(WSB photo, August 14)
3:32 PM: More than two months after the noontime smash-and-grab takeover robbery at Menashe & Sons Jewelers in The Junction, a suspect is charged. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office announced the first-degree robbery and unlawful-gun-possession charges filed against 29-year-old DaSean S. Harrison, who the documents say has prior weapons and robbery-attempt convictions. The charging documents say they traced him through witnesses, car rental records, an investigation of pawn-shop robberies (for which he’s also charged) in Renton and Shoreline, and even SODO Home Depot camera images showing shoplifting of items similar to what was used in the robbery, including sledgehammers and gloves. Harrison, who the documents say lives on Capitol Hill, already has been arraigned and has pleaded not guilty; he is in the King County Jail, in lieu of $250,000 bail. We’re still reading the lengthy (26 pages) charging documents and will add more details shortly.
ADDED 4:25 PM: The documents start by telling the story of the robbery, saying the car holding the robbers was parked on the other side of California for about 15 minutes before it turned around and pulled up in front of the jewelry store 2 1/2 minutes before four people got out and did this:
Through a person who called 911 about two suspicious vehicles near 35th and Fauntleroy a few minutes later – believing one was being stolen – police were able to link the robbers to a white Camry that during the robbery had been parked in the 4100 block of 35th SW. They found images on an officer’s Automated License Plate Reader.
The documents then say another piece of the puzzle fell into place when a detective learned that Harrison was being investigated in a similar pawn-shop robbery, smash and grab, at a CashAmerica pawn shop in Renton in January. In both cases, the detective writes, one robber was significantly larger than the other – they say Harrison is the one at left in these images from the Menashe robbery:
The documents say Seattle detectives found out that Renton detectives had learned Harrison rented a white Camry for the first half of August. Investigators in the Menashe case then sought records for the phone number Harrison had provided with the rental; the documents say they showed the phone in the area of both the Menashe robbery and where the Camry was parked. GPS records from the rent-a-car, detectives write, showed it arriving in West Seattle around 10:43 am the morning of the robbery, and driving past the jewelry store about 10 minutes later, then again a half-hour after that, and finally parking in the 4100 block of 35th around 11:30.
Meantime, the documents say that car was found on SODO Home Depot surveillance a week before the Menashe robbery, and checking other cameras, they found a person believed to be Harrison walking out with items he hadn’t paid for; zoomed-in imagery shows trash bags, sledgehammers, and gloves, like what was seen in the Menashe robbery.
Back to the day of the robbery – the charging documents say Harrison’s phone made multiple calls in the hours afterward to a phone number that traced to “Tacoma Gold Buyers.” The documents then mention Harrison exchanging the rent-a-car the next day, and jump ahead to Renton Police arresting him on October 16th. From jail, they say, he made phone calls to someone at the address listed in his Seattle arrest report as his address, for which they eventually obtained a search warrant. Acting on part of what they heard in his jail phone calls, the documents say, they found a .223 rifle and 9mm handgun, and that’s why he is charged with unlawful firearm possession.
The documents do not mention any other suspects in the case nor the status of the items stolen from the store. Prosecutors also provided the Renton charging documents, so we’ll be reading those next to see if there’s anything of note regarding the West Seattle case.
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