Breaking news: Reader reports of shots fired @ 17th/Trenton

| Crime | Westwood | WS breaking news

Just got three messages about this in rapid succession: Shots fired and police searching in a Westwood neighborhood. (location map) Here’s one note:

Heard multiple rounds of gunshots interspersed with several people yelling outside. Called the police, who reported other calls had been received for same disturbance. Have yet to see any signs of the police- however can still hear some yelling. Curious if anyone has any details on exactly what is going on/happened- or if police responded.

That reader mentioned 17th/Cloverdale as the location; this next note has more details:

MANY gun shots were just fired in association with a house party at a notorious drug/party rental house. There are at least 5 police cars on the scene right now. 17th & Trenton. The house is (in the 8600 block of) 17th Ave SW. This is the 3rd police activity at the residence in the past year.

And here’s the third note received:

About 11:40 pm this evening there were about 12 shots fired. Directly after the shots were fired two cars sped north on 17th. Police responded right away. There were several police cars on our block investigating the scene. Just an FYI. It was rather frightening.

Monitoring the scanner now, will update if anything more comes in about this. (Likely unrelated but a WS police team has just been dispatched to a report of a “large group” fighting outside Morgan Junction Tully’s.)

Aim April 20, 2008 (3:48 am)

was just awakened by a very large loud boom at trenton and delridge. Trying to calm the flow of adrenaline so i can get back to sleep. This neighborhood is full of shenanigans tonight.

16th & Trenton April 20, 2008 (9:55 am)

We heard this too — just curious, we already saw police with searchlights when we looked, and so didn’t call 911. Is there any benefit at all in our still calling once we see the police in the neighborhood?

And any new updates on this? Nothing in the paper as far as I can see. Thanks for posting the information, as it let us know what was going on last night.

WSB April 20, 2008 (11:59 am)

That one, I heard on the scanner, but no explanation emerged. Will be trying to get info from police as soon as possible but that may not be till tomorrow. Re: still calling, yes, sometimes if you are in the neighborhood (and they can tell of course) they will at least give you a hint as to what’s going on. Re: the paper, that’s part of why we do this … the bar is fairly high on what “spot news” makes it into the paper … if somebody isn’t killed or very badly hurt, it doesn’t make the citywide media bar, so it’s up to neighborhood-level media like us (and several others that have emerged around the city) to report. At the same time, there was a huge-sounding incident following some sort of event in South Seattle, and I’ll be surprised (haven’t checked yet) if THAT didn’t make it into citywide media reports.

Jiggers April 20, 2008 (1:01 pm)

I told them no more hookers..

Bertha April 20, 2008 (1:33 pm)

We live on this block and would like to take action against this sort of activity. What can neighbors do when a specific house is a problem? I have spoken with several neighbors and will look into organizing a meeting with a community police representative. What else can we do? This is a great neighborhood and I don’t want to see one property ruin it.

WSB April 20, 2008 (1:58 pm)

Bertha – the Seattle Neighborhood Group has excellent information on what you can do. It provides staff to the West Seattle Community Safety Partnership, whose meetings we regularly cover, and those are vital for people to attend to find out what is being done and can be done about problems in their neighborhoods. First step I would suggest is checking with the SNGI staffer who works with the West Seattle group, Jennifer Duong. You can find her contact info here:
http://www.sngi.org/staff.html
I just tried searching the city website for some of the info I have heard before regarding addressing “nuisance properties” and can’t find anything specific to this situation but I would bet Jennifer can and will help. Also, and I know this is obvious but we need to restate it anyway, be sure to call police when you see something suspicious. As Lt. Steve Paulsen reiterated at the last WSCSP meeting, even if they cannot respond immediately, all calls are tracked, and that gives them records of a trend that can be addressed in a more sweeping way.

Erik April 20, 2008 (3:26 pm)

Bertha –
Another tact would be to have frequent, and fun, block parties to show that you care about living there. Maybe they’ll get the message and leave.
Monsieur pollyanna

Mike Dady April 20, 2008 (4:08 pm)

Bertha, As the WSB suggested above, please do contact Jennifer Duong at the Seattle Neighborhood Group. SNG is a great resource for solving this type of problem.

SNG pamphlet on Nuisance Properties:

http://www.sngi.org/pdfs/takeaction108.pdf

GC April 20, 2008 (5:12 pm)

One option is to team up with neighbors and sign a contract with a local security service (http://www.centralprotection.com/, for example) to provide a much heavier visible patrol presence in your neighborhood until such time as the threat abates.

The Seattle Police are largely an exceptionally professional group of men and women deeply understaffed and under supported by a Mayor and City Council that would rather spend limited resources on gun control and greening the city than on nuts and bolts public safety issues.

This has reduced the professionals of the Seattle Police to an ever more reactive role, rushing from crisis to crisis. Without the officers necessary to perform preventative patrol and (outside of high-kvetching areas) and officer-intensive community contact duties (foot patrol, horse patrol, bicycle patrol) on a routine basis, we can only expect more of the same.

Until such time as we remove Nickels and his cronies from office, our best hope rests in banding together to hire private security if we want some kind of preventative patrol…and if we’re concerned about personal safety, to explore the options lawfully available to us. For that last I recommend Gila Hayes out at SFA 360-978-6100….

Val Vashon April 20, 2008 (9:31 pm)

A suggestion of hiring private security guards to patrol the public areas around you…has it really come to that? Is the “privatize everything” mentality pushed on us by the latest administration now so deeply ingrained in our public consciousness that it is the only solution that can be offered? Very sad.

Anyway, it sounds like this particular bunch wouldn’t take rent-a-cops very seriously anyway. I don’t either, and especially wouldn’t on public property.

Pete April 20, 2008 (9:34 pm)

It is also very helpful to contact your community police team officer as they can bring many resources to the table. Contact Sgt. Jeff Durden at the SW Precinct for help or go to ssattle.gov then click on police and then SW precinct and it has the information about how to ocntact them. These folks have helped iwth numerous problems in Delridge and can be a big help to you in addressing these issues.

J April 21, 2008 (10:10 am)

FYI: According to Seattle Municipal Code 25.08.225, the “residential disturbance” law, after 11:00PM we can call the police non-emergency number (206-625-5011)
and report a residential disturbance. If there a 3 complaints they are unable to re rent this house.
FYI: the “yellow party house” where the gun shots were fired has the physical address of
8657 17th Ave SW.

It is very disturbing to hear officers yelling out “found another shell casing over here” around our yards. Will it be a stray bullet that hits one of our houses next time?