Two West Seattle Crime Watch reports:

BURGLARY-ARREST FOLLOWUP: The 47-year-old Puyallup man arrested in Alki on Sunday morning waived his right to appear in court today, so a decision on bail hasn’t been made yet. Meantime, as noted today in an update on our original story, SPD Blotter has posted a few additional details, and we have obtained the probable-cause court document, which includes this narrative:

At the above date and time, officers responded to the duplex residence located at —- 57 Av SW for a reported “in progress” occupied residential burglary.

The suspect was reported to be armed with a knife by (the resident). Officers responded forthwith and located (suspect) in the back yard of (the resident)’s house. (The suspect) was arrested without incident. I then interviewed (the resident), and he described the following series of events. At about 0900 hours, (the resident) was awakened by a “banging” sound outside his house. (The resident) stated that this noise was loud enough for him to hear it over the earplugs he wears to sleep.

(The resident) heard some additional banging and what sounded like footsteps in the yard over the next 15 or so minutes. (the resident) stated that at first he thought it was his landlord doing some work. (the resident) then heard a strange scraping noise at his home’s back door. (the resident) opened the door and saw (the suspect) standing there with a fixed blade knife in his hand. During my investigation, I noted fresh damage to the door that is likely from (the suspect). (the resident) told (the suspect) to leave and (the suspect) raised the knife — pointing it at (the resident). (the resident) slammed the door and called 911. (the resident) armed himself with a firearm, and circled around the house to attempt to detain (the suspect). (the suspect) threatened to kill (the resident) when ordered to get on the ground and drop the knife. The 911 call taker could hear this threat over the phone call. (the suspect) stored the fixed blade knife on his bike and ignored (the resident) until officers arrived. (the suspect) was advised of his Miranda rights and he stated understood.

The probable cause document also notes that law enforcement objects to the suspect’s release because he allegedly “committed two occupied residential burglaries within 12 hours (and) is the suspect in 8 other criminal cases with the Seattle Police Department including Harassment, Residential Burglary, and Robbery.” Incident numbers are mentioned for those last three, and while we don’t have access to the reports, we did cross-reference the numbers to the Twitter/X call log and they are all West Seattle cases – one is the previously mentioned Saturday burglary on Walnut Ave., and the other two are Junction incidents that happened on January 9th.

Also in Crime Watch:

HIT-RUN WITNESSES SOUGHT: One reader report – Beth‘s looking for witnesses in a hit-run:

At 8:00 am on May 27th, I opened my front door to find a note from a next-door neighbor that had heard a car hitting my car at 11:50 pm on the 26th. My parked car was in front of my house near the corner of 51st pl sw and sw Edmunds. They said the crash was very loud so they left their house immediately to investigate. When my neighbor got outside, they viewed several very drunk-looking teens spilling out of a GMC Yukon (plate WA #BWV—-) which was parking only two cars up from mine on 51st pl. My neighbor said that one teen came over to look at my car and then walked back to the other teens My neighbor said that there were other teens arriving over the next 20 min on bikes, scooters and in cars and the teens were crowding around the corner of 51st pl and Edmunds. There ended up being a group of about 20 teens in all. Then the teens proceeded north up the hill on 51st pl to what the witness thought might be a party at a house that has seemed to have teen parties in the past but they were not sure where the teens’ destination was. The van that hit my car was gone in the morning. My car didn’t sustain much body damage but the van managed to break/bend my wheel/axel or something because I can’t move my wheels and my power steering indicator is flashing so the car must’ve hit mine very hard.

Additionally, in (the photo above), you can see that their back passenger side mud flap got ripped off their car when it hit mine and fell off right by my wheel well. Any additional information would be greatly appreciated.

Beth has filed a police report including the full plate number seen by her neighbor. The temporary number was M0322433; we’ll add the permanent number when available.

(Victim’s photo, as displayed at April 27 vigil)

2:02 PM: The man initially accused in the hit-run death of 81-year-old Tommy Joe Garrett, then released when a judge disagreed with prosecutors’ charging proposal, has been charged after all. Thanks to commenter K for the tip; the King County Jail roster shows 37-year-old Isaiah L. Cooper of Puyallup has been in custody since last Thursday, after the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office filed a charge of felony hit-and-run two days before that – the day after he was released from jail. The jail docket indicates Cooper’s bail is set at half a million dollars. We’ll add details from the charging documents later.

4:00 PM: The charging document suggests what the additional evidence might be – a warrant to uncover the car. Here’s how the document summarizes the allegation – warning that it includes a graphic description of the collision:

On Monday evening on April 22, 2024, the defendant, 37-y-o Isaiah Lewis Cooper, was driving his Jeep Compass in the White Center neighborhood of King County. He went to a McDonald’s where he is seen driving. No one is seen in the passenger seat. There is no apparent damage to the hood of the car. He is not seen responding to anyone in the rear seat. This is captured on video.

Approximately 5-minutes later, and a couple blocks from the McDonald’s, at 10:09 p.m., 82-year-old Thomas Joseph Garrett was walking in the crosswalk of SW Roxbury St and 15 Av SW. Video shows a Jeep, later identified as the defendant’s, strike Mr. Garrett. The impact caused Mr. Garrett to fly onto the hood of the defendant’s vehicle and he is carried on the defendant’s car hood for approximately three seconds. The defendant brakes, causing Mr. Garrett to roll off the hood and onto the road. The defendant then continued to drive eastbound on Roxbury, leaving Mr. Garrett abandoned in the roadway. The traffic behind the defendant comes to a stop, as bystanders halt traffic and call for help. Both law enforcement and medics attempted to perform aid on Mr. Garrett before he was transported to Harborview Hospital, where he was pronounced dead within the hour of the collision.

Based on the surveillance and eyewitness reports, investigators were able to identify the defendant in the driver’s seat at the McDonalds. The defendant’s cell data corroborates that he was within 148’ of the collision. It also showed that he went to Port Orchard on 4/24/2024. His car was later recovered from his father’s house in Port Orchard. It was covered with a tarp and the defendant’s father confirmed that the defendant dropped it off and covered it “several weeks ago.”

On May 16, 2024, law enforcement contacted the defendant. He admitted that he had been in the vicinity of the collision on 4-22-2024 and that he subsequently left his car in Port Orchard. He denied hitting anyone. The Jeep was seized with the cover still on pending a search warrant to uncover it.

The case prosecutor then goes on to write that she “received the following information” from the “primary investigating detective”:

On May 20, King County Superior Court Judge J. Bender approved a Search Warrant to uncover the suspect vehicle. According to King County Det. Skaar, the uncovering revealed damage on the hood of the car consistent with a low-speed pedestrian collision. Specifically, Det Skaar stated that he observed multiple dents along the edge of the hood up to the back edge of the hood to the right of the center line, consistent with the damage that he would expect based on the video of the pedestrian strike on 4-22-2024. The license plate, which had been properly on the front bumper of the Jeep on the night of the collision at the McDonald’s was now moved from bumper to passenger side dashboard.

We noted in a previous report that Cooper’s record was said to include “numerous driving violations”; the charging document lists them – scattered over the past 15 years – as DUI, reckless driving, driving with a suspended license, no insurance, speeding, failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, driving on the wrong side of the road, and making a false statement to law enforcement, as well as Seattle Municipal Court warrants for a 2019 case alleging “no interlock” and suspended license. Cooper is scheduled for arraignment – the hearing at which a defendant enters an initial plea – next Monday, June 3.

ADDED TUESDAY: KCPAO spokesperson Casey McNerthney says this is why the first attempt to charge Cooper was rejected: “It was not clear on the initial submission that additional investigation that had to be done by police on the day of the second appearance was submitted under the penalty of perjury. It was resubmitted with that being clear, and the court approved the charges. (Courts are only allowed to consider facts submitted under the penalty of perjury.)”

Two West Seattle Crime Watch reports:

BURGLARIZED TWICE IN 5 DAYS: Thanks to neighbors for tips on this. Junction True Value managers confirmed to WSB today that the store has been burglarized twice in the past five days. The first one happened just before 2 am Wednesday; the second one happened around 3:30 am today. The store says the burglar(s) got away with about $4,000 in tools in the Wednesday break-in, fewer tools today; they suspect an organized ring might be targeting their store. Police-audio archives indicate the burglar(s) left in a stolen car found on a nearby dead-end street (Rutan Place, per a neighbor) and ran into a brushy area. Police searched but, the audio indicates, had trouble getting extra resources – no aerial resources were available, and no SPD canine, though a King County Sheriff’s Office K-9 (from Kirkland) was eventually dispatched. (Update: Archive audio indicates the search eventually ended unsuccessfully.) If you have any information, this morning’s incident # is 24-143457, while the Wednesday number is 24-138494.

DUMPED-POSSIBLY-STOLEN LICENSE PLATES: The photo and report are from Austin:

I was taking out some trash this morning and noticed some suspicious items were dumped in my can in Seaview overnight, including license plates and other items that look like they could have been from a stolen car (hats, camera cases, food trash) There was even a bleach bottle…which was extra strange.

Austin is working on reporting this to police, but in the meantime, if the plates and/or hats happen to be yours, contact us and we can connect you. (Added: A

Another round of reported gunfire has brought multiple 911 calls and a police response confirming it. This time, in an alley off the 9000 block of 17th SW. Officers have told dispatch they’ve found five shell casings so far. No injuries reported.