly refuse to do anything about the carnage they create. We lose an airplane’s worth of human lives every few days due to automobile collisions. Can you imagine how this country would react if a 737 fell out of the sky and killed everybody onboard every 1 or 2 days? We would be freaking out. And we should be about the 100 percent completely and absolutely preventable deaths caused by automobile drivers, too.

        • 1994 May 6, 2021 (10:16 pm)

          The topic thread is not about airplanes failing and falling out of the sky. The thread is about bad people versus police, and poor decision making on the part of the bad people.

          • Brian May 7, 2021 (9:18 am)

            Bad people vs police? Is this a real thing adults say out loud? 

        • StopCuttingDownTrees May 6, 2021 (11:14 pm)

          As a former transit bus driver, I can honestly say that the best car salesperson I’ve ever witnessed is a ride on a city bus. I had new passengers who said they were turning over a new leaf and riding the bus to work “for now on”. In almost every case I never saw them again.

          • Jort May 7, 2021 (9:21 am)

            Oh my gosh! Thanks for your anecdote! Here is a fact instead:

    • My two cents ... May 6, 2021 (6:20 pm)

      @jort I’m curious – never knew that automobiles have been around for 200 years!!! I remember when President Monroe took a break from his doctrine work to address modern safety devices for the automobile that would be introduced in the US around 70 years later.

    • StopCuttingDownTrees May 6, 2021 (7:48 pm)

      It seems as if you didn’t read the story. The pursuit was because the perpetrator committed vehicular assault on law enforcement officers and injured them. The initial contact was for stolen plates, but the perpetrator decided to escalate a simple, routine stop into felony violence. Why are you insinuating that ANY part of this incident was instigated by law enforcement? Should car theives not be investigated/apprehended?

      • Brian May 7, 2021 (9:19 am)

        Why are you assuming the citizen caused the escalation and not the police? 

        • StopCuttingDownTrees May 7, 2021 (2:02 pm)

          Well, for one, the citizen has a criminal history, was breaking the law BEFORE the stop, and has no credibility. Two, the police actually have credibility. Three, officers were injured via vehicular assault by the perpetrator. Four, I spoke with someone who witnessed the entire event from contact to violent attack in the Safeway parking lot.

      • wscommuter May 7, 2021 (9:22 am)

        You’re wasting  your breath  responding to the anti-car nuts.  That this poster tries to twist a scary/dangerous behavior by the knucklehead who rammed a police car into another insipid anti-car rant tells you all you need to know about this person’s perspective … and about how much worth there is in this person’s comment.  smh.

    • cpfd May 7, 2021 (8:55 am)

      Jort does not like law enforcement, per this & past postings.

  • Oakley34 May 6, 2021 (3:50 pm)

    Days of taking the police at their word are long past.

    • Auntie May 6, 2021 (4:29 pm)

      I doubt that the police made up that the plates were stolen and the guy had a warrant and tried to ram them just so they could have a fun-filled chase scene through the streets of West Seattle. 

      • CAM May 6, 2021 (5:02 pm)

        The point is not did someone do something wrong. The point is at what point does pursuing the person become more likely to lead to destruction or injury than any benefit gained by arresting them. As has been seen on numerous occasions across the country, most recently in MN, police have a tendency to continue pursuing and escalating the situation in their efforts to capture the person trying to evade them even when the circumstances of the initial stop are relatively minor and wouldn’t merit that use of resources/force. That increased use of resources/force just leads to a similar escalation by the individuals trying to get away. You end up with a person getting arrested and sitting in jail whose only charges allegedly occurred after they were stopped by police. And no, it isn’t that uncommon. 

        • sam-c May 6, 2021 (7:22 pm)

          CAM put it well- some  thoughts I had but couldn’t articulate.  At the time the pursuit started, the only known fact (based on the news details shared here) was that the people were driving a car with stolen plates.  The police decided to pursue, and  then found out the suspects had warrants (people driving stolen cars/ cars with stolen plates don’t advertise their identity, do they?) after stopping them. Obviously the suspects probably knew that (the warrants)  But, some people consider some very serious and dangerous risks when they consider their options (try to get away or face potential death sentence by police response).  The fact that you believe complying with police stop is the best option,  might point to the fact that, in assessing a situation, you might get to envision a different outcome than others may.  Of course, I don’t know who (police or criminal) was thinking what during all of this, but there are so many perspectives and judgments in this comment thread, just throwing another one in there that tags onto CAM’s comment.  Really glad there wasn’t more injury or destruction in this pursuit.

        • StopCuttingDownTrees May 6, 2021 (9:10 pm)

          The chase started AFTER the injuries (to law enforcement) and destruction of property (to the police cruisers), not before. You’re putting the cart before the horse.

    • john May 6, 2021 (5:28 pm)

      There’s some validity in what you say.   I’d like to see all the footage myself before accepting anyone’s story.

    • Scubafrog May 6, 2021 (6:52 pm)

      Bingo.  Police aren’t used by MANY journalists as credible sources, in many parts of the country.  For good reason.  “Police say….”, then you find out out the truth.  Totally incongruous.  SAD!  It should be noted, some police agencies stop chases before the chases endanger the lives of the public.  Let’s remember, the SPD had the most members of any states’ law enforcement agency at the Sacking of the Capital.  We don’t even know if they were involved yet…  

  • sgs May 6, 2021 (6:41 pm)

     I totally agree with the point mentioned that pursuing decisions are a risk/benefit analysis and it’s always a tragedy when a bystander gets hurt.   However, if wrongdoers aren’t pursued, then there is no accountability.  No accountability contributes to the lawlessness of our society.   How many times has a “stolen plate” stop resulted in the capture of a person guilty of much more crime  – probably very often.

  • Hammer in Hand May 6, 2021 (8:47 pm)

    I go out of may way each and every time I encounter or cross paths with police officers to thank them for their service!!! What a relentless profession to the officers involved in this incident THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!!!fir those who have commented “they can’t help but wonder” if you can do it better, sign up and take a walk in their shoes. There are lots of openings

  • WTF May 6, 2021 (9:00 pm)

    Thank you KCSO! Great job.

    Aggravated battery is a serious crime.

  • Dan May 7, 2021 (9:04 am)

    Y’all need Jesus and less arguments over ignorance…..

Sorry, comment time is over.