Police are investigating gunfire just north of Westcrest Park. After a 911 call from a home near 5th SW and SW Cloverdale, officers went to the area and have told dispatch they’ve found 25 shell casings at an intersection in the area. No injuries or property damage reported so far. The original caller was reported to have said a “silver vehicle” might have been involved.
We live just a few blocks from Westcrest and we hear what sounds like gunfire and/or fireworks almost every night for the past few months. This is the first I’ve seen anyone else reporting it to the police. I haven’t reported it because I don’t know where it’s coming from and I can’t tell for sure if it’s gunfire. What can we do about this?
Call it in to 911, even if you’re unsure. Fireworks aren’t legal and really inappropriate for the city. If it’s gunfire police need to be made aware, especially if it occurs multiple times in the same neighborhood. Those rounds could end up anywhere, and discharging them recklessly cannot be tolerated. It’s probably the same bad actors involved in many different incidents.
@Lucy We live near Westcrest and have heard the gunshots and reported them too. Unfortunately, now we are being ignored because no one else calls in the shots fired so the cops think we are crazy people wasting their time and resources. PLEASE for the love of Highland Park CALL IT IN!!! If we don’t care, they don’t care meaning don’t rely on other people to call it in. I agree with @Dog Whisperer to “Call it in to 911, even if you’re unsure.”
Lucy/others. Alway’s call ANYTHING suspicious into 911. 911 calls are logged and recorded so even if an immediate response doesn’t happen there is a record of concern. And, that call you make might be the one that provides a valuable clue in solving an incident.
@Lucy your concerns are valid and we hear the gunshots too almost every night! Some great first steps that we have taken are the following (I tried to include some hyperlinks to the Seattle Police Departments webpage);
According to an officer we spoke to that responded to shots fired near our home, we need to call in any shots fired we hear, at the time it happens. This way an officer can come to the area to investigate.
I called in shots twice in the last 3 months. By 15th sw and Barton. Not sure why some shots get on WSB and some don’t. Also cars parked with no license plates and cars with no rear passenger windows should be called in. And racing cars with tires squealing.
We report confirmed gunfire. As we’ve mentioned, it’s confirmed if one (or more) of the following happens:
-Injury (or worse)
-Casings found
-Property damage (bullet hole in car/building, etc.)
-Person actually seen firing gun (95 percent of phoned-in reports are from people who heard something but didn’t see it)
There are many more reports of suspected gunfire than confirmed gunfire. As others have said, it’s important to call it in even if you aren’t certain and don’t know which direction – the more calls they get, the more chance they have of sorting it out. But they definitely do get “shots” report that aren’t “shots” – just one example, when people set off fireworks for Seahawks victories, there are invariably people who weren’t watching the game and didn’t know there was game and call them in as “shots.” And there are idiots who set off M-80 type explosives now and then in the dead of night, year round.
SPD has to file “significant incident reports” about confirmed gunfire. We check those – available usually unfortunately on a multi-day delay – and have almost always it’s something we’ve already reported. (I say ALMOST because I found out late last night that we did miss one this week during our few hours off the desk in the early early am but will be noting it in the next Crime Watch for the record – 5 am Monday, 8000 block 12th SW, three casings found – TR
“Silver Vehicle” like the one on the Feb 4th home burglary? Just making connections.
Last month I called in gunfire near 5th S and S Cloverdale in South Park. The officer also found 25 casings near the intersection there. 9 of one caliber and 16 of another. I doubt it’s a coincidence.
PLEASE CALL IT IN. Reminder, the 19 year old who was shot and killed in front of Sealth High School last year was left there helpless all night from 11pm until 930am when a dog walker saw his body. Imagine if more people would have called in and maybe just maybe they could have located the shooting and found him sooner, who knows how the story could have ended.
The police want us to be the eyes of our neighborhoods and report any suspicious or problematic activity even if it’s just suspected.they will decide if it should be investigated.The police track the number of calls to all the neighborhoods and put out patrols in accordance with the calls that they receive.please, please call and report, Even if you think it’s fireworks, that is illegal. The other night at 2:30 AM near Alki the entire neighborhood was woken up by what we thought were fireworks or gunshots and nobody called and reported.
Thanks for the encouragement everyone, I will be calling. It’s not like I’m sleeping anyway because the sounds send my dog into a panic. And I just heard a boom as I’m writing this!
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