West Seattle, Washington
10 Tuesday
March 2007 was a news-laden month in West Seattle; going through the archives (which you can access month-by-month, dating back to the 12/05 start of WSB, from the list toward the bottom of the right sidebar), we note that yesterday marked exactly a year since the deadly shooting at 37th/Findlay, one of three murders in West Seattle last year. 
The victim was 35-year-old Dewayne West, who had spent time in prison for killing someone when he was 16 and lived in the house outside which he was killed. The suspect, 29-year-old Jabarie Phillips, whose criminal record dated back to age 14, has been in jail since 3/16/07, two days after the shooting, charged with second-degree murder, bail set at $1,000,000. The docket in case shows his trial date, postponed several times (not unusual in these cases), is now tentatively set for May 6. The last round of court documents we reviewed didn’t note a clear motive, but the suspect and victim were described as having known each other a long time.
Out of the WSB inbox, from Peter:
I just wanted to inform the WSB and my neighbors that early this morning (around 2:30,) my car alarm went off. We turned it off and must have scared away a possible thief, as my rear “vent” window was broken when I went to leave for work this morning. Nothing in the car was disturbed (radio, car seat base) so it looks like the thief ran off without stealing anything. The car was parked in the lot below our apartment building at 41st and Admiral. This is the second time in 6 years that a vehicle of mine was vandalized without any theft occurring in the lot. The really annoying thing is that the cost of replacing the small vent window was more expensive than replacing a whole windshield. While I generally feel safe in the Admiral District, the alley on Walnut Ave. on the other side of the building is often host to late night drug deals, vandals who have smashed windows to the dentist office located there, and is also a popular spot for teens to hang out under the aforementioned office to smoke pot. I’ve heard Dr. Naden confronting the teens before, but they still hang out vandalizing dumpsters and being a nuisance. It is not a stretch to think that they may have been involved in some way.
This just in at day’s end from Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen:
Given the recent string of residential burglaries in West Seattle….Just wanted you to know we caught some today … Detectives are gleaning info from them in order to tie them to other burglaries. We have one very pleased victim at our precinct right now identifying his property! We also developed some good leads on the Beach Drive/Alki burglaries (different suspect(s))
No further details yet; we’ll let you know anything else we find out.
Also from Upper Fauntleroy – thanks to Steve for the note:
There was also a burglary reported in the 8800 block of 38th SW, occurred around 9AM Thursday 3/13. Apparently a glass door was broken to gain entry.
A year ago a local locksmith told me it was highly unusual for burglars to break glass to gain entry, seems like that is changing.
We are just back from today’s half-day-only testimony in the Satterlee House case (that writeup to come) and will be checking with the Southwest Precinct shortly for more on what’s going on – stand by for updates.
Just out of the inbox, from Joe:
8400 block of 41st Ave.: A black male in a red slicker hopped a fence and pried the screen off a back/side window by our neighbor’s deck facing 42nd Ave. about 10:30am this morning. He was about to break the window with the large rock in his hand when the owner banged on the window and he ran off. Their car was gone at the time and the house may have looked unoccupied. A neighbor saw him vault the front gate and sprint north toward Thistle. Both called police but he was long gone by the time they arrived (semi-quickly… they had to come from Alki).
The Police got two excellent descriptions. In this neck of the woods neighbors are VERY alert and many are home during the day, so this midday boldness (in a bright red slicker, no less) is pretty scary.
Possibly connected: Yesterday, we were canvassed by a young “magazine sales” guy who may have been a friend of the would-be robber who showed up today. I was home at the time and answered the door. He did not present himself well and I asked if he had a Seattle City License as required for door-to-door sales and he did not. I advised him to get lost and he did. All legitimate door-to-door canvassers will have that license and be willing to show it. If they don’t have it call the police… they are likely scouting the neighborhood.
I didn’t. Next time I will.
About the same time this e-mail came in, in fact, we got a message from the Southwest Precinct that they’re asking people to be extra alert about brazen daytime break-ins and attempts like this – we expect some more info from them tomorrow. (Coincidentally, we got this message while at the High Point Neighborhood Association meeting, which we left as they were segueing into a Block Watch organizing gathering. If you don’t have a Block Watch, get one — call crime-prevention coordinator Benjamin Kinlow at the precinct; his contact info is here.)
Just out of the WSB inbox, from Nancy:
This morning between 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. a home in my neighborhood on 56th Avenue SW near Hanford Avenue was broken into. They entered via the bathroom window using a lawn chair to reach it. The owner thinks the window may have been unlocked. The burglar did rummage through nearly every drawer in the house, but only took cash from a purse. The police were able to get finger prints off of her bathroom window. We also had a burglary on Frater Avenue at 57th Avenue SW last week.
The burglar is still at large and seems to be canvassing our neighborhood. Please double check to make sure your windows are locked when you leave the house. Also, if possible, remove/move anything that can easily be used at a “ladder.”
Here’s a map of the area Nancy mentioned.
Now the rest of the latest report highlights from the Southwest Precinct (which also included the vignette we posted earlier): We start with a suspected teenage drug dealer, spotted on local school grounds by a watchful school employee. 
He called police to say he saw what looked like 3 boys engaged in drug transactions right by West Seattle Elementary in High Point – atop the stairs connecting the campus with the nearby community center. With the detailed descriptions he provided, police stopped two suspects at 30th and Othello. While patting them down, an officer detected an odd crackling sound near one boy’s ankle; “that’s just cough drops,” the boy insisted — till the officer pulled out a cellophane cough-drop bag containing marijuana “packaged for sale.” The boy, 15, also had $120 in cash kept separately from a few dollars walking-around money (the police report notes it is typical dealer behavior both to separate cash that way and to keep the merchandise in an unusual spot like, your shoes/socks). He was arrested. Next: The case of the thirsty burglar(s), among other incidents:Read More
Just back from reviewing reports at the Southwest Precinct – the big roundup writeup must wait till we’re back from the major community meetings happening in the next few hours (as previewed here last night), but thought we’d mention this one quickly — Of all the shoplifting incidents that police handled in the past few days, this one stood out: Saturday night, 7 pm, a man was seen heading out of QFC @ Westwood Village with a cart full of “unpaid-for” merchandise, consisting of the following, according to a witness: Several large containers of Tide laundry soap, several six-packs of Heineken beer, and “numerous single cans of 211 beer.” He is described only as white and driving a 1990s Honda or Toyota, and got away before he was caught.
Bernie posted this over the weekend as a new comment on an old report, so we’re reposting here:
This is a week after the events. Last Friday Feb 29 and Saturday March 1 our house was egged. After Saturday evening that makes the 5th time in just over 4 weeks of being egged. We live in the Seaview neighborhood. I have a cedar sided house and I can say at this point we are not able to undo the damage. Our back door is destroyed. Is there any easier way to remove it without taking the paint and the wood?
Most events have happened while there were 3 day weekends and an occasional 2 day weekend. We are not the occasional hit but rather this target of a bitter person or someone playing a ‘joke.’ I realize that having two boys 11 and 15 makes us even more of a target. We have had several ‘come to Jesus’ sessions about this and no clues as to who. What I find absolutely frustrating is that every kid in the ‘hood’ is accounted for at the time of the event.
I called the police to report the event. They are not much interested in reporting eggings but I think we’re beyond the one in a blue moon event. They suggest just leaving all the yard lights on. The other thing that has happened along with this is someone has opened our gate and walked through the yard at 3:00 – 4:00 a.m. The only clue I have to this is that the gate opens and then closes (We have wind chimes attached the yard gate and we can hear the latch) – then when jumping up from bed we find the yard motion lights all on.
I am happy to share any other info that I may have discounted with anyone who has other info or similar events happening to them.
From the reports at the Southwest Precinct: Remember the car-window shooting on 61st SW reported by Mark two days ago? A day later — yesterday around 3:30 pm — a passerby spotted “two juveniles” on the roof of a house in the same area, 3000 block of 61st SW, with suspected pellet/airsoft handguns. One of them was believed to be a 15-year-old boy who lives in that same house, but nobody was home when police arrived minutes later; no arrest yet but it’s a high-priority case. Now, the rest of the stories, including a drunken teen on the run, and stolen donations at a local school:Read More
That’s a cameraphone photo of bogus bills snapped by a WSB team member who says they don’t look much better in person — badly defined imagery on back, for example — fake $50s that have turned up so far at Funky Jane’s Consignment and Many Moons Trading Company in The Junction (3-4 pm this past Monday), according to those businesses’ owners. We’re awaiting suspect description to share, but wanted to get the word out first to anyone who hadn’t heard.
We’re overdue for a Southwest Precinct report review but today it seems most of the reports are coming directly to us, too, anyway – like this one just out of the WSB inbox:
SW Stevens and 46th Ave SW Break-In
Today, Wed. March 5th, our high school son came home for early dismissal and found our house ransacked. After giving the police a report, we are realizing we were lucky no one was hurt. After kicking in our back door the thieves had time between 9 and 11:30 am to go through, search and make a mess of 6 different rooms in our house. They took coins, cash, cameras, and I-Pods. If you saw anything suspicious in the neighborhood 2-4 blocks west of PCC today please call the police.
One side note, thanks to everyone for clearly describing their location when sending in these types of reports. It really helps alert your West Seattle neighbors to exactly where things are happening so they can be on the lookout too.
Just out of the WSB inbox:
I would like to report the following incident that occured around 5:10pm today:
I noticed 2 cars speeding down our alley between Lander & Stevens while I was working in the backyard. I looked up and saw the male driver of the first car (not sure if there were others in that car) who evidently noticed me. The second car was driven by a female and had 4 people in it.
I heard the cars stopping by my neighbor’s house. I looked to see what was going on and saw the people taking firewood from a stack by the garage and throwing it into their cars.
I told them to stop stealing the wood and they just stared at me. When my husband came around the corner, they got back into their cars and left.
One car is a white sedan, the other one is is a beige sedan with a license plate number (ending in) TQW. I’d guess the age of the people high school age to early 20’s.
The SW precinct told me to call 911, which I did.
E-mailed by Mark, who then promptly headed off to get the glass replaced:
At around 1:30 this afternoon, I was driving down the 3000 block of 61st Ave. near Alki when my car’s front passenger-side window exploded. Apparently it had been struck by a really fast rock, or else shot with a pellet gun or something similar. I phoned in a police report on the spot, and they responded quickly by showing up and taking down details. Didn’t see the %$#*$@ who did it, although after I pulled over and went to the impact spot to see what I could find, I caught a glimpse of at least two people running behind the houses there, with a male voice shoutingsomething as they ran. The two police officers who responded mentioned that four youths have been caught in connection with the recent similar incidents in the Admiral neighborhood, and although the punks have some little bit of time in juvenile detention coming up, they are currently not being held anywhere. Whether or not this incident is connected to them is anyone’s guess, but the officers did say they were going to check out the nearby streets to see if they could find out anything more.
So that’s that. The good news is that neither my wife nor anyone else was in the passenger seat, otherwise they would have been sprayed with glass.
From the Southwest Precinct Public Safety Newsletter just sent out by SWP Crime Prevention Coordinator Benjamin Kinlow – don’t miss the last paragraph:
The T9 Traffic Squad focuses on aggressive drivers. They drive the Dodge Charger Police cars. The T9 Squad, along with other members of the Traffic Section, issued the following school zone citations between September 01, 2007 through February 11, 2008:
* Arbor Heights – total – 94
65 Speed, 1 Pass School Bus, 28 other –
* Highland Park – total – -540
363 Speed, 4 Pass School Bus, 1 R/W Ped, 172 other
* Holy Family – total – 245
189 Speed, 1 Pass School Bus, 55 other
* Sanislo – total – 56
47 Speed, 9 other –
* Total – 935
Last week the T9 Squad started working the school zone at Gatewood Elementary in 7000 block of Fauntleroy. Yesterday Officer Cavin stopped a driver traveling 45 mph while using the center turn lane to pass 6 other cars in the 20 mph school zone. The driver said he was late getting to the Ferry Terminal. He was cited for Reckless Driving.
From TLR, a car break-in last week that isn’t in one of our roundups, but carries an important reminder:
I wanted to report to my neighbors in the 6500 block of 37th Ave SW that my car was broken into sometime last Tuesday night (02/26/08) or Wednesday (02/27/08) morning, which was parked in our completely fenced backyard. My iPod Touch and radio tuner were taken when I forgot to take them inside. Just a reminder to everyone to make sure you take everything inside, even if you have a fenced yard.
One of the city council’s newest members, Tim Burgess, blogged tonight about the light sentence given to West Seattle rabbi Ephraim Schwartz for the November 2006 47th/Admiral crash that killed Tatsuo Nakata — who worked as chief of staff for the then-councilmember that 
Burgess defeated a year later, David Della. In his blog post, titled “Wrist Slap for Traffic Death,” Burgess (left) — a former detective — recaps our city’s pedestrian-vehicle crash stats, as well as calling the Schwartz sentence “inappropriate.” (Side note: Before publishing this, we looked to see which other city councilmembers blog; looks like only Sally Clark. Her newest post is mostly about Burgess’ blogging, which she seems to be saying he does too often; not sure what that’s about, since if you scroll down his main page, you’ll see he doesn’t even post daily.)
Postponed from last night: the latest reports from the Southwest Precinct:Read More
Per KOMO website: Ephraim Schwartz, the West Seattle rabbi who hit and killed city council aide Tatsuo Nakata at 47th/Admiral in November 2006, must pay a fine and do community service, and loses his driver’s license for 2 years, but no jail time. 10:36 PM UPDATE: Many more details in this P-I story, including City Attorney Tom Carr calling the sentence “outrageous” and the judge calling Schwartz “a lousy driver.”
Out of the WSB inbox, from Trissa:
Just wanted to let you know that someone tried to break into a house on the 4000 block of 23rd Ave SW tonight at 8:00 pm. There was a lot of police activity and they brought dogs to try and catch the person or persons. So a thank you to our police and hopefully they will catch the person(s)!
Side note, we were at the Southwest Precinct reviewing police reports, including last night’s pit-bull shooting incident, just before going to the school-board meeting, and will be writing that all up after the Denny-Sealth wrapup report.
Steve lives in the 2400 block of 44th SW and just sent this (we’ll be looking for the official police report during our forthcoming trip to the Southwest Precinct):
Yesterday (Tuesday 2/26) we were disturbed to learn that our next-door neighbors’ house was shot at by a group of five young boys. There is a sizable bullet hole in their front picture window, and police who responded to the incident confirmed that the hole was made by something larger than a BB gun. According to our neighbor, she was returning home from walking their dog when she noticed the boys congregated on the landscaped parking strip in front of their house. The boys appeared to be of middle-school age. One of them was holding a gun pointed at the house. The gun holder tucked the weapon into the front of his pants took off running south down 44th Ave SW with the rest of the boys when she called out to them asking what they were doing. She began to pursue them but pulled up short when one of the boys called out to the others “She’s after us!” followed by something about using the gun.
When she returned to her house she noticed for the first time the large bullet hole in her front window and called the SPD. The bullet passed through the main living room where the family often spend time. Fortunately no one was home when the shooting occurred.
This happened around 9:30 am on Tuesday.
This is circulating among Junction businesses — We received it from the folks at Jan’s Beauty Supply (WSB sponsor):
ATTENTION!!!
On Thursday February 21, 2008 at about 4:45 PM, two girls entered the back door to our business. Girl 1 proceeded to the front of the store; girl 2 entered our employee room. We caught girl 2 in the room and she then ran out the back door. She had taken a wallet, check book and digital camera from an employee’s purse. She was chased through Capers, down California Ave. and into Zamboanga where she was cornered. The wallet and check book were retrieved, the camera is still missing. Girl 1 and girl 2 continued north on California Ave.Many merchants said they had seen these girls through the day and a few had the same experience. If you have found anything missing and remember seeing these girls please call the SPD. Please refer to our case number 2008-068225.
Girl 1: Caucasian, early 20’s, 5’8â€, thin build (145lbs.), gap in front teeth, dark brown hair pulled tightly in a pony tail, Black and gold “Baby Phat†hoody and dark “Baby Phat†jeans.
Girl 2: Hispanic-American, early 20’s, 5’6â€, heavy set (165lbs.), thick dark brown or black curly hair pulled into a pony tail, tattoo on the right side of neck, black Northface jacket, distressed light blue jeans, black coach bag.Be on the look out for these girls!!! We can’t let our community go this route!
JAN’S BEAUTY SUPPLY: 206-937-9224
(JAN, SHERI & ALISSA)
From the files at the Southwest Precinct: A dog is believed to have been shot by its owner’s drunk, enraged boyfriend. This all played out in the 5600 block of Delridge last Thursday night. Police were called after a woman was heard screaming, “He shot my dog!” They found the woman’s 45-year-old boyfriend holding a .357 handgun, which he promptly dropped when ordered to. She told officers they were arguing when he pulled the gun from his pocket, fired a shot into the ceiling, then shot the dog; she fled the apartment and the dog bolted too. Officers found a trail of blood but no sign of the dog; they also found a significant criminal record for the boyfriend, who admitted firing the gun into the ceiling and shooting at the dog, a pit bull that he described as “vicious.” He also told police, “I was drinking Mad Dog 20-20 and it affects me fast; I drank too fast.” He was taken to jail. NEXT: Ferry rage, bridge rage, phone scam, break-ins, and more:Read More
| Comments Off on From the follow-up files: 37th/Findlay murder, 1 year later