WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: New Year’s Eve gunfire

| Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

While we were checking out fogged-in Harbor/Alki Avenues around 11 pm, police were investigating gunfire in the Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex/Southwest Teen Life Center/SW Pool vicinity. It’s not easy on a night like this to discern gunfire from fireworks but in this case, the report didn’t come from 911, it came from an officer who told dispatch he saw the gunfire just before multiple vehicles scattered, and reported “casings all over the place” – from at least two different guns, a handgun and rifle. He told dispatch he surmised people in multiple vehicles “were shooting at each other.” No report of injuries, nor of where exactly it happened – the address 2801 SW Thistle covers a lot of ground at those facilities; we’ll be requesting the report.

JunkyardDoggy January 1, 2026 (2:39 am)

Some idiot also drove around white center area shooting off a gun past midnight and racing their very loud car. And let’s not forget the our idiots of neighbors who are still setting off fireworks at 2:37 am in White Center neighborhood. So we are having to deal with idiots in our area also. I’m a person who can actually tell the difference between fireworks sounds versus gunfire sounds.

Thistle Neighbor January 1, 2026 (6:44 am)

I’m a neighbor down on thistle and delridge and it was going on for at LEAST 10-15 months before it stopped. Sounded like a little 22g, not the normal “bangs” we hear around here which is rapid and loud.

OneTimeCharley January 1, 2026 (8:22 am)

Didn’t they recently set up an improved camera system? I recall this promise being made after the fatality there. Why don’t we ever see images from the surrounding parking lot and street? Did they complete the camera upgrades? Did they even attempt improved exterior ones? Due to it’s immediate proximity to two schools and also the SW precinct, why are there not multiple exterior cameras being monitored by SPD/SCS 24×7? Nail these criminals. Tagging is suddenly picking up in the immedate vicinity as well. It had calmed down for multiple years, now increasing out of the blue. It’s becoming a bad hang out spot to show your ass just like the east end of Kenyon was previously. Collectively, including police, school, and local neighbors must shut this down as quickly as possible before it sets in and grows.

1994 January 1, 2026 (11:24 am)

At least there was an eye witness — a police officer! Police need to ask neighbors in the get away area for camera images of the cars….these gunfire idiots need consequences for their potentially deadly behavior. Gunfire battles have no place in the real world! I would like to ask the police department how many shell casings they find because sure seems to be a LOT.

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