Here’s what we have found out today after requesting police reports from Saturday night’s Alki Beach bedlam.
As reported in our as-it-happened coverage, the crowd that showed up for a social-media-organized megaparty got to be so big, Seattle Police and Parks closed the beach and cleared the street. Police reports show an estimate in the thousands by nightfall.
(Saturday photo by David Hutchinson)
The next day, SPD said three people had been arrested. So far, the reports we’ve read show that only one was booked into jail, a 20-year-old Puyallup woman who was released Monday, after spending two nights in jail for investigation of assault and obstructing officers. The police report says the arrest happened while police were clearing the area around 9:30 pm. They say she “shoved an officer in the face with both hands” while they were trying to push the crowd back. The report says the officer suffered “pain but no other readily apparent injury.” The woman faces potential misdemeanor charges. 2 other people were detained for involvement in what police called a “large fistfight,” taken to the precinct and questioned, then released and told not to return to the beach.
The man from whom a gun was seized, as noted in the SPD Blotter report on Sunday, was not arrested. He wasn’t a visitor for the beach party, either – the police-report narrative says he’s an Alki resident. The parking lot in which he was seen “pacing” with a gun is next to his apartment. When police arrived, the report says, they asked him “to secure his weapon and walk out to the street to speak with officers. (He) complied with that request, though he simply placed his pistol in his pocket before walking out to meet us.” He told the officers he had armed himself in self-defense after a confrontation with someone parking in the lot without authorization. They noted he seemed and smelled intoxicated and asked him “if he was aware of the danger he caused by handling a firearm while intoxicated.” He claimed he had a concealed-pistol license but police couldn’t find an evidence of that; they seized the gun as evidence.
No arrest was made in the street robbery reported that night, but here’s what the police report says happened: Just before 8 pm, they were flagged down by the victim, who said she and her friends had been “jumped” by four people who pushed down her and her friends and kicked them, then stole her phone. A tracker briefly showed the phone was nearby but then was deactivated before it could be found. Seattle Fire medics were called to tend to head lacerations the victim had suffered.
Otherwise, the report narratives overlap to some degree, but the major problem mentioned, repeatedly, was large fistfights. There were no reports of shots fired. One DUI arrest was reported in the Alki area, but police say it’s not clear whether the person was in the area for the beach party or not.
One other note from the reports: Some of the officers were from the Community Response Group, a roving team that SPD assigns to situations when they feel reinforcements are needed, particularly protests.
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