WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: ‘Targeted’ gunfire; pellet attack; prowler

| Crime | West Seattle news

Three West Seattle Crime Watch reports today:

GUNFIRE INVESTIGATION: Seattle Police have released a summary confirming gunfire in Highland Park early Thursday:

At 0128 hours, SW Patrol responded to caller reporting that her house had been shot in the 8100 block of 13 Ave SW. Officers located bullet damage to two homes and one vehicle. It was clear that one of the homes was intentionally targeted. A search of the area found that no victims were struck by gunfire. Nearby homes had surveillance that showed a shadowy unknown suspect approach on foot and fire from the street. SW Patrol photographed and processed the scene, recovering thirty-three 9mm [casings].

Two reader reports:

PELLET ATTACK: G sent us this note reporting an incident a week ago:

I wanted to share what happened near our house on SW Thistle and 26th across from Sealth HS.

My husband was walking with our two dogs at 10 am on Friday Nov 1st.

He witnessed a male, student-aged, shoot another young male with a pellet/air soft type gun. He didn’t say anything to either males. He walked past one of the teens waiting at the bus stop and had passed him about 10 feet when he was struck in the back of the head and neck with the pellets. My husband turned around to address the teen and his gun was still up pointing at my husband. My husband asked him, ‘Really, come on’ and disarmed the teen and threw the gun over the fence. School security heard the commotion and responded and the school principal also came out. My husband dialed 911 to report.

The security took the teen into school. The police responded quickly to our house and took his information. The officer asked what he wanted the police to do – arrest, talk to, etc. My husband said he wanted his parents to know about this incident but not to arrest him if not warranted. Later we felt he should be arrested after processing the incident. Aside from that, our son is a juvenile detention officer and told us he needed to be arrested.

That hasn’t happened, G says. Meantime, “my husband has talked to another person in the neighborhood that was walking near SWAC and Sealth and was also hit by pellet/airsoft balls. I think it would be useful to the community for this to be shared. As this teen is practicing to use the real firearm – he was so bold as to shoot a person in the back.”

PROWLER: Via text, a quick heads-up: “Had a random person testing my front door on 44th Ave SW and Charlestown,”

Alki resident November 8, 2024 (11:50 am)

That kid needs to be not only arrested but expelled from school. We’re not playing video games here punk. You’re lucky the dog walking victim wasn’t carrying. I hope your husband is ok. Maddening and stupid

capital won November 8, 2024 (12:47 pm)

Surely there has to be a better solution than to deprive this young man of any chance he might have at learning and growing beyond this foolishness. In any case, best wishes to the victims, this must have been upsetting to say the least.
- neverawake November 8, 2024 (1:21 pm)
  
  Not foolishness, victimization that should be immediately handled with the same gravity of consequence as the action taken by the child. Expelled for victimizing another student especially with witness detail should be standard to set this culture rife with bullying straight. Seems pretty simple. Shooting at the head and neck of someone who was not an aggressor as well as unarmed is a sick thing to do so clearly the kid needs help with this. When the victim passed this kid took the opportunity to hit a moving target. THIS is how you ruin your own life in the matter of a few seconds. And could’ve ruined others’ too. Arrest expell and assist seem simple enough in this scenario. Anything less would be foolishness.
- Bruh be quiet November 8, 2024 (1:56 pm)
  
  You talking like someone who doesn’t have anyone to care about because an airsoft will turn into a firearm with real bullets real quick. I don’t need to have kids or a family to fear him running up on anyone in the neighborhood and shooting point blank. He should have thought about his education when he had a chance to get it.
  - Alki resident November 8, 2024 (2:36 pm)
    
    Amen, thank you. So sick of the coddling of criminals.
    - Jason November 8, 2024 (3:16 pm)
      
      The “tough on crime” idiotic councilmembers we have right now just had 5 stabbings in their “SODA” zone…. progressives had lower crime rates than Bruce’s conservative squad.
    - K November 8, 2024 (3:37 pm)
      
      So sick of people with only a rudimentary understanding of how the system works throwing around the word “coddling” any time they want to sound cool on an internet message board. Grow up. There are options besides doing nothing and locking someone up forever, and those options save taxpayers a lot of money. You don’t need to ruin someone’s life to teach them a lesson, and they are more likely to consider a lesson if they have a life to look forward to at some point in the future. We’re talking about an idiot kid exercising really bad judgment and not thinking the consequences through, not the Green River Killer.
    - Alki resident November 8, 2024 (5:30 pm)
      
      K do you hear yourself or just type away? How many times did the green river killer kill before he was caught? Would you rather wait until this kid has a laundry list of assaults and deaths before he gets to serve any time at all? Why not teach them that we’re not playing, at a young age before he gets too carried away. You are the perfect example of coddling criminals. Kudos. Maybe you’ll think differently if this was your family member attacked.
    - Chad November 9, 2024 (7:29 am)
      
      K is correct. While some kids might indeed grow up to commit even worse crimes, most of them would become productive members of society with the right support network. Take me. I was like this kid when I was young. Bored at school and always getting in trouble. And finally arrested multiple times. Now, I’m a cancer scientist, and the person you need when standard care won’t save your life. Nobody would suspect my past, because I’m white, and I was given every opportunity to change. When I was arrested, the police treated me with respect, and I got very light sentences, and no jail time other that the few times immediately after an arrest. Once, I evaded police while driving drunk. They followed me to my apt, and instead of arresting me, they put me to bed. Seriously. If I was not white, there is no way this happens. I eventually got a science education and thrived. I had parents and teachers on my ass, making me study. A kid can change. But it requires many adults working hard to make it happen. Throwing away kids like trash, at such a early age, without understanding why they are acting out, doesn’t make sense. There are better ways. But because those ways require so much effort, and are maybe impossible to scale, I understand why people want the 1 strike and you are out scenario when a kid does something like this. I’m not proud of my past, but once adults showed an interest in me, I changed very quickly. And now I give back in ways that have saved 100 times the number of people that I hurt back then. It can happen.
- Rhonda November 8, 2024 (3:11 pm)
  
  Expulsion is warranted here. Assaulting another child with projectiles when not engaged in mutual play is unacceptable, especially with a mock firearm. There are other schooling options: other districts, private, charter, online, home, etc.
- Wrong is right now apparently November 8, 2024 (7:15 pm)
  
  “deprive this young man of any chance he might have at learning and growing” > deprive other people of their LIVES = foolishnessI really don’t know the world you live in and the way you think that you believe truly that someone who is doing something that can be fatal deserves no legal repercussions.
Jethro Marx November 8, 2024 (1:02 pm)

Back to “lockemupandthrowawaytheblablabla” I see. You dismissed the case of a child who allegedly shot his whole family as a “misunderstanding” a couple weeks ago, are you sure that’s not what happened here?
AK November 8, 2024 (2:43 pm)

Yes to Alki Resident. These kids need to be taught a lesson. Charge them and lock them up!!
- Alki resident November 8, 2024 (3:00 pm)
  
  Absolutely. If you don’t show force now, they’ll end up killing real soon. This was just his practice run. See what he could get away with.
  - Brynn November 9, 2024 (9:37 am)
    
    Alki resident how about you scroll back up to Chad’s comment. Before you do it take a deep breath and try and see if you can hear what he is saying.
- Jason November 8, 2024 (3:18 pm)
  
  AK are you paying for the locking up of kids and demanding seattle salaries of officers in correctional facilities? oh no? Then stop suggesting it.
  - uncle loco November 8, 2024 (3:52 pm)
    
    Are you okay for this kid to eventually spray 33 rounds into random houses? That’s the direction in life he’s headed.
  - CarDriver November 8, 2024 (4:33 pm)
    
    Jason. What’s your solution? Pat them on the head and get them to promise not to do something bad again. What do you say to the victims?

anonyme November 8, 2024 (12:22 pm)

Pellet guns can do serious, even lethal, damage. He was also carrying a weapon outside of a high school, and nobody noticed? This kid needs to be arrested. It shouldn’t be up to the dogwalker to file charges if the kid shot someone. This is no joke.

Oerthehillz November 8, 2024 (12:53 pm)

Any description of the prowler on 44th? I think I saw him too, also on 44th.

WSB November 8, 2024 (1:12 pm)

I had a blurry screenshot from Ring which didn’t really show anything so I didn’t include. Otherwise, I think the OP’s point was to just warn the area.
- neverawake November 8, 2024 (1:22 pm)
  
  Greatly appreciated WSB!!

westseattlebob November 8, 2024 (4:20 pm)

With the lethal shooting that happened at the beginning of the year this action committed by the student needs to be addressed both with expulsion as well as scrubbing of socials to see what else if anything is going on. There needs to be accountability and that this kind of behavior is not allowed or tolerated by staff. I hope those at Chief Sealth take appropriate actions. There are consequences for these actions!

Ferns November 8, 2024 (8:37 pm)

Great idea with checking the socials. This is the red flag everyone. This is what a future school shooter looks like. A mass murderer. Yes it is tragic that this youth has not had proper parenting, love, attention, role models, supervision and that we as a society have made it so difficult for parents to have the energy, time and money to be there to properly support their children so they don’t turn into criminals. But that doesn’t mean we deserve to be overrun by them.
momosmom November 9, 2024 (7:13 am)

You can blame the schools all you want but it is not their fault. I’m not sure when “the rules” of being a parent changed, I was a teenager in the 70’s and came from a home with 3 kids and no mother in the household. When we were old enough to be left alone while dad was at work we had “chores” and we knew they needed to be done before dad got home, sure we disliked them but we knew if we didn’t have them done we’d be in big trouble. What I’m getting at is when did being a parent change, was it the 80’s, 90’s? You need to stop blaming the teachers/schools these are your children you teach them right from wrong and stop using the excuse I’m tired, I don’t have the time, we both work or there’s only one parent the list of excuses can go on and on…make the time because again these are your children. It is you the parent to teach them right from wrong.

Mike November 8, 2024 (7:10 pm)

“The security took the teen into school.” Huh… Back into the school. I dunno, I don’t think that was a good idea. That’s an active shooter event and they took the shooter, the threat, back INTO the school. Fire the security and principal immediately, arrest and expell the kids immediately. Denny/Sealth parents need to sue SPS for endangering the lives of their kids.

CheeseWS777 November 8, 2024 (11:24 pm)

Your saying its not a huge jump to him spraying people tomorrow with an “AK” but really tho? Its a pellet gun. Me and my siblings used to shoot each other all the time when we were younger sometimes just to be mean and none of us has ever ended up killing anybody. I dont see this kid becoming a ruthless killer either.He does seem like a bully tho with warning flags and should face som sort of consequences, hopefully preventing him from becoming that “killer” and i have a doubt that its going to come from the kids home unfortunately so how the kid gets punished so that he knows thats not ok and does not do it again, idk ..

Yes really November 10, 2024 (4:31 pm)

Did you go around shooting random strangers in public?Whatever this person is learning has led them to their latest actions. If no one in their personal life is willing to step in then the judicial system has to take over so that the rest of society don’t have to deal with these issues. I don’t want my kids to be on the receiving end of this person’s actions in class. And I don’t want to be on the receiving end sitting on my porch.

Rod Clark November 8, 2024 (11:44 pm)

I have no idea how this works now, and can’t find anything pertaining to it on the School District’s web site. But the Seattle School District used to have a way to sort out students who became violent at school, or perpetrated other seriously disruptive activities.It was called the Re-Entry School. It occupied the second floor of the old Lincoln High Shool building. Some unrelated non-profits had offices on the first floor. Its student body was made up of those students, mostly teens and mostly boys, who had shown that they couldn’t or shouldn’t be in a regular school environment at present. I know this because I worked there for a little while, around the early to mid 2000’s. The school was a temporary placement for these students, who would remain there long enough to be placed into one of three groups. The first group was made up of those students whom the District determined could get over their problems enough return to a regular middle school or high school.The second group were those who were considered candidates for failure or poor outcomes in a regular school environment, but who could be placed in one of the various small specialty schools that the District maintained. There they’d recieve lots of personal attention. They’d get a quite possibly unorthodox but good education, and a good chance of graduating with a high school diploma.The third group were those who showed themselves unable to remain in any District school. My office on the second floor had a thick heavy wood door with a big heavy steel lock and a window made of thick tempered glass with strong criss-cross steel wire reinforcing. One day when I wasn’t there, there was a riot, which resulted in some damage and smashed windows, but no one was seriously hurt. The teachers there just kept on going, even though it was a difficult job. Browsing around the SPS web site today, I get get the impression that they don’t handle it this way any more. Maybe they have a better, more personalized process now. But I didn’t see a clear description of it, either.

DogMom99 November 8, 2024 (11:58 pm)

Related to the student airsoft gun incident: I was at Westwood Village parked outside Pet Supplies Plus Wednesday afternoon (11/6, around 4:30pm) when a group of five high school males with black ski masks were walking around with airsoft guns that shot orange pellets. Seeing a group in ski masks (though in daylight and with “fake” weapons) made me uneasy. They shot at a young worker at the GNC store and he called the police. I’m not sure if police or Westwood security apprehended the group, but a nearby student talked with the GNC worker and said the group was from Chief Sealth High School.

Grilled Cheese November 9, 2024 (8:05 am)

I bet these kids bought these weapons at Big 5 Sporting Goods. They have a large section of pellet guns. I don’t believe there is an age limit. They look like assault rifles. When you have easy access to weapons anything can happen. We should write a letter to these stores to have them removed. Walmart and Amazon sell them too.

Rod Clark November 9, 2024 (11:17 am)

There was one more outcome that I forgot to mention. There were some schools that specialized in treating extremely violent and mentally ill children. All of these schools were out of state, and they were extremely expensive. Because of the cost, the SPS legal department insisted on first proving beyond any doubt that it was necessary, and that the best efforts of SPS were not enough to turn the tide. So one day, one of these violent boys was assigned to a regular 2nd grade classroom. And whenever he was out of class, such as on the playground, or walking back to class, I was supposed to make sure that he didn’t do anything violent to the other kids. But this little guy was just seething, all the time, enough that I worried what he was capable of doing to the children near him. At least when he was with me, he didn’t fully explode. His classroom teacher, on the other hand, had to deal with this all day, every day. So after a couple of weeks or so, the legal department had all the proof they needed from his classroom teacher.Shortly after that, the teacher resigned and moved to an island, Whidbey I think, and took a teaching job there.