West Seattle, Washington
30 Thursday
We’ve got someone on the scene to find out more – he reports “smell of smoke in the air” and traffic blocked off at 16th/Henderson (map) – on approach to the scene of a “fire in building” call at 9027 16th SW, an apartment building. More shortly. 5:28 PM UPDATE: 16th is closed between Henderson and Barton till the fire units all clear out – but that may not be too long; firefighters at the scene tell WSB “contents of a room” caught fire, and we’re seeing some units already pulling back. No injuries reported.
(scroll down/refresh for the latest, we are adding updates and pix to the bottom of this post)
(added 9:35 pm: photo of Admiral Safeway service station, which is dark though the nearby store is not)
ORIGINAL REPORT: Just collecting info on this – Seattle City Light has very broad boundaries for what it describes as an “Alki outage,” while e-mail we’ve received describes it as North Admiral. More to come. 9:10 PM UPDATE: City Light says this is one of several outages affecting more than 10,000 homes and businesses in different areas of the city – here’s an excerpt from a news release received minutes ago:
Seattle City Light repair crews were responding to several scattered power outages throughout the utility’s service territory … after steady winds approached 35 mph.
By 8:30 p.m. about 12,000 customers were affected by the outages in Tukwila, unincorporated King County, Alki Beach and the Sacajawea neighborhood of northeast Seattle.
The specific causes of the outages were not immediately known. Until crews discovered the cause, it was impossible to provide an estimate for when power might be restored. Additional crews were being called in to
help restore power.
A WSB team member is heading north to report back on who’s out and who’s not; we’ll also be checking with City Light for progress reports. 9:20 PM UPDATE: We’re collecting weather links too. Here’s the hourly observations from the National Weather Service — “K91S” is Alki Point, with 34 mph sustained at 9 pm. Thanks to Lou for including this live weather link from Our Lady of Guadalupe (near High Point) in comments. 9:22 PM UPDATE: On California, the outage starts north of Admiral Safeway (which has power), and continues north to Walker (map). We’re checking east and west boundaries – stand by — to the east, Jack in the Box is dark; more to come. 9:27 PM UPDATE: Power is out along Admiral all the way downhill to The Bridge, according to our roving reporter, who is now heading west on Admiral to see how far it stretches toward Alki/Beach Drive. Keep the updates coming in comments – where Pete has reported downed-tree trouble in Pigeon Point – thanks! 9:33 PM UPDATE: On the west side, the outage ends at about 45th SW/Admiral – if you know of any pockets west of there that are out, please post a comment or e-mail us. Note that in the outage zone, businesses that are out include Metropolitan Market and the Admiral Theater. 9:43 PM UPDATE: Avalon is out of power too – up to Genesee (map). That includes the Luna Park Cafe area. 9:50 PM UPDATE: North of Fauntleroy on 35th, power is out on the east side of 35th (and downhill from there), but the west side seems OK. 9:55 PM UPDATE: City Light has put up its webpage with outage info – but the West Seattle boundaries are the same ones listed in the news release which are not the same ones we’ve verified (it mentions Alki Ave but we’re told Alki is OK, for example); it says almost 3,000 homes/businesses are out in West Seattle. Still no estimate on restoring power. 10:03 PM UPDATE: This photo just in from Elena Daly (thank you!), who photographed the seawall wave action at Constellation Park south of Alki Point about an hour ago:
10:12 PM UPDATE: City Light outage hotline has an update of sorts on the West Seattle situation – but there’s no new info – just “no known cause and no known time for restoration.” 10:27 PM UPDATE: Just uploaded this video from Admiral – camera sat on the dash as we drove from the outage zone (alley by Admiral Library, past Metropolitan Market, toward Admiral Safeway gas station) and into the not-out zone (Admiral Safeway itself):
11:04 PM UPDATE: City Light just sent another update but there are no West Seattle specifics; the utility reiterates that it’s called in extra crews and will work through the night as needed. We will continue checking for updates and will also head back out in a bit to see if anyone’s gotten power back in affected West Seattle areas yet. 11:37 PM UPDATE: No new outage info, but the “forecast discussion” promises things will calm down overnight. 12:06 AM UPDATE: Comments probably beat us to this report, but we’re just back from a quick spin through the FORMERLY blacked-out zone, and looks like everyone’s back on.
(photo added 3:40 pm)
ORIGINAL REPORT: Thanks to those who have called/e-mailed about the major police presence in the 16th/Trenton vicinity (map) and beyond — police tell us they are looking for an armed-robbery suspect who got away on foot. Working to get info on what/where was robbed. 3 PM UPDATE: More information from Detective Nick Bauer at SWP: Officers are going through neighborhoods in the late 8000s/9000 block areas of 16th and 17th looking for the robber, who held up the GameStop store on Roxbury with a gun. He even pointed the gun at an officer at one point but managed to get away. We’ll keep you updated on the search as we find out more. 3:18 PM UPDATE: Lt. Steve Paulsen just confirmed that the suspect has been arrested. 3:33 PM UPDATE: GameStop has this sign on the front door.
Police were still inside the store interviewing employees about the incident as of 3:20 pm. We have a phone call and email into their coporate headquarters in Texas to see when the store might reopen.
“Fire in single-family residence” callout in the 3800 block of Delridge (map) – right by The Bridge – WSB team member en route to check it out. 2:51 PM UPDATE: Small fire, “handled before (fire crews arrived),” according to firefighters on the scene, who are already packing up to pull out (they later told us it involved transients and smoking – the house is apparently vacant).
Since more than a few people have e-mailed and texted, just wanted to let you know we’re monitoring the scanner to see if we can figure out what the Admiral-area search is about (perhaps there’s an area resident with direct knowledge?) … nothing obvious so far (and we have the helicopter frequency on our scanner too so we usually hear what they’re up to), and there’s no 911 medic calls in the area, which at least indicates that if a crime was involved, nobody’s hurt. We’ll update if we find anything out. 10:42 PM UPDATE: This is still not official info but two different e-mails have said the same basic thing so we feel comfortable about passing it along – apparently some kind of assault happened in the area. Absolutely no information about circumstances, but police told one resident that they were looking for an “assault suspect.” Don’t know if that person was found – still no scanner traffic hinting at something active. 12:39 AM POSTSCRIPT: Still not another shred of info, anecdotal, scanner, or otherwise. Will try our best to see if we can reach anyone at the precinct tomorrow for followup.
The police car shown in that video clip, and a pickup truck, suffered notable left-front-end damage after a collision within the past hour at the curve just uphill/south from the Fauntleroy ferry dock; map here. (Thanks to the cell-phone tipster who texted us with word of this.) Traffic is flowing past the scene again, and a tow truck was there while we were there; no info on the circumstances but officers at the scene told us “everyone is OK” and the fact no medic units were called out seems to underscore that. THURSDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: According to police Lt. Steve Paulsen, the crash happened while police were responding “to a disturbance at Lincoln Park” and is blamed on slick roads. He confirms all involved are OK.
Thanks to Joe for the tip. This is at Jan’s Salon at California/Frontenac (map). The driver is OK and says he missed the corner swerving to avoid something or someone. Nobody was in the beauty shop because it hadn’t opened yet; we’re told the owner has been called and is on the way – we’ll check back in with them a little bit later. Looks like significant damage to at least this corner of the salon:
Thanks to those who’ve texted us in the past few minutes about a big police presence with roadblocks just west of The Junction – described by one text as Genesee between 45th and 49th and Alaska, by another as 47th to 51st between Hudson and Juneau. We’re monitoring to see if we can figure out what it’s all about – sounds like some sort of search under way; no medic calls in the area so doesn’t appear to be anything that left someone hurt, or worse, at this point. 11:49 PM NOTE: Still no details on this … if we don’t get any tonight, we’ll let you know when we are able to find out from the precinct what it was about.
Thanks to tipsters who e-mailed about seeing huge contingent of fire crews rushing to this. Exact address is on 911 log as 4511 35th SW, our crew’s in the area and trying to pinpoint. 6:31 PM UPDATE: Finally found it – alley behind apartment/commercial buildings along 35th near Snoqualmie, south of Alaska (alley is west of 35th) (map) – smoldering electrical vault, neighbors tell WSB it started about an hour ago, some units are without power because of it. Several engines and City Light still on scene. No injuries reported. 6:39 PM UPDATE: City Light also says it’s had trouble with this vault before, because of rewiring for buildings in the area, some of which have apparently had intermittent outages. Photos to come. 6:52 PM UPDATE: Photos added. Above, the fire units; below, the vault (Friday morning addendum — City Light tells WSB repairs were completed at about 1:35 am today):
Just starting to check this out now. 911 log says it’s in the 6000 block of 21st SW, which is near the Croft Place intersection east of Delridge. Team member heading that way, will update here when we get info. King County property records describe the address listed on the 911 log for this call, 6025 21st SW, as a single-family home owned by the city. 6:58 PM UPDATE: Neighbors tell us at the scene that this was a domestic dispute – a woman reportedly stabbed a man and he’s gone to the hospital. “It’s all over now,” says our reporter at the scene. Checking with police to find out more. 7:37 PM UPDATE: Police media-info line tells the story as following: 18-year-old woman under arrest, suspected of stabbing boyfriend “in his 20s” in the front yard of the house, with a “large kitchen knife.” First 911 call came from a neighbor at 6:12 pm. The victim is at Harborview Medical Center with what police describe as “life-threatening injuries.” The woman is expected to be booked into county jail, facing a possible charge of felony domestic-violence assault. No one else hurt, no one else involved or being sought, according to police spokesperson Jeff Kappel (who also adds there’s NO new information on last night’s Delridge shootings).
(scroll down for latest updates – newest update, 2:08 am)
(photo of Delridge/Juneau roadblock taken by Sage K, added 11:53 pm)
Helicopter and many police involved right now in search centering on the 5600 block of Delridge. The call is “assault with weapons 14” which usually means multiple patients known or suspected. Trying to find out more. Thanks to those who e-mailed us with first word. 11:03 PM UPDATE: Whoever they’re looking for in this, scanner traffic indicates they’re not in custody yet, so if you’re in that area, be safe and be sure to call 911 if you see/hear anything/anyone suspicious. 11:05 PM UPDATE: One TV report says woman and boy shot. We heard scanner traffic talking about a 12-year-old male gunshot victim so we believe that’s from this incident. We’re also hearing that police may be looking for two suspects. 11:10 PM UPDATE: Victims taken to Harborview Medical Center, which indicates serious wounds. According to King County records, 5625 Delridge is a duplex. 11:17 PM UPDATE: According to the police media-info line, this started with a 911 call around 10:30 pm from a woman reporting hearing 10 to 12 gunshots. The media-info line describes the victims’ wounds as “non-life-threatening” and also says a third person was believed to have been shot at, but not hit. 11:36 PM UPDATE: Nearby residents say the helicopter has left the area, but we are not hearing any scanner indications of any arrests so far. Sage K does report northbound traffic is still being rerouted at Delridge/Juneau, where police have the road blocked. Sage also sent photos; stand by. 12:01 AM UPDATE: Lots of new info in update we just got from the Seattle Police media-info line. Most important: “Tentative” description of the vehicle police are seeking – a burgundy SUV. That’s ALL the information they have on possible suspects. Also, they identify the victims as a mother and her 12-year-old child. She was shot twice in the chest; he was shot in the back of the shoulder. Both are expected to survive, according to police. They say the search and investigation currently involves: Guardian 1 (helicopter), K-9, CSI, homicide, and gang units. Nobody in custody as of this report filed moments ago. 12:47 AM UPDATE: Sage K reports in comments that Delridge is now fully open again. No notable scanner activity in the case for a while, meantime. (We’ll keep monitoring till at least 2 am and will post whatever we hear/learn …) 2:08 AM UPDATE: For anybody still awake and wondering, no new developments reported. We’ll continue to monitor for a while longer, as we’re still working on an unrelated article that has to be done before the WSB newsroom shuts down for the night.
Thanks to Mac for the tip:
> There’s a car that jumped the curb westbound on The Bridge, up the hill by Walking on Logs. Heavy rescue is on the scene, traffic is slow.
UPDATE: Tow truck on the scene as we arrived – traffic moving normally now. Here’s a photo. Nobody hurt so far as we can tell; fire crews cleared pretty quickly:
Not sure exactly how many vehicles were involved; debris scattered over a fairly wide range (note the foreground of above photo). Medics appeared to be helping at least one person. Obviously, stay away from the area TFN. 4:13 PM UPDATE: Tow truck is just now helping clear the scene; should be open again soon.
(photo by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli shows SWAT team members, with shields)
Just got word from the scene, the standoff is over. Relatives tell WSB it started about 1 pm when the suspect tried to cut himself with a knife; a relative called 911, and the standoff ensued from there. Again, according to what we have been told at the scene, no one was hurt, and things in that area (5400 block of 31st; map) should begin returning to normal.
UPDATE: Here’s some pictures from WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli.
Just after 1 pm the initial response included a City Light truck.
That’s the house where the suspect lives. It’s about 100 yards west of 31st. Police kept residents and the media on 31st and allowed no one to go no further for the first hour – except the suspect’s aunt, who went in with a negotiator:
About 30 minutes before the standoff ended, neighbors were allowed back into their homes:
ADDED 7:18 PM: This video clip shows an unusual side effect … two school buses that needed to get through the area, which is on a narrow, steep street, and had trouble getting around everything from police to fire to TV crews:
(photo by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli)
Heavy police presence including SWAT team at a house in the 5400 block of 31st SW (map). It started as an assault with weapons call; we don’t know if anyone is hurt, but neighbors tell WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli there’s been trouble at the house before. One person is reportedly inside; it’s just a standoff right now. 2:35 PM UPDATE: Here’s what else Christopher and another WSB team member on the scene have learned — According to family members, no one has been hurt; the weapon involved is a knife. Police negotiators arrived a few minutes ago and are either talking to the suspect or trying to talk with them. Obviously this is an area to stay well clear from until it’s all over; we’ll have photos/video later. 2:55 PM UPDATE: Police have allowed some nearby residents to go back into their homes. 3:27 PM UPDATE: Word from the scene – it’s over, ended safely. Separate post to come.
(video added @ noon, quick look at police presence at scene)
ORIGINAL REPORT: Just in from a reliable tipster:
Attempted break-in 37th north of Admiral
Three black male teens – looked about 16-17 yrs old
Two PERHAPS apprehended on Admiral Way bridge over ravine
Police in neighborhood looking for third suspect
Remember, if you see anything/anyone suspicious, CALL 911 – police reiterate this over and over. More on this when we get it. 10:25 AM UPDATE: The WSB team member on the scene reports two suspects are indeed in custody by Merrill Gardens/Admiral Heights and being questioned now, after first having been spotted in the Metro Market vicinity. More later. 12:17 PM UPDATE: A few more details from Lt. Steve Paulsen at the Southwest Precinct, who confirms the arrests and promises more info later:
We just arrested 2 burglary suspects ..They were 3 all together, one got away….tied to two burglaries in the Admiral neighborhood. Great work by all. … All juveniles who don’t live in West Seattle.
Listed on 911 log as “fire in single-family residence”; just heard scanner traffic describing it as “exterior house fire.” Thanks to Todd for the tip. Off to check it out. Map here. 8:58 PM UPDATE: Our person at the scene says it’s no big deal; the fire crews “didn’t even break out the hoses.” However, traffic’s being rerouted – for now, anyway – at 16th/Barton.
Several fire units responded within the hour to the closed Fairmount Park Elementary building – the 911 log just cleared the call and describes it as an “automatic fire alarm” call. A neighbor reports, “15 minutes of watching two trucks full of firefighters try to carefully remove door hinges. Then the school district key holder shows up and they open the door the old-fashioned way. Only smell of anything was the diesel from the fire trucks.” (FP closed after last school year; the district is holding it as “inventory” for possible future use rather than putting it up for sale.)
Another crash on 35th — this time blocking the outside northbound lane between Dawson and Hudson (map). At least one person is hurt and is being put on a stretcher. No other info but it’s worth avoiding that area for a while if you can. (Photo above added 7:13 pm; we don’t have any details on what caused the crash. Trivia point, the fire truck seen in our photo is the same one we photographed at the James Apartments fire earlier today – busy day for Ladder 11.)
A small fire at the James Apartments (on California north of Walker, map) is now out, nobody hurt, but about two blocks of California were closed for a while because of the huge response (thanks to those who called/texted/e-mailed us about it). The incident commander told us at the scene that the fire may have started in a ground-floor unit’s kitchen; that unit may be damaged too badly for its resident to return immediately. Investigators were on the way a short time ago to work on finding the official cause, as firefighters mopped up:
For the second time in less than 12 hours, a vehicle has hit a building in West Seattle. WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli is out on the “heavy rescue” 911 call in the 4400 block of 55th SW (map) and texted us with the description “truck vs. house.” 1:05 AM UPDATE: Police on the scene tell Christopher nobody is hurt; the truck’s driver fled before fire/police arrived and will face a hit-run charge if/when found.
Thanks to Ricardo Guarnero @ Cafe Rozella for the tip – he says there’s been a crash at the 17th/Roxbury corner (and sent photos; he says it looks like the Taqueria Guaymas building is OK but the van that hit it took out a hydrant – you can see it in the lower left of his photo) – good idea to avoid that area for now. (No medic unit was dispatched, so no serious injuries so far as we can tell.)
Just back from 35th/Thistle (map), where two cars collided; both were badly damaged – the two people in one of them got out OK, the driver in the other had to be cut out by rescue crews and was rushed to the hospital. Avoid the area. Thank you, to the people who called and texted us, just as we heard the sirens and were starting to check into what was going on. This is the same intersection where a pedestrian was hit and hurt exactly two weeks ago. Sorry our night photography leaves something to be desired; for perspective’s sake, here’s a wider shot, with one damaged car at left, the other far right – this is looking northeast from the southwest corner of 35th/Thistle:
P.S. As of 10:04 pm, nearby resident Stephanie says the intersection has just reopened.
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