CRIME WATCH: Weapons found in 1st/Cloverdale RV after arrest of already-wanted man

| Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

11:30 AM: SPD has released information today on the Tuesday investigation that blocked traffic at 1st/Cloverdale, alongside Highway 509, as mentioned by a commenter following our daily traffic roundup. Police say it started as a domestic-violence report just before 6 am. Officers talked to a woman near “an RV trailer close to an encampment” who reported that she was almost hit by a bullet when a man shot at her. They arrested the suspect “after several calls for others to come out of the RV” and booked him into jail, eventually recovering the weapons shown below in a photo from SPD, which describes them as “an AR-15 without a serial number, a bow gun, arrow, and ammunition.”

Police say the suspect is “lawfully prohibited from having any guns.” We are checking on his status; since he was booked yesterday, he would likely be scheduled for a bail/probable-cause hearing today. The victim was not injured.

12:28 PM: The suspect is still in jail, and we discovered in past court documents that he was already wanted in another case in which he is charged, so we are identifying him: 42-year-old Pascual Ferrer-Gonzalez, whose last known address on one document was in Burien. That other case is an auto theft in which he was charged in October 2021 but had yet to go to trial – there’s a long case history online; we downloaded some of the documents. He was found with the stolen car on I-5 in SeaTac in December 2020, and charged in October 2021. (One document notes that was two months after he was convicted in an assault, domestic violence, and burglary case.) He didn’t appear for arraignment in the auto-theft case, so a warrant was issued, and he was arrested two months later. Judge Veronica Galvan granted his release on personal recognizance. Various case delays ensued; he ended up in jail again for four weeks last November and December, until he was granted release again on personal recognizance, this time by Judge Johanna Bender, on condition he show up for a day-reporting program. A little over a week later, court documents show, he didn’t, so another arrest warrant was issued. He didn’t show up for a hearing this past January, either, so a warrant from that hearing was still in effect when he was arrested yesterday.

7:55 PM: We don’t yet have the documents from this afternoon’s hearing, but the jail docket shows Ferrer-Gonzalez’s bail is now set at $305,000 – that’s $5,000 for the unresolved auto-theft case, $300,000 for this new case.

wheee! March 27, 2024 (11:39 am)

When I drove by this morning, no parking signs had been put up along that stretch on both sides of the road, so imagine a cleanup/sweep is happening soon.

WSB March 27, 2024 (11:52 am)

Thanks, was planning to check given this incident.

lucy March 27, 2024 (12:23 pm)

He needs to have MANDITORY incarceration for the gun charges. No bail. This needs to stop. Start prosecuting gun law violations to the fullest extent of the law.

Al King March 27, 2024 (12:49 pm)

WSB/Others. How many guns in the hands of people like this were originally stolen in a residential burglary? Alway’s amazed at the number of people that have guns to “protect themselves” who don’t store them properly and since they’re not home 24/7/365 give the crooks something to steal. And they do.

WSB March 27, 2024 (1:33 pm)

There is also a problem with people leaving guns in cars, subsequently stolen by car prowlers. I hear that sort of report over the scanner at least a couple times a week.
- Al King March 27, 2024 (2:03 pm)
  
  WOW. Amazing number of gun owners that are just sure if there’s an easily visible/accessible gun the crooks will run away scared. Hard choice to pick out who’s dumber.
  - Eric1 March 27, 2024 (3:59 pm)
    
    Like the former Seattle police chief’s city owned gun. 🤦‍♂️
  - Dog Whisperer March 28, 2024 (10:16 am)
    
    If you would like to know what gun owners think you could actually ask one or more. No need for wild, uninformed speculation at this late date.
    - Jay March 28, 2024 (1:25 pm)
      
      Owner of four guns here. Gun culture underwent a massive shift in the past ten years. Responsible owners are a minority. Gun shops and shooting ranges are wild. Reckless behavior has shut down public shooting areas. Illegal shooting has exploded and I’ve been shot at several times on public land on hiking and biking trails as well as driving on a national forest road with some 20-something MAGAs spraying 5.56mm DOWN THE ROAD shooting at pumpkins propped up on logs. Shooting used to be a fun hobby, now it’s a cesspool of dangerous behavior and rhetoric supporting domestic terrorism in public places where shooting and gun sales take place. There are still good gun owners of course, but the ratio is shrinking. Responsible gun owners have an obligation to call out this behavior.
  - Dave March 29, 2024 (12:10 pm)
    
    My vote is is the gun owners are the winner (loser?) in this case.Thinking an unattended gun acts as a deterrent?
Daniel March 27, 2024 (6:49 pm)

If the BJS OJP is to be believed, then about 6.5% are directly stolen, and another 40-45% are illegally purchased. If you do a straight extrapolation (which is an extremely rough first approximation) from the ~35% that are bought at retail (10%) or bought / gifted from friends / family /etc (25%), then probably a good 6/(6+10+25) of the illegally purchased ones were also originally stolen in a burglary. So probably somewhere around 10-15% total from burglaries. Of those, the majority these days are from cars, not houses.
B March 27, 2024 (8:30 pm)

Gun sales are way up in Seattle. https://www.kuow.org/stories/the-seattle-area-gun-purchases-after-2020-today-so-far . IMO this increase in gun sales is due to residents feeling that the city is not safe, and there is plenty of evidence to support that view. Ironically, the failed policies of past progressive city administrations may have driven up gun sales in Seattle more than the NRA could have ever hoped to. I’m not a far right person or a progressive, but somewhere in the middle. It seems to me like there is an incredible lack of common sense on both ends of the political spectrum, and that has lead to some nutty policies.

Joan March 27, 2024 (12:58 pm)

Get rid of these judges.

EJ March 27, 2024 (2:39 pm)

Galvan truly cares more about criminals than she does victims of crimes and community safety in general. I’m glad WSB is naming these judges. I just hope that people begin challenging them in elections, and voters vote to oust the incumbents.
- Brian March 27, 2024 (3:28 pm)
  
  To be clear here, the judge case assignments are a matter of public record.
  - WSB March 27, 2024 (3:44 pm)
    
    Yes, they are, and the reason we don’t always have them is because some of the bail decisions are made at court hearings (like the daily calendar) that aren’t covered by the documents we download. In this case, these were all mentioned in Superior Court documents, which we were able to access.
  - EJ March 27, 2024 (3:56 pm)
    
    Well duh. Do you really think the majority of the public takes the time to look up case history and which judges making bail decisions, though? That’s my point. This should be standard procedure for the media to cover. They don’t. And we keep getting the same pro-criminal judges elected to the bench year after year because people don’t know any better.

Cogburn March 27, 2024 (1:12 pm)

Another release on personal recognizance success. When will they ever learn? The judge I mean; the criminals already have.

Jeepney March 27, 2024 (1:19 pm)

Two judges clearly dropped the ball and let this person right back on the streets. Is it apathy, tolerance, enabling, or all of the above?

Sillygoose March 27, 2024 (4:16 pm)

Despicable the amount leinancy these lazy judges are giving crimminals. The SPD is short 700 officers and these judges are wasting officers time, tax payer money and sheltering crimminals all while subjecting the public to these dangerous people. Let’s find a more effective way to process these people, no more 2 steps forward 4 steps back!!!

Neighbor March 27, 2024 (4:34 pm)

Judges can’t keep innocent (we all are until proven otherwise) locked up forever. That’s a good thing. Where are the prosecutors? How has a stolen car case from 2.5 years ago still not been resolved?

bill March 27, 2024 (7:07 pm)

Neighbor’s comment is the only sensible one here. Judges have LAWS and procedures to follow; they are not free to lock away people willy-nilly before trial. There is also the matter of space in jails to hold people. This all boils down to how much y’alls are willing to be taxed, and which legislators YOU ELECT to make the laws and taxing and funding decisions.

KayK March 27, 2024 (8:11 pm)

SPD shared with HPAC that this site will be cleaned up this week in a join effort.

WSB March 27, 2024 (8:39 pm)

I’m writing a followup tonight after a tidbit of info from WSDOT, plus a look at the signs. Thanks for the further corroboration.

TJ March 27, 2024 (8:53 pm)

Yes, we are all innocent until proven guilty, but being caught with a gun when not allowed to have one isn’t something prosecutors need to prove. Plus throw in all the previous failure to appears for other crimes and yes, the judge can lock them up. Believe it or not as of one year ago the King County jail was still operating under ridiculous COVID distancing policies and at half capacity, and they said that was going to be the case for a while. If that is still the case then Dow Constantine has proven to be anti jail and pro criminal. This is what happens when ultra progressive activists get involved in politics and the judicial system

Byron James March 28, 2024 (12:11 am)

@TJ. You are correct.

anonyme March 28, 2024 (5:41 am)

The problem with getting rid of these judges is that most of them run unopposed, so there is no incentive for them to make tough decisions. I’m for some kind of accountability system for judges, as well as closing legal loopholes that allow these catch & release scenarios. A single failure to appear (unless proven beyond doubt to not be the fault of the offender) should result in mandatory jail without bond. There should be sanctions against judges who enable criminal behavior against innocent citizens by continually allowing repeat offenders back on the streets. A while back I read on the WSB that catch & release was to see a crackdown; so far, there is no evidence of that happening and plenty to the contrary, as evidenced by this case.

TheDude March 28, 2024 (9:17 am)

If that AR has a barrel shorter than 16″ (as it appears) there may also be potential for a federal firearms charge here due to the vertical foregrip.

. March 28, 2024 (1:00 pm)

AR has a pistol brace, therefor it is legally a pistol that that configuration.
- .. March 29, 2024 (11:39 am)
  
  Not with a vertical foregrip. That turns it into a short barrel rifle, regulated under NFA.
Rhonda March 28, 2024 (3:33 pm)

TheDude, it’s already a federal crime for a felon to possess ANY firearm. But, yes, putting a less-than-16″ upper on an 80% lower is against federal law as only a serialized lower can be legally sold with a short upper as a pistol via an FFL dealer.
- TheDude March 29, 2024 (11:41 am)
  
  An otherwise legal AR pistol (barrel less than 16″) with a vertical foregrip attached (noted in my comment) is a short barrel rifle (SBR) under the National Firearms Act (NFA), and is illegal to possess without a federal background check and tax stamp.
  
  Yes, it is already a crime for a felon to possess any firearm, but that was not what my comment was addressing. No AR pistol in any configuration can be legally bought/sold in WA right now anyway.

Sorry, comment time is over.