(Thanks to the WSB’er who texted this photo from Avalon/35th)
You might see Seattle Police motorcycle officers out in motorcade formation around West Seattle over the next few hours – as happened one week ago – and once again, it’s just training, according to Officer Renée Witt in SPD Public Affairs, who shared the alert.

(Screengrab from Seattle Channel substituted when briefing ended; we’ll replace later with archived video)
10:49 AM: The formal announcement is expected within a few hours, but now several citywide news sources are reporting that Seattle Police Chief John Diaz is stepping down after almost four years (as interim and then permanent chief). Our partners at The Seattle Times quote City Councilmember Bruce Harrell as the source, as does KING 5; Diaz’s departure was first reported on Twitter by KIRO TV. All say that Assistant Chief Jim Pugel (at left in WSB file photo by Christopher Boffoli) will serve as interim chief.

11:15 AM: The mayor and police chief are planning an 11:30 a.m. briefing. (added) You’ll be able to watch the live webcast above.

11:49 AM: The briefing has begun – click “play” on the video window above to see it live.

12:00 PM: Chief Diaz recounted department accomplishments during his tenure and offered words of thanks. Now the mayor is speaking, and doing the same. Some of the major incidents mentioned as happening during the chief’s tenure included the murder of West Seattle High School graduate Officer Timothy Brenton and the Café Racer/downtown murders that ended with the killer’s West Seattle suicide last May.

12:08 PM: Assistant Chief Jim Pugel says he “promise(s) to continue to work … with everyone who has an interest in seeing Seattle as an even better and even safer city” while serving as interim chief. He also thanks SPD officers and community members for their role in that. After brief remarks, the mayor is asked “Why now?” and he punts the question to Chief Diaz, saying it was his decision. Diaz subsequently says that he evaluated issues such as innovation and reform, and he felt they are under control, and that things are “going extremely well,” so he decided “It was time” for him to retire. So why not wait till after this fall’s mayoral election? McGinn is asked. He replied that the search process will take so long, he doubts “any final decisions” would be made until after November.

12:28 PM: The briefing is over. Chief Diaz’s retirement is scheduled for the end of May. We’re taking down the video window but will re-add the archived version when it’s available on the city website. Meantime, the official news release has arrived via e-mail – click ahead to read it:Read More

(UPDATED THURSDAY EVENING with more information on suspect’s background and status – scroll down)

(Monday night photo by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
As first reported here Tuesday, friends and family of the man shot Monday night at Charlestown and Avalon, 27-year-old musician Rick Powell, on duty at the time as a driver for hire, were told Powell was defending himself during a robbery attempt – and that the man found shot minutes later on Delridge was the suspect. (Here’s our original coverage from the night it happened.) We had been asking police for confirmation and just got it. We also have heard from a friend of Powell’s, who says his surgery on Wednesday went well. Benefits are being set up to raise money for Powell – including this one.

Meantime, here’s how SPD Blotter‘s Jonah Spangenthal-Lee tells the story (followed by additional information we have researched):

A 19-year-old felon is in jail recovering from gunshot wounds and facing charges for seriously wounding another man in an exchange of gunfire during a violent robbery attempt in West Seattle …
.
Shortly after 11 pm on April 1st, a 27-year-old for-hire driver pulled his Cadillac over along SW Charlestown Street and Avalon Way SW, and stepped out of his car to smoke a cigarette.
As the victim was standing on the street, 19-year-old Juan Carlos Garcia-Mendez — released from a Yakima prison just four days earlier, after serving time for burglary and robbery — drove past the victim, and pulled down the street ahead of the 27-year-old man.

Garcia-Mendez climbed out of his car and closed in on 27-year-old, drawing a handgun, and shoving it in the victim’s chest.

Read More

1:32 PM: Thanks to Mary for sending a photo and word that the westbound bridge was shut down for what looked like a motorcade headed this way:

Janet then reported a sighting near West Seattle Stadium. SPD Public Affairs says nothing’s on their radar – so for now it’s a mystery; still checking!

1:43 PM UPDATE: Det. Renée Witt in Public Affairs has since confirmed – it’s training. And our crew just caught up with them and has confirmed the same:

Motorcade (escort) training happens here every so often, and we’ve published mentions over the years – but you never know; once in a while, it just might turn out to be somebody like the president of Bulgaria.

The WSB Crime Watch page includes the latest list of Seattle Police‘s automatically generated tweets with reported incidents and the blocks where they happened. But we have a notation right above the box: The tweets are ***NOT*** always what they seem. Here’s the latest example of what that means: We’ve been getting questions since last night about a tweet that alarmingly reads HOMICIDE, dated yesterday afternoon, with the location 35th/Charlestown.

First thing this morning, we checked with SPD, and Det. Mark Jamieson confirmed what we had suspected – that was the tweet for homicide detectives (who do investigate non-fatal cases as well as fatal incidents) returning to the scene, as we showed you in our update last night. (There was even another tweet – note the identical call number – labeled FOLLOW-UP.) We replied to the people who inquired – but since we are still getting questions, we’re publishing this in hopes of reassuring others. (The map occasionally has mistakes – a few months back, it showed the HOMICIDE icon where none had occurred – we were told that one was because of a typo in an incident code entered into the system.)

Quiet day in West Seattle Crime Watch – only one reader report today, and checking the police-response map, we note the incident markers are relatively sparse. Today’s lone reader report involves a suspected casing/prowling incident this morning in what we might describe as Upper Alki – read on:
Read More

Bizarre arrest early this morning inside Yen Wor Village in The Admiral District, according to an SPD Blotter story by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee that you just have to read to believe – you can do that here.

(SCROLL DOWN for Saturday morning update from SPD)

8:55 PM: Police and fire are at 26th and Trenton for an “assault with weapons/aid” call, which usually does not involve a major injury. We are en route to find out more.

9 PM UPDATE: Per scanner, a man in his midtwenties has a gunshot wound to the leg and may have been pistol-whipped. He is on the south side of the athletic complex.

9:19 PM: SFD confirms a non-life-threatening wound. The man is being taken to Harborview. No word on whether anyone is being sought; police are clearing out of the area, and there is no active search under way.

9:55 PM: We’ve left the scene because all the emergency responders have too. We’ll update if we find out anything else, but not sure if that’ll happen tonight.

10:32 PM: Those who heard the early scanner traffic on this say it was reported as a robbery attempt.

8:51 AM SATURDAY: An update this morning from SPD:

An 18-year-old man was shot in the leg last night during an attempted robbery in the 2600 Block of SW Trenton. The injury is not life-threatening.

Last night, at around 8:35 pm, the victim stated that he was walking through the athletic field when three unknown males approached him, one armed with a gun. The victim told officers that the men attempted to take his backpack, but the victim held onto it. The suspects assaulted the victim and shot him in the right calf. After the shot was fired, the suspects fled without any of the victim’s belongings. The victim began yelling for assistance and neighbors called 911. Officers conducted an area check but did not locate the suspects. The victim received medical treatment for his injury. Gang Unit detectives responded and will conduct the follow-up investigation.

9:56 AM: We’ve received tips about police activity off Myers Way south of the Joint Training Facility, and just got some information from Seattle Police. Someone reported discovering “bones” in the wooded area there (map); it was too dark for a full investigation last night, according to SPD’s Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, so they went back today. Though Homicide Division detectives are part of the investigation, Sgt. Whitcomb stresses that it’s standard operating procedure – they don’t even know whether the reported bones are human or animal, much less what kind of circumstances were involved. They’re expecting to know more later today, and we will update when they do.

10:20 AM: There’s a short item about this on SPD Blotter, with the same basic information.

10:46 AM: If you’re seeing/hearing a helicopter – it’s TV, not law enforcement.

(This photo and next one by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
1:01 PM: SPD Blotter has now updated, saying they’re human bones, but believed to be those of a “missing suicidal man” – so they do NOT believe this is a crime scene. (As always in stories where suicide is mentioned, we share the Crisis Clinic hotline: 206-461-3222.)

1:49 PM UPDATE: Christopher Boffoli went back to the scene for more followup for WSB. He says the man is believed to have been missing for twenty years – the evidence they found includes ID.

(Photo by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
ORIGINAL REPORT, 7:48 AM: Thanks to those who messaged us early this morning about a SWAT operation just after 6 am in the 7300 block of 16th SW (map). Neighbors heard loud noises – suspected to be the “flash-bang” type of devices often used in SWAT operations – and say they saw one person handcuffed. Only a Bellevue Police vehicle was visible when we arrived; Seattle Police say they were “assisting another agency.” We have a message out to Bellevue PD and will add anything more we find out.

9:40 AM UPDATE: Just talked to Bellevue PD spokesperson Officer Carla Iafrate. She says BPD’s Special Enforcement Team arrested five people – four men and a 15-year-old girl – in connection with an “ID-theft ring (that has) several victims from Bellevue.” Their investigation “led us to this house in West Seattle,” and SWAT was used to get into the house for searching and arresting because of “some intel about possible firearms or (about) one of the individuals,” requiring “extra safety.” Officer Iafrate adds that BPD “collected a lot of evidence at the house, and the detective and officers are going to be weeding through that.” She adds that the team at the scene was thanked by several neighbors – not an everyday occurrence, she notes – who had been aware something was going on there for some time.

12:15 PM UPDATE: Bellevue Police’s official news release is out. The only thing in it that we haven’t already reported is that there may be some non-Bellevue victims. Full text in this PDF.

5:13 PM UPDATE: This photo is courtesy of our friends at KIRO 7 Eyewitness News, who asked permission to use one of our photos from this morning and shared this in return:

That’s some of the evidence displayed by Bellevue PD, according to KIRO, which says it constitutes “close to 200 credit cards, some driver licenses, checks (some altered). Laptops and cell phones,” with “dozens of victims from Bellevue, Seattle, Bonney Lake, Auburn, Kent, Tukwila, Tacoma, and Bainbridge.” And they tell us the 15-year-old girl who was taken into custody was a runaway wanted in connection with something unrelated, not the alleged ID-theft ring.

(Image courtesy KIRO 7 Eyewitness News, used with their permission)
“Stray” gunfire hit a car in an alley off Delridge, according to this report published on SPD Blotter:

A woman’s vehicle window was shot out as she pulled into her apartment complex tonight in West Seattle.

At approximately 6:50 p.m. officers responded to a 911 call of shots fired in the alley behind the 8400 block of Delridge Way SW. A woman who was pulling into her apartment complex had her vehicle’s window shot out but was not injured. Preliminary investigation indicates that the woman’s vehicle was struck by stray rounds and that she was not targeted by the gunfire. The suspect(s) remain at large.

Anyone with information about this incident or who may know the identity or whereabouts of the involved suspect(s) is asked to call 911 or Seattle Police and refer to this incident. Anonymous tips are welcome.

4:55 PM: Checked out the police/fire response at 44th/Alaska in The Junction – not a major incident but since we’ve received a few inquiries, here’s what was happening: A fight at the bus stop. Two people had to be separated. No major injuries that we are aware of, but we are doublechecking; SFD medics cleared the scene fairly quickly.

ADDED 9 PM: Here’s what a witness tells WSB she saw and heard (and reported to police):

Two teens were heading north in the alley behind Pharmaca, when a man standing with his bike yelled out: “You might want to use the bathroom next time.” The boys ran to the man – charged – I thought they were his sons, but they edged up right to his face and began yelling at him. Then both boys (15-17; one white, one maybe Asian/Native American) began swinging at the man. I called 911, and the RapidRide security guys showed up. The youth headed West; possibly caught a bus. Lots of onlookers. The man said he was fine, was catching a bus to work with his bike, and we were all shocked by the brazen attack.