West Seattle, Washington
18 Monday
(Tuesday night photo, shared today by Lars)
As promised in our coverage of last night’s police response on Alki – we checked with the Southwest Precinct today for followup. Lt. Norm James confirms one arrest and answers a few of our other questions:
We in the precinct always staff extra heavy for the last day of school. Alki has been a gathering place for teens from all over the city on the last day of school for many years. We had at least two marked patrol cars at the high schools, along with Traffic units prior to school dismissal. Once school was out, those same units were tasked to Alki along with our ACT and CPT teams. We call additional units as needed after that. The Gang Unit provides an additional presence during these times also. There was one arrest for obstructing an officer, and at this point only one additional incident report for property damage was written.
(Photo by David Hutchinson)
ORIGINAL 8:31 PM REPORT: We are on Alki checking into a sizable police presence, after tips came in about cruisers heading this way. One tipster says a fight had broken out, but right now there’s no sign of that – the police presence appears to be more a show of preventive force, including a double-digit Gang Unit contingent. We would recommend avoiding driving this way – some traffic was being diverted a block inland, past Whale Tail. 8:38 PM: We just talked to police. A series of relatively small fights brought them out in force to make sure nothing worse happens, since there are many people here celebrating the 1st night of summer vacation. 9:25 PM: We’re back at HQ and adding photos. David Hutchinson‘s image of the gang-unit presence (which had broken up by the time we left shortly after 9) is the most dramatic scene we saw. Before our arrival, he says, a young woman had been cuffed and placed in a police car; we have not confirmed any arrests but will follow up on this tomorrow. 9:45 PM: Adding one more photo, this one from Benjamin Hutchinson, with a little more of an overview of the crowd that was out earlier – about the same density we saw when arriving around 8:15:
At least one of tonight’s fights, according to David Hutchinson, happened near Pepperdock – which, you may recall, was where last year’s most serious Alki incident happened, the shooting on May 1, 2009 (WSB coverage here). 10:39 PM: Worth noting – one commenter points out the mayor’s announcement today of a “Late-Night Safety Initiative.” Here’s the official SPD announcement. While its focus is on Friday and Saturday nights, and primarily neighborhoods near downtown, it’s noted “this model will work in any neighborhood” and the announcement’s concluding line certainly resonates given what happened tonight:
The hope is that the additional uniformed patrols will encourage citizens from all over Puget Sound to visit popular Seattle destination points and do so without fear of harm.
In the Seattle Police Southwest and North Precincts, a “pilot program” is under way to talk one-on-one with residents about crime and safety issues in their neighborhoods – by sending police officers door-to-door with a survey of sorts. We learned about this from a West Seattleite who messaged us about it via Facebook after an officer showed up at her door to ask some questions. Our request to precinct staff for more information drew a callback from Capt. Joe Kessler, who explained:Read More
We’re at the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, where Sgt. Jeff Durden has just presented the crime-trends update. So far this month – car prowls are down dramatically – 30 in the first 13 days of June, compared to 123 for all of last month, and 126 the month before that. Sgt. Durden wondered if that might be in part thanks to a June 1st arrest that was reported here three days later – that of now-20-year-old Ronald Thompson, charged initially with 4 car thefts (we are checking to see if any more charges have been added in the case). We’ve also just heard more details about two cases we reported here briefly last night – the robbery at the South Seattle Market at 35th/Morgan, and a burglary arrest elsewhere in West Seattle yesterday. ADDED 11:49 PM: Click ahead for details (including, added at 1:35 am, toplines from City Attorney Pete Holmes’ guest appearance):Read More
If you haven’t had your daily dose of cuteness … there you go … though what you see in that clip is also very serious business! Ruth Oldham of West Seattle See Dogs invited us to drop by the Seattle Police Mounted Patrol‘s headquarters at Westcrest Park on Sunday afternoon as her group and two others from around the region had a special visit. They brought guide-dogs-in-training to get a good look at, and sniff of, Tiger the SPD horse. As we learned while listening to the discussion, future guide dogs need to be exposed to all sorts of circumstances and characters, because you never know what they will have to help their people deal with.
Ruth explains, “Once a month or more, in addition to our regular meetings, puppy-raising clubs have an “outing” to provide their puppies with new experiences. Working guide dogs may encounter mounted police and horse-drawn carriages in the course of their day and so the Seattle Police Department has been generous in providing the opportunity over the years for our puppies to go ‘nose to nose; and greet their horses and to answer questions.”
The puppy-raising clubs that joined WS See Dogs on Sunday are Guide Puppies of Seattle and Bellevue-based For Your Eyes Only. Interested in volunteering to raise a guide puppy for a year? West Seattle See Dogs’ next meeting is one week from tonight, Monday, June 14, at Merrill Gardens-Admiral Heights (WSB sponsor), 6:30 pm, just show up!
Just out of the WSB inbox, from Kevin:
Wanted to let people know of yet another car theft and give a huge thank you to the SPD for incredibly quick work recovering it.
We woke up Tuesday morning to find our one and only car missing from our parking spot – 5ft from our house in the Fairmount Park neighborhood. Last night, Tuesday, we got a call that the car was found on the other side of WS, very near the “lifeline vehicle” that WS Blog reported recovered a few days ago. While we were getting the car picked up, the very attentive neighbors around the recovery spot came out and told us that he saw the car Monday night at 11 and again today at 5 AM. He also saw the cops there 2x, the second time with a guy in handcuffs.
Another officer later told us there was a spate of car robberies last weekend. According to him the guy was caught Tuesday in one of other stolen cars and started “giving up the rest” so they found ours. They got a search warrant for the guy’s house and found 40 GPS systems from other stolen cars.
We’re really lucky and glad to have our car back, but wonder one thing, are Subarus the next Honda Civics? I’ve heard of many of them being stolen and ours was one.
We don’t know if that’s related to a similar-sounding case reported in this comment thread; police declined to comment on that because it’s an ongoing investigation.
(WSB photo, taken after rescuers had raised the car and extricated the bicyclist)
Two updates in the aftermath of this morning’s Admiral Way/SW Manning/30th SW (map) collision between a car and a bicyclist who had to be rescued from beneath it: First, Laura, identifying herself as the bicycle rider’s wife, says in comments on the original WSB story that her husband is in ICU awaiting surgery; read her full comment here. Second, Seattle Police investigators asked us to publish this call for any witness(es) to come forward:
(This is) a request from the Seattle Police Department, for anyone that witnessed the collision event between the SUV & Bicyclist on SW Admiral Way & SW Manning St., to contact Detective Tim Wear at (206) 684-8935. Would like to hear from anyone that witnessed the collision event. Thank you.
If you missed our earlier coverage – the car’s driver was not hurt; Admiral Way reopened just before 1 pm, almost 4 1/2 hours after this morning’s collision. ADDED 9:04 PM: And from the comment section following our original report – a commenter who says she is the driver’s wife, explaining that their whole family bicycles too. Read her full comment here.
Thanks to everyone who called/texted about police activity in The Junction just before 6 pm tonight – we happened to be en route to the Triangle Advisory Group meeting steps away and caught the end of it, just after police had cuffed a suspect (iPhone photo above). Southwest Precinct Lt. Norm James confirms the original call was about a shoplifter at the liquor store who was suspected of having a gun – that’s why police were in the area looking for him with their guns drawn – Lt. James says the suspect turned out not to be armed. Onlookers lined the sidewalk when we arrived in the area – business staffers as well as shoppers – and one bystander called out to this officer, who was putting away his rifle as he returned to his car, “Good work!”
ADDED 8:14 PM: A few more details from Lt. Ron Smith: “Officer responded to a call of a subject in the liquor store … placing a bottle in his pants pocket. Store employee confronted the subject and advised him that the police were called. The subject denied taking the bottle and was observed removing the bottle and returning the bottle to the shelf. The employee observed what she thought was a handgun in the front of his pants. The subject left the store and was contacted by patrol officers a short distance away. The subject was positively identified by store employees. No weapon was found on the subject, who appeared to be a transient with mental issues. He was transported downtown.”
Seattle Interim Police Chief John Diaz is the only local candidate among the 3 finalists for the permanent job, as chosen tonight by the search committee (whose members include Southwest Precinct commander Capt. Joe Kessler). In addition to Chief Diaz, the police chiefs of Sacramento and East Palo Alto are on the short list. Read on for the announcement from the mayor’s office:Read More
Thanks to everybody who called, e-mailed and sent Facebook messages about the big police response at Admiral and California. Police at the scene confirm the Bank of America on Admiral at 44th has been robbed. No description at this point and no word of any arrest. The bank is closed because of the robbery. 6:34 PM UPDATE: Still no arrest, but Southwest Precinct Lt. Norm James has a few more details: “No weapon seen, just a displayed note. The suspect was described as a white male, 35 years old. Witness stated he fled on foot to a waiting bluish/green Honda, driven by a female. Witness got a plate on it that turned out to be stolen plates.”
(Photos by Christopher Boffoli, substituted 2:16 pm for previous cameraphone photos)
ORIGINAL REPORT @ 12:33 PM: The Elliott Bay Pipe Band is among the participants at Dignity Memorial/Forest Lawn right now during the annual Seattle Police Memorial ceremony.
Speakers included Mayor McGinn and Southwest Precinct Captain Joe Kessler.
With Capt. Kessler (in black dress uniform) and the mayor in that photo are, from left, Dave Salove of Forest Lawn, East Precinct commander Capt. James Dermody and South Precinct commander Capt. Dave Emerick. Southwest Precinct officers were out in full force:
Video to come.
ADDED 7:30 PM: Here’s Christopher Boffoli’s video of highlights from the ceremony:
(WSB photo from May 2009)
At noon tomorrow, you are invited to Dignity Memorial/Forest Lawn, just east of High Point, for the annual Seattle Police Officers’ Memorial ceremony. Here’s our coverage from last year; since then, SPD has lost an officer in the line of duty – one with West Seattle ties – WSHS graduate Officer Tim Brenton, murdered on Halloween night. He and others who’ve given their lives will be remembered during tomorrow’s event. 2:22 PM NOTE: Mayor McGinn is expected to attend the memorial tomorrow.
The mayor’s office announced this morning that three women and eight men are in the running for Seattle Police Chief, including 3 candidates from SPD – here’s the list:
Judy Bradshaw, Chief of Police — Des Moines (IA) Police Department
Rick Braziel, Chief of Police — Sacramento (CA) Police Department
Adam Burden II, Former Assistant Chief of Police — Miami (FL) Police Department
Ronald Davis, Chief of Police — East Palo Alto (CA) Police Department
John Diaz, Interim Chief of Police — Seattle (WA) Police Department
Rick Gregory, Chief Administrative Officer/Acting Public Safety Director — New Castle County (DE)
Clark Kimerer, Assistant Chief of Police — Seattle (WA) Police Department
Anne Kirkpatrick, Chief of Police — Spokane (WA) Police Department
Jim Pugel, Assistant Chief of Police — Seattle (WA) Police Department
John Romero, Chief of Police — Lawrence (MA) Police Department
Lisa Womack, Former Chief of Police Elgin (IL) Police Department
Here’s the full announcement. Southwest Precinct Captain Joe Kessler is among those on the search committee; video of its meetings, including the most recent one last Wednesday, are archived here.
If you scroll almost all the way down to the bottom of this update just published at SPD Blotter, you’ll see where the rubber meets the road – and the ticket meets the mailbox – for West Seattle drivers: Seattle Police are deploying their “photo speed van” on 35th SW, and while it’s a “warning period” right now, starting next month, you’ll get tickets WITHOUT warning. The speed van’s already been used in a pilot project in local school zones – here’s our story from October 2008, when it was shown off outside Gatewood Elementary (photo above is from that event).
(L-R, Jason McKissack, Lt. Ron Smith, Capt. Joe Kessler, Dep. Chief Nick Metz, Asst. Chief Mike Sanford)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Twenty-two months after we all first learned of the attack on Southwest Precinct Officer Jason McKissack – the attack that cost him his career but spurred passage of a new state law – his long road to recovery paused for celebration: More than 70 people, mostly former Seattle Police Department colleagues, crowded into the precinct community room for a retirement party tonight.
Before and after SPD leaders including precinct commander Captain Joe Kessler, Deputy Chief Nick Metz and Assistant Chief Mike Sanford took to the podium, law enforcers in and out of uniform mingled, applauded, and honored McKissack’s achievements.
Those achievements included fighting for the passage of legislation that was described as his legacy – the legislation we went to Olympia twice this year to cover, then to Lakewood to watch the governor sign: HB 1679 will make sure no catastrophically injured public-safety worker ever faces what he faced, the potential loss of medical benefits.
The tributes, his words, and the retirement gifts he received tonight are part of the story ahead, along with a look back:
(L-R, Lt. Norm James, WSCPC president Dot Beard, secretary Betty Wiberg, VP Richard Miller)
There was so (relatively) little crime to talk about at tonight’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, it didn’t even last an hour. In his meeting-opening update, Southwest Precinct Operations Lt. Norm James began, “Everything’s been reasonably quiet.” And he said that is particularly good news for one neighborhood, Highland Park, where burglaries have “dropped off the charts” – recent arrests seem to have ended the latest series (described in this April 1st report). More of his toplines on current West Seattle crime trends, plus a surprise presentation at the meeting, and more, ahead:Read More
Last year, when nerves were on edge along Alki following the May 1st shooting, West Seattle police leaders from the Southwest Precinct were at the next Alki Community Council meeting to brief the community (WSB coverage here). This year, in a pre-emptive strike, they came to the ACC last night to share updates on their work as well as spring/summer plans – coincidentally, on a night with weather so nice, the beach was still busy after the meeting, and we spotted three SPD cars in one block. At the ACC, Capt. Joe Kessler (photo left), Lt. Norm James (not pictured) and Sgt. Joel Sweetland (photo right) spent close to an hour on updates and Q/A:Read More
ORIGINAL 7:40 AM REPORT: A police investigation is under way in The Junction right now, and the north sidewalk on SW Alaska is cordoned off in the block between California SW and 44th. Det. Mark Jamieson in the SPD media unit confirms that they’re investigating a “deceased male” but says “it’s way too soon to tell if (he died) from natural or other causes.” He says the call came in from the Fire Department at 5:50 am; the 911 log shows an aid call to that area at 5:42 am. At the scene, what appears to be a covered body is visible just west of the bus waiting area between Easy Street and Twilight (behind the police car in our photo – we don’t show bodies, covered or not). Officers at the scene would say only that they were awaiting the Medical Examiner‘s arrival. The investigation has put a bus waiting area off limits, so riders are being directed to the next northbound stop along 44th. We’ll be checking with authorities later to find out whether this turns out to have been natural causes, or not. Thanks to those who e-mailed/called/texted about this; the first note was from Jonathon, who wrote, “When I arrived at my bus stop in the Junction around 5:45 this morning, a fire truck was just pulling up. A gentleman on a bicycle had called 911 out of concern for someone laying face-down in the alcove of the art collective. The cyclist had shaken the man but was unable to elicit a response. The firefighters also shook him and checked for a pulse; I couldn’t tell from where I was standing what they concluded, but the man certainly wasn’t moving.”
8:11 AM UPDATE: The body’s been removed and so has the police tape, so the bus area is open again. 8:42 AM NOTE: We checked back with Det. Jamieson, who notes that homicide detectives were not called out, so while an official cause of death isn’t in yet, that indicates no obvious sign of foul play. We will continue checking.
(photo by Tyler, substituted at 6:47 pm for our original cameraphone photo)
In case you saw the big police response right at Walk All Ways in The Junction a little while ago – we’ve gotten a couple inquiries – here’s what police say happened: Someone “inebriated” randomly decided to lash out at one or more innocent bystanders. The “inebriated” person was subdued, and arrested. Police told us everybody’s otherwise OK. 7:39 PM UPDATE: Thanks to Lachlan for pointing us, in the comment section, to this tweet from Easy Street‘s owner, saying the suspect was kicking a dog. FRIDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: After a commenter wrote that someone else was arrested at the scene, we checked with the Southwest Precinct to see if any more information was available today about the circumstances. Lt. Norm James‘ summary:
Call came in about 5:45 regarding an intoxicated male pushing people at California and Alaska. Turns out an intoxicated male confronted two male victims then kicked a dog that was passing by. The intoxicated male pushed one of the two victims and chest bumped the other. Both victims were fearful of the intoxicated suspect. Officers arrived and took the suspect into custody and placed him in the back of the patrol car. The suspect began trying to kick out the windows of the patrol car and subsequently there was a taser application on the suspect to control him. The fire department aid was called to extract the taser barbs (which is standard procedure). The suspect was then booked into KC Jail.
We are at Lakewood Police HQ in Pierce County – home of the force that lost four officers in one murderous attack last fall, four of six officers around the region murdered in the line of duty within just a few months (including Seattle Police Officer and West Seattle High School graduate Timothy Brenton). Governor Gregoire is here to sign 19 bills into law, many of them closing loopholes that may have factored into some of last fall’s killings – but one of them, signed minutes ago, is the “Jason McKissack Bill,” renamed for the former West Seattle police officer viciously attacked while on duty in summer 2008. As the governor signed that bill, Jason and wife Kim were at the governor’s side – see the photo above, in which she was looking up at Jason, who is behind Kim (in pink). The bill makes sure that catastrophically injured public-safety personnel unable to return to work are no longer in danger of losing medical benefits for themselves and their families, as was the case here, and law-enforcement advocate Renee Maher has said it will retroactively cover the McKissacks. They met privately with the governor before the signings began, as did families of fallen officers; more than 200 people crowded into the room, and emotions ran high. The signing of the bill, HB 1679, was the end of a difficult political process as well as a victory in the McKissacks’ fight to help Jason recover; at one point this session, the bill appeared in danger of stalling, but support from the public, local law enforcers, their advocates, and local legislators helped get it through. We will add video when we’re back at HQ; you’ll see coverage of this overall event on TV tonight too, as all the local stations were here. ADDED 6:53 PM: Video of the actual signing – preceded by some of the shuffle that took place in the moment beforehand:
With so much support having come from West Seattle, we thought you’d like to know that the official signing ceremony for HB 1679 – the “Jason McKissack Act” – is now set. Law-enforcement advocate Renee Maher sent word that it will be one of more than a dozen public-safety-related bills that Governor Gregoire will sign at Lakewood (Pierce County) Police HQ starting at 3 pm Wednesday. A version of the bill stalled in the Legislature last year, but this year, it was renamed for, and supported by, the former West Seattle police officer who was seriously injured in an attack while on duty in June 2008 but lost his (and his family’s) health coverage when the city ended his employment. He testified before the House Ways and Means Committee in January (WSB video coverage here), as did his wife Kim McKissack, who then testified again when the bill was heard in the same Senate committee four weeks later (here’s our story). We are told the bill’s provisions will cover the McKissack family, as well as a Seattle firefighter critically injured on the job several years ago.
Two days after the State Senate passed it, the State House has unanimously “concurred” on changes the Senate made, and so the “Jason McKissack Act” – guaranteeing health benefits for catastrophically injured public-safety personnel like the former West Seattle officer – now goes to the governor. (That tip – and lots of previous info on this story – came from law-enforcement advocate Renee Maher, profiled in this Seattle Times [WSB citywide-news partners] story today).
(Thursday night photo by Christopher Boffoli)
Two updates from Lt. Norm James at the Southwest Precinct – first, one followup on last night’s crash on Delridge barely a block south of the precinct: Lt. James says the officer who was hurt is “doing fine” and got out of the hospital within hours of being taken there. (Investigation results will take a while, since the Traffic Collision Investigation Squad was called out, which is why Delridge was closed for so long.) Second – a new overview on West Seattle crime trends, from the report Lt. James gave to this week’s Precinct Advisory Council meeting:
So far this year we’re seeing crime trends down in virtually every category, some very significantly. Examples would be car prowls December 2009 and February 2010 tied for the lowest in a year and a half; residential burglaries Feb 2010 were the lowest in over a year. It’s very encouraging, and we continually thank the residents of West Seattle for their efforts in assisting us in this.
Explains why things have been a little quieter on the Crime Watch page lately.
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