You might remember a case from July that was particularly alarming because of what had happened days earlier: As covered here, a man broke into a Morgan Junction apartment early one morning and fled when its occupant screamed; this happened while police were still seeking the South Park murder suspect (who was arrested days later). The day after the break-in, police staked out another building a few blocks south of the crime scene, hoping to catch the suspect (here’s our story on that). Lt. Steve Paulsen from the Southwest Precinct promised to let us know when he was finally in custody – and we just got that news: He says the suspect was arrested yesterday in the Skyway area, on a $150,000 warrant for burglary. ADDED 11:45 PM: KCPQ has a report with photos of the suspect, Marcel Matthews. (We checked the jail register; he’s still in.)

From Greg: “Just a heads up that my house was broken into sometime between 11:00 am and 1:45 today on Charlestown St. Looks like they used a crowbar to tear through the door. The cops came by pretty quickly but the perps did take some items including a laptop, 2 rather large jars full of coins, and a Samsung HD camcorder. Now it’s off to fix things they broke.” He didn’t want to get more specific about the location on Charlestown than “west of California.” (map) By the way, the next West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, where you’ll hear about crime trends and get to bring up concerns to local police leadership, is two weeks from tomorrow – 7 pm October 20, Southwest Precinct meeting room.

This one, unlike our earlier report about the Junction holdup, comes directly from the business that was hit: Sometime Thursday night/Friday morning, Circa in the Admiral District was burglarized – manager Alphonsine tells us it was sometime after midnight, and it was discovered when the early-shift cook arrived at 7 am, to find a side door had been opened with a crowbar. The burglar/s removed the face of the safe and took cash/receipts – no one’s sure quite how much. This differed, she says, from the January break-in (WSB coverage here), when the safe was virtually empty. Nothing else was damaged this time except the safe, described as “beyond repair”; no arrests reported so far.

From SPDBlotter: Police arrested four suspects after a knifepoint holdup in The Junction last night, with the help of not only the victim, but also an alert neighbor who spotted something suspicious. The report says:

… the victim closed up shop in the 4700 block of California Av SW and began to walk to his vehicle parked on 42 Av SW. 4 males who had been hanging around the area came up and grabbed him from behind. The suspects held a knife to the victim’s mid section and robbed him of his daily cash deposit , his personal wallet, and cell phone.

The males walked back to their vehicle parked around the corner. The victim followed the 4 suspects and observed them get into their vehicle and drive away. He called 911 to report the Armed Robbery. At 11:43 p.m., a concerned neighbor saw a burgundy vehicle parked in front of his house. The occupants were throwing items out the window. He called 911 to report the disturbance. Officers quickly arrived and noted the vehicle and occupants matched the descriptions of the Robbery suspects.

The report doesn’t say how far away the suspects were caught (we’ll be checking). The items found on the ground included the victim’s credit cards and driver’s license; one suspect had cash, another had a check from the victim’s business. Police say all four were booked – three are juveniles, so they’re at the Youth Services Center; one is an adult and went to King County Jail. 9:13 PM UPDATE: Det. Renee Witt of the SPD media unit answered our followup note – she says she doesn’t have all the additional details we’re looking for, except that the robbery victim was affiliated with “the teriyaki place in The Junction,” which in the block in question would be Yummy Teriyaki. She promises to get us those additional details when she has access to more documents in the office tomorrow.

Received a note overnight via Facebook from Debbie, who says:

I was nearly mugged on the corner of Hudson and California [map] at 9:45 pm! Someone tried to grab my purse off my shoulder while my friends and I were walking by; they unfortunately misjudged my ferocity and failed.

Meantime – we also have two West Seattle Crime Watch alerts that came in this week but hadn’t been included in a roundup yet – a “walk-in break-in” and a car prowl – (added 9:20 am, also a third – another car break-in report that just came in) read on:Read More

A two-part crime case here in West Seattle turns out to be a three-parter — so far. First, you’ll recall the armed robbery at Westside Pharmacy on September 16 – the day after its pharmacy operations officially closed so they could move to the new QFC. Two days later, police arrested the suspect – after he bolted from them and jumped onto the playground at Schmitz Park Elementary. Now, it’s reported that after 23-year-old suspect Tyler Ljubich‘s first hearing, King County District Court Judge Janet Garrow let him out of jail. Police had an arrest warrant for him again on September 24 and went to a relative’s home east of Me-Kwa-Mooks to take him back into custody. (A neighbor e-mailed us that day about a sizable police presence in that area; it’s the same place police went to get him on the 18th, about half a mile south of where he was finally caught at SP Elementary that day.) We checked jail records today to see how long Ljubich was free in the interim: The King County Jail Register shows he was first booked the afternoon of September 18th, the day of the capture on campus, and released the evening of September 19th, so he was out for five days in the interim. This time, he’s being held in lieu of $200,000 bail, and his case is filed in Superior Court. His criminal record includes two guilty pleas in 2007 – one to a drive-by shooting, one to domestic-violence harassment. (Full records aren’t available at the moment so we won’t be able to check till later to get details of those cases and his next court appearance in this one.) 1:53 PM: Photo of Ljubich added (obtained from state Department of Corrections).

ADDED 5:46 PM: The court records are accessible again – first thing we’ve found is one of Ljubich’s convictions from 2007 – he pleaded guilty to a drive-by shooting charge for what was described as a road-rage incident at 38th/Genesee – Ljubich was shooting at another car; bullets hit a parked car, but no one was hurt. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison; we’ll be following up to see when that sentence actually ended, and we’re looking into his other 2007 conviction as well.

Got word from Edgar of a hit-and-run crash at California/Dakota (map) around 5 o’clock tonight. He says

Witnessed a nasty hit and run on California and Dakota. White Ford pickup rear-ended a newer Honda and then went East on Dakota and South on 42nd SW (wrong way on one-way). Car had stopped for cross walk. Really lame. I reported it to police, not sure if they caught the creep or not.

Edgar says the people in the Honda seemed to be OK, though “the car was a mess”; the truck that left the scene had what he described as “extensive front-end damage.” 9:31 PM UPDATE: Got a followup note from Edgar – police called him to say “they caught the guy!”

Yesterday morning, thanks to WSB’er tips (see news? contact us 24/7), we brought you the story of 2 burglary suspects arrested on the West Seattle Bridge. This morning, SPDBlotter has just added a few details to the story – specifically, what else police found in the suspects’ SUV besides the shop saw stolen from the victim: “A bag of golf clubs, a large hard plastic tool chest, and a blue motorcycle.”

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed and texted us about a startling sight on The Bridge about an hour ago, which appeared to involve someone getting arrested. We just checked with the Seattle Police media unit and they say that’s exactly what happened. According to Det. Mark Jamieson, it all started with a burglary report in the 3800 block of 46th SW (map) – a caller saw two men stealing things out of a backyard, including a shop saw. The caller gave police a description of the men and their vehicle, and it was tracked down on the eastbound bridge. Police held the suspects until the victim/witness could be brought to the scene to identify them, then, when positive identification was made, the two suspects were arrested. 3:50 PM NOTE: We asked Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen if the two have been linked to any other burglaries, since several passers-by say their SUV looked “packed full” – he says, “We’re still looking into that.”

(Saturday photo by Kevin McClintic)
On our way into the “Nickelsville” homeless encampment at T-107 Park yesterday afternoon to cover its “1st anniversary” open house, we met Jason Douros, co-owner of Revolution Coffee, which also had a big event yesterday – its re-grand-opening as a nonprofit. While talking with Jason, we admired the small battery-powered amp he was carrying, and he told us he’d been bringing it to the encampment weekly for music/church events. Then today, this note:

Just wanted to let you know, ironically, that my car was broken into this morning at my home here in West Seattle in the alley of 48th ST. [Admiral District] They broke my rear window out and stole the Bass and Amp I use to play down there (red Yamaha Electric Bass with a missing D string and a Roland Microcube RX amp).

No insurance to cover the window or the guitar. Dumb luck I guess, but at least I don’t have to replace the string.

Kevin McClintic happened to have sent us a photo of the musicians playing at yesterday’s event — that’s Jason, with the amp, second from left.

Thanks to Brenda for e-mailing to ask what we knew about an incident at West Seattle Stadium earlier today, reported to her by a witness; we just checked with the Seattle Police media unit and here’s what they found out: A man in the stands at noon today during a youth football game spotted a man “with whom he had an ongoing disagreement,” as Det. Mark Jamieson put it, and pointed a gun at that man. Others apparently tried to intervene. No shots were fired and nobody was hurt; police were called, but the two men were both gone before they arrived. Witnesses had a description of the car in which the man with the gun left; Det. Jamieson says a car matching that description was stopped in the 6900 block of Delridge (about 2 miles away; map), but the suspect wasn’t in it. Nobody arrested or hurt, and police didn’t find the gun, but Brenda says the witness told her game was stopped for a while as all this played out.

From Matthew:

Gatewood hill area behind Thriftway. (Wednesday) night an air compressor was stolen from the back of a pick-up parked on the corner of Heights Ave and 41st Ave SW [map].

He says the item is so heavy that it would have taken at least two people to move it from that truck. Meantime, from a Fairmount Springs resident, a report that’s also a question:

I am writing because I came home (Thursday) night to find an SPD burglary alert flier on my front porch. I live on the corner of 40th and Juneau [map]. It states that a burglary occurred within my block.

However, the resident went on to say, she can’t find any reports about that burglary online – here or elsewhere. So she’s wondering if anybody else knows what happened and where. (You can answer in a comment, or feel free to send us the info and we’ll update.)

Heard one line about this from Tony, but couldn’t track down details – till seeing a short story here: Staffers at Zatz A Better Bagel chased the thief who stole their tip jar and caught him over at 7-11, buying candy. (They’re in this week’s Crime Watch Hall of Fame along with “burglarbustindad“ and prowler-questioning Beach Drivians.) 9:16 AM UPDATE: Southwest Precinct Lt. Von Levandowski answered the inquiry we’d originally sent someone else late yesterday – he confirmed the suspect was caught but actually was taken into custody near PCC (which explains an arrest scene someone else had e-mailed to ask about).

In this comment earlier today, the Gatewood crime victim-turned-crimefighter known only as “burglarbustindad” mentioned that the suspect in last week’s burglary at his Gatewood home has been charged. We just got the documents from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office: 19-year-old Kenneth Shouting is charged with residential burglary. Read on for the police narrative included in the court documents:Read More

Yet another case of alert neighbors either scaring off suspected criminals or catching them: This just out of the WSB inbox, from Cecilia:

My husband and I live on Beach Drive, near the corner of Beach and Andover (a couple blocks north of La Rustica) [map]. At approximately 10:30 AM on the morning of Friday 9/18/09, I received a phone call from a neighbor alerting me to a potential attempted residential burglary in our home. Several neighbors and our US Mail Deliverer/Post Man observed a white unmarked van and some kind of tan/gold colored sedan park in front of our home. A short time later, one man got out of the van, came to the front of our home, looked into the front windows, then went around the side yard and back of our home, looking into all the windows. Neighbors were able to scare him off by asking what he was doing. One neighbor and the Post Man followed him in their cars, while he was on foot. He stopped to hide in some bushes near our home and proceeded to look into some windows of a neighbor’s house, at which point he was confronted by neighbors and police were called. By the time police arrived, the man was gone, as were the two suspect vehicles. Because there was no evidence of “forced entry” in our home and no recorded license plate numbers, an actual police report could not be made. Please be aware of an adult male (approximate age unknown), about 6-6’2 in height, approximately 180 lbs in weight, wearing a Nike hat, with brown “greasy” hair in a ponytail. Please also be aware of the vehicles described above.

Finally got official police details on what all those sirens were about last hour – thanks to the people who e-mailed us about it: According to Seattle Police media unit Det. Jeff Kappel, robbery detectives were looking for suspects “in cases they were working” around noon when one bolted and ran onto Schmitz Park Elementary (map) grounds. One eyewitness report we received by e-mail says the person jumped a fence to get onto school grounds:

Lunch time and the older kids were on the playground. Man jumped the fence and hid behind the backboard. Police cars arrived told kids to get down and they all responded immediately. All are safe and the man with the gun was handcuffed and taken away. … Staff and students responded extremely well.

Nobody was hurt and police confirm the man was taken into custody. Det. Kappel says he’s not sure which case the suspects were associated with, but three people are in custody. We’re working to find out more and will add additional details as we get them. 1:46 PM UPDATE: Just talked to Rhonda in the Schmitz Park office. She reiterates that everybody’s OK and back in class now and “did an amazing job.” She also says principal Gerrit Kischner (who’s on the phone with police as we speak) will send an official e-mail to Schmitz Park parents to let them know about the incident. 2:55 PM UPDATE: As provided by Ezra in the comment section below (and also sent to us in e-mail by another parent), here is the note sent to parents by the principal:

Dear Schmitz Park Families:

I want to share with you information regarding an incident that has affected our school community. I am sending you this letter to update you on the facts and to assure you that we are doing everything we can to support our students.

At approximately noontime today, Seattle Police Department arrested an unarmed robbery suspect on our school property during recess for third, fourth and fifth graders, and the police are conducting an investigation. Your child may have witnessed or knows another student who witnessed this event.

Student followed policy directions very well and playground monitors moved quickly to move students to safety. Following the incident, police gave the all-clear to allow Kindergarten, first and second graders onto the playground to begin their recess. We have discussed the incident with our students with the information available to us at this time.

Providing your students with a safe learning environment remains a top priority at Schmitz Park Elementary School. It is important that we continue to work together towards this unified goal. We are committed to safety within our community.

Additionally, classroom teachers will continue to discuss personal safety and safe practices regarding getting to and from school and reporting unsafe situations. Our counselor, Alben Tufel, has been made available to talk with students as well. Depending on the age of your child, this is also a good time to discuss how rumors spread and how we can work together to keep each other safe. I hope you will take the time to have similar conversations at home with your child.

Our plans for emergency drills this year include plans to conduct a lock-down drill. Please be assured that the safety and security of our students is our number one priority. If you have questions or concerns, please contact us.

As you will note, the principal’s note says the suspect was not armed. We are still working to get more information from police regarding any additional details they can share with us on the case – particularly what the suspects were wanted for, separate from the brief escape. 5:36 PM UPDATE: A little bit of new info – according to Southwest Precinct Lt. Norm James, the suspect arrested on school grounds was being sought in connection with the Westside Pharmacy post-shutdown holdup the other day (here’s our original story on that). 8:42 PM UPDATE: More details now on SPDBlotter. Two arrests in all but police originally had questioned three people. The one who jumped the fence at Schmitz was indeed the robbery suspect; the other one arrested was the alleged getaway driver. Both men are 23.