WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Early-morning gunfire at Alki (updated Sunday night)

9:40 AM: Thanks to the reader who sent the photo and report of 4 am gunfire at 56th/Alki:

Woken up at 4 am on the dot by multiple small-caliber gunshots. Police arrived in 25 minutes, after multiple 911 calls placed. 3 squad cars were seen placing evidence markers directly in front of the octopus-mural painted public restroom in front of Blue Moon Burgers.

Archived incident audio confirms casings indeed were found; no injuries reported. A possibly involved vehicle was described as a “white VW Jetta.” If you have any information, the incident # is 25-148909.

9:50 PM: Just got the police summary. It says the first officer was dispatched at 4:04 am; subsequently, “Officers located five fired cartridge casings grouped together on the north sidewalk at the intersection of Alki Av SW and 57 Av SW. They found one person who said they were out for a walk when they heard gunshots, “looked down the beach and observed multiple subjects getting down on the ground and running away from the area. (The witness) then looked up towards the sidewalk (where the spent casings were found) and observed multiple subjects getting into a (redacted). The car sped off eastbound on Alki Av SW. (The witness) could not give a further description of the vehicle or the subjects involved.”

24 Replies to "WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Early-morning gunfire at Alki (updated Sunday night)"

  • Eric 43 June 1, 2025 (9:55 am)

    Looks like the curfew really worked

    • My two cents June 1, 2025 (11:33 am)

      … not to mention the speed humps, the parking changes, etc.

    • Yvonne W. June 2, 2025 (12:46 pm)

      The “safety” plan at Magnuson has not worked either because it doesn’t involve anything that prevents crime.  Shots fired at the boat launch, 9mm shell casings and liquor bottles litter the area.  Supposedly two cops show up and close a gate to the boat launch at 10:00pm. Rangers did this last year and the gate was broken or they drove around.  A suspect  threatened to shoot an individual at 4:20pm yesterday afternoon because he asked that a group of individuals lower blasting music.  SPR has a 339 million budget this year yet they can’t hire security to control these areas.  SPD has a budget of 460 million. They have only 28 rangers, none are armed or equipped for conflict, for 480+parks. They know that Alki, Golden Gardens and Magnuson are the really violent parks yet refuse to actually do anything meaningful.  City officials don’t care, the Mayor doesn’t care. They mention “activation” plans which are ridiculous at fighting real crime or don’t materialize.  

  • d June 1, 2025 (9:58 am)

    25 min later – must not be a very important event in the eyes of the police.

    • WSB June 1, 2025 (10:05 am)

      The audio indicates this happened at shift-change/roll-call time, so that accounted for some delay, though I can’t tell whether it was 25 minutes, as the online recordings are made by a private service and can be several minutes off clock time.

    • Anne June 1, 2025 (10:24 am)

      Baloney-what an inane comment. 

    • CarDriver June 1, 2025 (10:49 am)

      D. We need you on the police force. You’ll guarantee immediate response anywhere in the city 24/7/365.

  • Johnny Stulic June 1, 2025 (10:23 am)

    Would now be a good time to have hi-res surveillance cameras installed at least in these hot spots or are we still worried about privacy in clearly public places? This would seem as a more than reasonable and cost effective solution in cases like this where police response is reactive and no number of newly hired officers could prevent these types of incidents. Maybe we’ve become content with multiple daily shootings in Seattle as long as there’s only a few deaths here and there? 

    • Kevin June 1, 2025 (12:16 pm)

      I totally agree with Johnny about the idea that right now would be a great time to install and monitor hi-res surveillance cameras in the most strategically appropriate locations along the Alki Beach corridor. In addition, cameras could be installed outside of every 7-11 in West Seattle as well as the Don Armenian boat launching facility, etc.It truly appears to be an effective & efficient method to start dealing with criminal activities that are inherently reactive situations for SPD. West Seattleites are naive to think that our fine police department can be everywhere, all the time. I’d be willing to contribute some money for such an undertaking and believe many members of our community would be willing to do likewise.

    • Mike June 1, 2025 (4:03 pm)

      I’d rather not give up my rights because someone else refuses to hold people accountable for illegal activity.  The solution isn’t more cameras.  The solution is actually enforcing laws and holding people accountable for their actions.  You could add a billion cameras, it’s all for nothing if the people who determine if criminals will be held accountable just keep letting them go and not hold them accountable.

      • TAnderson June 1, 2025 (6:06 pm)

        you probably gave up all your rights to privacy quite some time ago when you started using a personal computer attached to the internet and carrying a cell phone everywhere you go………..so we might as well use that technology to assist in the control of crime.

      • CarDriver June 1, 2025 (6:24 pm)

        To add to TAndersons point. EVERY bank, grocery store, retail store has been and continues to have cameras watching your every move. In addition, what’s being recorded on ring and other homeowners installed security systems? But, Mike you are 100% correct that accountability is a word that the legal system has forgotten- to the honest citizens detriment.

      • Johnny Stulic June 1, 2025 (6:40 pm)

        First of all, you don’t have a right to privacy in an open public space. That’s a ridiculous notion. And although I agree 100% that the second part of the solution has to be enforcement and accountability, how exactly do you propose to do it in cases like these where perpetrators are unknown, there are no witnesses, nor are there likely to be any? Even I would agree that spending any time to investigate this post-facto would be a complete waste of police time. If, however, there were video recordings of the perps’ faces, license plates, etc. – that would be a game changer, no? 

        • 1994 June 1, 2025 (9:39 pm)

          Yes! An image of a person firing a gun should be worth something to the police to help figure out who is firing guns and charge them with a crime. Somewhere on the blog someone said it is illegal to fire a gun in the city….the laws can’t be enforced if the police can’t figure out who did it.

    • anonyme June 2, 2025 (3:49 pm)

      Agree with Johnny and TAnderson.  Although I’m a strong believer in privacy rights, public activity is just that – public.  Put cameras everywhere, especially for traffic enforcement. 

  • H June 1, 2025 (12:17 pm)

    The more cars parking, the more crime.

  • Foop June 1, 2025 (12:41 pm)

    Good thing Saka is on it! I’m sure the speed cameras will really help! Oh and street lights too!

  • Long time ago June 1, 2025 (8:07 pm)

    When I was young the ongoing problem at Alki was “cruising”.  Those were the days. 

  • wetone June 1, 2025 (9:27 pm)

    Curious why 56th street is mentioned when bathroom/ octopus is located at 57th & Alki  ?  Sure wish Mayor Harrell would allow SPD to enforce and make arrests using the current laws in this city. Had a great opportunity with the stunt drivers and others involved at boat launch to issue some tickets, impound some cars and make arrests. But for some reason Seattle government chooses to just tell everyone to leave area, letting them continue the chaos elsewhere and or just come back later to continue. Mayor Bruce Harrell’s leadership is laughable at best dealing with enforcing current laws that would help in stopping these activities. Maybe he will make up some more laws, haha. Seattle government will just continue impacting law abiding citizens with zero enforcement/ accountability to those causing the problems……who’s running the city ;)

    • WSB June 1, 2025 (9:48 pm)

      I just got the police summary, which says 57/Alki. Will be adding the update momentarily.

    • Rhonda June 1, 2025 (10:08 pm)

      I won’t be voting for Harrell again. Fool me once…

  • Flounder June 2, 2025 (6:35 pm)

    You would think there would be a 5pm-5am permanent presence down there especially Thursday-Sunday. The place is a shooting range. How about closing the parking lots after 9? Seems pretty straight forward.

    • WSB June 2, 2025 (6:39 pm)

      There are no “parking lots” anywhere near where this happened. Alki, unlike for example Golden Gardens, is uniquely devoid of them.

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