West Seattle, Washington
23 Sunday
(Added: Photo sent by Jessie McClurg)
9:33 PM: SPD and SFD are responding to a report of a flipped-car crash in the Westwood Village parking lot near QFC and Rite Aid. The car is described as a “blue Hyundai sedan.” One person is reportedly trapped, one ejected, per dispatch. Updates to come.
9:39 PM: The flipped car is described as “in the bushes” and firefighters told dispatch that one person is indeed in the vehicle – they’re working to cut that one out – one outside. Neither is believed to have life-threatening injuries, in early assessment.
9:47 PM: Added a reader photo just sent. Firefighter have told dispatch they’ve gotten the trapped person out of the car (further described as a Hyundai Sonata). SFD describes both injured people as in stable condition.
(Added: Photo sent by Tim Durkan)
9:50 PM: Added another photo we just received. Meantime, an officer at the scene has just told dispatch, “This will be a medically related collision.”
11:37 AM: The doors are open at a first-of-its-kind event inside the biggest vacant spot at Westwood Village (former Bed Bath Beyond/Spirit Halloween) – a Resource Fair organized by Seattle Police, primarily their Community Service Officer team. They have gathered more than 40 organizations, agencies, and other participants here, until 3 pm; we obtained and published this full list last night. We’ll add more info when back at HQ.
ADDED 12:15 PM: If you approach from the southwest WWV parking lot, you’ll see the Care-A-Van, but most of the medical services – blood pressure/blood sugar check, sign up for vaccinations, etc. – are provided inside. And just inside the main entrance, you can meet some of the SPD CSOs making this happen:
CSOs are non-enforcement, non-sworn officers, and connecting people with resources is what they’re all about. In our photo are CSOs Heslin, Phelps, and Masyr. We walked the aisles of tables and it’s truly a wide array of possibilities (even info on how to get free vaccinations for pets). We also learned about some agencies/organizations we’d never heard of before. Here’s one example – they’re at the table where you can get free Narcan, no questions asked, so you can have it on hand in case you encounter someone overdosing:
This table answers the question a commenter asked after one of our previews – “what service is the Medical Examiner’s Office going to offer?” In short, this is one way to try to reduce the need for the ME’s main job (investigating deaths). At left is Emily Dalgo, coordinator of the ME’s Overdose Fatality Review (based on a national model) team. People are dying of overdoses every day, and OFR talks about strategies to fight that. One is community outreach, and that’s why she’s at the Resource Fair, along with volunteers from the Public Health Reserve Corps (we hadn’t heard of that either).
Other people we talked to included a rep from State Labor and Industries, offering lots of info about workers’ rights. Even if you don’t think you need “resources,” this is an interesting educational event, again, continuing until 3 pm.
One more reminder that a Resource Fair is planned at Westwood Village‘s ex-Bed Bath Beyond/Spirit Halloween space on Saturday, 11 am-3 pm. We asked the Seattle Police Community Resource Officers, who organized it, for a list of the 40+ participating agencies/organizations – here it is:
Community Service Officers/SPD
Villa Communitaria
Seattle Animal Shelter/Control
Promoteres Network
Hopelink Community transportation program
King County Public Health Community Navigators
Building Beyond Communities
King County Health Public Outreach
Resource Navigation Neighborhood House
Neighborhood House MHP
Community Access & Engagement King County L&I
Washingron Relay Outreach
Project Help
Impact Public Schools Outreach
King County Environmental Health Services
Cell Phone Provider
Disability Empowerment Center
Union Gospel Mission
King County e-911
DEA Outreach
Seattle Public Schools
Victim Support Team
We Heart Seattle
Sea Mar Community Health Centers
Valley Cities Behavioral Health
Southwest PCT Crime Prevention Coordinator
Arms Around You
Communities of Belonging
Community for Youth
Delridge Community Center
Overdose Coordinator/KCME
Cultivate South Park
The More We Love
Care-a-Van WSDOH Vaccine Van
VA – suicide prevention coordinator
Transform Burien
Target
Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association
Haircut Team
West Seattle Food Bank
Park Rangers
Humana
Atlantic Street Center
Community Health Plan of WA
Alcoholics Anonymous
Seattle Public Library – High Point
Molina Healthcare
TJX/Marshalls
If you’re in need of vaccination – either child or adult – here’s what the Care-A-Van will be there to offer.
11:02 PM: The Guardian One helicopter is joining SPD‘s search for two carjacking suspects. According to emergency radio traffic it happened in the Westwood Village area, but the carjackers already have abandoned the Acura SUV they stole. They’re looking for two suspects, one described as wearing all black, with a black face mask, and a gun; they were reported to be running on 25th SW. … Officers report having stopped a possible suspect in the area.
11:11 PM: The ground search includes a K-9, so if you’re in the area, you may hear police’s obligatory announcements of that.
11:30 PM: They’re still searching, including to the north and east of WWV.
11:39 PM: They’ve exhausted the possibilities for now, so the helicopter’s leaving. No further info on the incident, but we’ll of course follow up and add any additional information when it’s available.
ADDED 12:10 PM SATURDAY: Here’s the preliminary summary from SPD:
At 2300 hours, responded to a report of a carjacking that had just occurred at the Westwood Village Shopping Center. The suspects (one armed with a handgun) approached the victims as they were standing outside the vehicle and attempted to pistol whip the driver while suspect #2 simultaneously assaulted the female passenger. The victims complied and the suspects got into the victim vehicle. The vehicle was a newer Acura, and the suspects could not figure out how to shift it into drive. The suspects panicked and fled immediately once they could not manipulate the shifter dial, and the victims managed to maintain possession of their vehicle. Containment was established and KCSO K9 and Guardian One responded to assist.
If you have any information, the incident to refer to is 25-69379.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: The missing 12-year-old South Park girl has been found safe.
Earlier:
For one day later this month, the vacant ex-Bed Bath and Beyond/Spirit Halloween space at Westwood Village will have a new use: Two weeks from today, on Saturday, March 22, that space will be home to a big resource fair meant to connect people with services to improve their lives. Here’s the official flyer, sent to us by Seattle Police Southwest Precinct crime-prevention coordinator Jennifer Satterwhite:
No pre-registration requested – just show up between 11 am and 3 pm March 22.
If you’ve heard the booms from Gatewood, Upper Fauntleroy, Westwood, etc., those are fireworks, not gunshots. We’ve heard them all, and police in the area have seen them. We’re just mentioning it because we’ve gotten a few texts and dispatchers/calltakers say they’re getting deluged.
Three biznotes tonight:
ANOTHER PROSPECTIVE WESTWOOD VILLAGE TENANT: Even as other future Westwood Village tenants like Total Wine & More (seemingly on the brink of signage) and Panda Express work on remodels, another prospective tenant has turned up in city permit records: F45 Training, a fitness chain, is penciled in for the former Massage Envy spot on the north side of WWV. Its current Seattle locations include the Central District, Queen Anne, Ballard, Eastlake, and Northgate.
BECU OPENS IN WHITE CENTER: As noted here last month, BECU (WSB sponsor) has been building a Neighborhood Financial Center in the new mixed-use development at 16th/107th in White Center, and the credit union says it’s now open. They’re planning a grand-opening community celebration at 3 pm Wednesday, March 19. Readers have asked if the Roxbury Safeway BECU mini-branch will close; a BECU spokesperson told us today, “At this time, we have not announced plans for our Roxbury location.”
WAXING CLINIC:: Skiing and boarding season continues! So Mountain to Sound Outfitters (3602 SW Alaska; WSB sponsor) is presenting an “Intro to Waxing” this Wednesday (February 26), 6 pm:
The workshop will provide attendees with the skills and knowledge needed to keep their ski and snowboarding gear in top condition. There is a $10 ticket but that ticket cost can be used as credit toward the purchase of personal waxing supplies at Mountain to Sound.
Get your ticket, and find out more about the clinic, here.
The announcement and photo are from Village Green-West Seattle (WSB sponsor):
On Monday, Henry Howard celebrated 100 years of amazing life with his friends and family at Village Green Senior Living in West Seattle. Henry has been a longtime resident in West Seattle. He has an infectious smile and amazing stories to tell. His support system found out about our community from West Seattle Blog. Help us celebrate this amazing man!! Happy Birthday, Henry!!
6:35 PM: Last weekend we reported on an early-stage permit application for clothing outlet J.Crew Factory to take over and combine the two Westwood Village spaces recently vacated by GameStop and Desert Sun Tanning. Today while we were nearby, a banner caught our eye – it’s over the ex-Desert Sun entrance on the west side of the building, announcing Bronz’d Tanning and Light Spa. The phone number is the same as Desert Sun. The new business has only a bare-bones website; we have an inquiry out to try to find out more.
ADDED 8:23 PM: Commenter Ltmmgm posted this GoFundMe link with backstory on this new business.
We heard a dispatch to the Westwood Village Post Office this morning for a report of gas theft and fence vandalism. We’ve since obtained the Seattle Police report narrative. It says officers were called for a report on two separate incidents: Last night around 10 pm, they discovered that gas had been siphoned from two vans, and their tanks had been damaged in the proces. Then around 8:30 this morning, they found a hole had been cut in the fence, and “a plastic bag containing an unknown white powder” was found in the area. Police took it for evidence; the report does not indicate whether the substance was subsequently identified.
Just weeks after two neighboring businesses closed on the south side of Westwood Village – GameStop and Desert Sun Tanning – a replacement is penciled in for what would be their combined spaces: J.Crew Factory, the brand’s “outlet” arm. We noticed a few weeks ago that a placeholder with no supporting documentation had appeared in permit files; then at the end of this week, a full early-stage filing with confirmatory labeling:
The combined space would be 4,600+ square feet, tiny compared to WWV’s Ross (26,000+) and Marshalls (30,000+) stores. J.Crew’s website shows three Factory stores in the metro area – Auburn, Lynnwood, and Marysville – and two “regular” stores in the area – University Village and Bellevue Square. We’ll contact the chain and WWV management tomorrow to see if they’ll comment; to date, the center’s managers have yet to say anything about the two not-yet-open chain businesses that have continued moving through the permit system for months, Total Wine & More (ex-Staples) and Panda Express (ex-Pet Pros).
2:17 PM: Thanks to Juanita for the tip. Three months after the city cleared the RV encampment along SW Trenton by Westwood Village, new parking-restriction signs are in place, declaring it a four-hour-maximum zone between 7 am and 6 pm, Mondays through Saturdays. The signs are on both sides of Trenton between 26th and 28th.
We have an inquiry out to SDOT for more info.
This isn’t the first area where the city has made changes after clearing an RV encampment – others include Harbor Avenue (overnight-parking restrictions) and SW Andover (bike lane added). This area also has had school-zone-related changes in recent months, with Chief Sealth International High School and Denny International Middle School a short distance north (on the other side of Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex) – speed cushions and a new four-way stop – but these are the first changes directly affecting parking, which is in abundant supply (more than a thousand spaces) at the adjacent shopping center.
6:04 PM: To be a little more precise, WWV has just under 1,300 parking spaces. Nonetheless, SDOT spokesperson Ethan Bergerson says supporting access to the “commercial areas” is a goal of the new restrictions:
The new parking restrictions were added based on community requests relayed to SDOT staff by the Unified Care Team. The changes are intended to support parking turnover and curb access near parks and commercial areas. The parking time limits will apply to a slightly larger area than you mentioned, on the north side of SW Trenton St between 26th Ave SW and 29th Ave SW, and on the south side of the street for most of the block between 26th Ave SW and 28th Ave SW. The paint and posts that you describe are intended to help clarify the areas where parking is not allowed near crosswalks in order improve visibility for people to safely cross the street.
The paint-and-posts are “curb bulbs” we also noticed in the area – here’s one at 26th/Trenton:
2:22 AM: SPD sent officers out to look for the source of possible gunfire after numerous 911 calls a short time ago from various areas, and they found it near Westwood Village. They’ve found shell casings – from a rifle – after a man told them someone in a car shot at him at the bus stop in the 2600 block of SW Barton. He apparently was not hurt. He told police the gunfire came from a dark-gray Acura with four people inside, described as Asian, male, late teens to early twenties, in blue clothing. The vehicle was last seen heading eastbound on Barton, which is temporarily closed at the scene while officers collect evidence.
2:49 AM: Officers are reopening the street, and also told dispatch they’ve collected 12 spent rounds and found gunshot damage on the ATI Physical Therapy building (along north side of Barton in WWV).
ADDED FRIDAY: Here’s the SPD summary – adding both that the shell casings were from three different types of guns, and that the reported target was on the shopping center premises when shot at:
At 0200 hours, numerous callers reported hearing shots spanning a large area of SW Pct. Officers conducted an extensive search and located a male at a bus stop in the 2600 block of SW Barton St who stated that he was the target of the shooting. This male made no attempt to call 911 or flag Officers down to report being shot at. This male stated that he had been standing at the bus shelter when a dark gray Acura drove past him. The vehicle was reportedly occupied by 4 A/M wearing blue. The vehicle made a U-turn, and the victim had a feeling he was about to be shot at, so he began to run north into the shopping complex. The suspect vehicle stopped in the roadway, shot at the victim as he ran, did not hit him and fled the area. Officers processed the scene and recovered the following fired cartridge casings: seven .223, three .357 and two 9mm. One building sustained damage from being struck multiple times by gunfire. No other victims were located at this time. No cameras were located that may have captured the incident.
(WSB file photo, Southwest Teen Life Center)
Seattle Parks and Recreation has announced expanded hours starting tomorrow at three Teen Life Centers, including Southwest (2801 SW Thistle, in the same complex as Southwest Pool and the Southwest Customer Service Center). Parks says in its announcement:
Expanded operating hours will mean more secure and supervised spaces for teens, young adults, and elders to engage in intergenerational activities. This pilot program will also utilize signature events to engage youth in meaningful projects and activities. Additionally, it seeks to build partnerships with local businesses and organizations, creating career pathway opportunities for young people and strengthening community connections.
The new hours at Southwest TLC will be 2:30 pm-8 pm Mondays-Thursdays, 3 pm-midnight Fridays, noon-7 pm Saturdays. We compared that to current hours; the major changes are the addition of Mondays and the change from nighttime operation to daytime operation on Saturdays.
Two weeks until Christmas and Hanukkah, and still lots of holiday happenings ahead! One of the events in our Holiday Guide still has room for participants.
Village Green West Seattle (2615 SW Barton; WSB sponsor) asked us to share this announcement:
Village Green West Seattle invites you to share your talents at our vendor fair! We still have 5 tables available free of charge for local vendors. Our Holiday Market will be from 11 AM-4 PM 12/17/1014!
That’s Tuesday of next week, and everyone is invited to shop, not just Village Green residents. If interested in being a vendor, please email Corinne at corinne@villagegreenretirement.com.
Thanks to Will for sending the photo. The Westwood Village GameStop store is closing; tomorrow is the last day, a staff member said by phone. This is not a surprise, as the space has been posted “for lease” for months, according to our periodic check of local listings. But several weeks ago, when a reader got email saying their “local” GameStop would be closing – without specifying an address – we went in to ask, and at the time, they told us no. The Westwood store opened in 2011. The chain said in September it would be closing some of its 2,000+ stores after a less-profitable-than-expected earnings report; its next quarterly-earnings announcement is expected this Tuesday.
Also from last night’s Southwest Precinct Crime Prevention Council meeting – precinct commander Capt. Krista Bair told attendees that nine people had been arrested in an operation at Westwood Village earlier in the day. She said three stores – Target, Marshalls, and Ulta Beauty – had been reporting particularly egregious trouble with thieves, so they got some extra help to go after the problem. The newfound ability of the King County Jail to book misdemeanor suspects played a role in their ability to do this, Capt. Bair said, noting that six of the nine arrestees were booked into jail. Previously, without the ability to book such suspects, she said, “for a while it was a free-for-all there … today we let them know, that’s not the case.” The department’s General Investigations Unit and Community Response Group were involved, she said, making those nine arrests in three hours. “Those businesses really appreciated it.” We don’t have the suspects’ names yet but SPD says the charges they face include “theft, burglary, assault, and warrants.” (Our report on the major topic of the rest of last night’s meeting, the Unified Care Team, is still in the works.)
(Added: WSB photo, current SWTLC play area)
Seattle Parks says the Southwest Teen Life Center play area – on the south side of the building that also houses Southwest Pool – is getting an overhaul. Parks just announced a December 10th event for community feedback, 4-6 pm at the site (2801 SW Thistle). The design team will be there. The play area dates back to when the facility was a full-service commuity center; Parks’ announcement says, “All ages are encouraged to participate as we consider adding elements for teens at the site. This project will replace the existing play equipment and make necessary accessibility improvements. The equipment will include play structures and seating for children of all abilities.” Construction isn’t expected to start until 2026, but they’re looking for design opinions now. Funding – estimated at $720,000 – is coming from the King County Parks Levy.
(Photos courtesy Aimee Owenz)
After Tony’s Market announced its impending closure in August, we learned a food truck with Cuban sandwiches was on the way to its lot, which already hosts a Mexican-food truck. The sandwich truck’s owner then turned up in a comment thread on another food story, and promised to update us when she was ready to open. Now, after soft-opening last weekend, the Aimee Owenz truck will officially open tomorrow. Proprietor Jenn tells WSB, “We are tentatively planning to be open Tuesday through Saturday 11 am-7 pm. We are working on our website and will be adding DoorDash too.” In the meantime, here’s the menu. And here’s a photo of their Cuban sandwich:
The Aimee Owenz truck is on the east side of the lot at 35th/Barton.
P.S. We asked Jenn about the truck’s name: “It’s mine and my brother’s middle names and while we were waiting for the city approval for our truck, our mom unexpectedly passed away. We feel even more proud to honor her. She liked the way Aimee was spelled and Owenz is a family name, so in a serendipitous way she named it.”
For those who asked about an emergency response at 26th/Barton around 9:30 pm, it was reported as a driver hitting a pedestrian. We don’t know details of the circumstances, but Seattle Fire says the pedestrian – a man in his mid-30s – was taken to the hospital by AMR ambulance, in stable condition.
Three reader reports this morning:
STOLEN VAN: Sent by Greg:
Reporting that my van was stolen last night from our home in the Gatewood area about 9:00 pm in case someone spots it parked in the area. The van is a white 1998 Ford Econoline 150 with a roof rack, license #C74786Z. The van was filled with carpentry tools. Please contact me at 206-234-6402 if you see it!
FOUND TRAILER: Jo spotted this trailer parked, door open, no one around, items inside:
If it’s yours, let us know – we don’t know if it’s been reported to police yet. (Update: It apparently was stolen from a band – we’ve heard from them and told them where Jo saw it.)
HIT-RUN INFO SOUGHT: Sent by Tracey:
My friend was hit and run on his e-bike yesterday afternoon. Details are sketchy as I took him to urgent care and he hit his head (helmet on). He lives on 32nd and Thistle and was on his way home with groceries from QFC. His groceries were scattered all over the street and he lost his glasses. He said there was a roundabout at the intersection he was hit at. No one stopped to help him recover his belongings. Any information from the community would be supportive. And his glasses remain lost.
Seattle Fire is at the scene of a small fire that initially was dispatched around 7:30 pm as a large “full response” but then was almost immediately downsized – Ladder 13 was first on scene and able to deal with it quickly. It’s at a vacant, boarded-up house in the 2200 block of SW Trenton [map], northeast of Westwood Village. The fire’s now out, and SFD’s investigator is on scene (and calling just now for police assistance, so we’ll be following up on that). No injuries reported.
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