West Seattle, Washington
25 Monday
Just talked to the Southwest Precinct – they’ve arrested the key suspect in the laptop thefts last night at Freshy’s and Monday night at Cupcake Royale. (Previous WSB coverage here and here.)
Thanks to Jo for the tip that it looks open now – we just called owner “Thampay” Thilakarajah; he tells WSB the store will officially open 7 am tomorrow. (Here’s our in-depth article from last month detailing what he says AUM will offer.)
This just in from Michael:
I *just* witnessed a robbery at Freshy’s coffee on California. Three
young African-American men came in and asked the barista how often
some bus came by. She answered, then they milled around for a minute
acting like they were debating if they were going to wait. Then one
guy grabbed the open laptop of a woman who was sitting near the door
and bolted, along with another one of the guys. The woman screamed and
chased after them. The third fellow stood around saying “What’s going
on?”, but it was clear that he was in on the scam — either trying to
block other people from chasing the perps, or to grab something else
while people were distracted.The woman came back to the coffee shop a few minutes later saying that
one of the guys had knocked her to the ground very forcefully when she
chased them; she ended up with a big welt on the back of her head.
Meanwhile another patron chased the guys as well and saw them leave in
a red car parked near the high school. The barista called the police
and they’re on the way. The victim said she’s from out of town, making
it that much worse.This was such a deliberate, organized crime that I’m sure they’re
going to try pull this again. Please tell everyone to be on the
lookout, to protect their laptops and other valuables when they’re
out, and to keep an eye out for people running this kind of scam.
If you haven’t been to Freshy’s and can’t place the location — west side of California, south of the Admiral District, across from Hiawatha.
Recap and update from what’s in the post below: Fire reported at Charlestown Cafe just after 5 pm. No word yet on cause or extent of damage; the restaurant is needless to say closed TFN – City Light crews had to shut off its power. From what we could see at the scene, the building’s exterior is relatively unscathed, but neighbors told WSB at the scene that at one point, “huge flames” were coming from the roof, which firefighters had to cut into. No injuries reported so far. Thanks to everyone who texted and e-mailed us about this — especially WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli, who sent first word from the scene – he took the photo above and the ones below, more to come:
En route to Charlestown Cafe on California Ave to check out fire call – details to follow.
UPDATE 5:30 pm: Fire is out – exterior looks relatively undamaged. Firefighters had to ventilate the roof to let smoke out.
UPDATE 5:45 pm: California Avenue has reopened. Neighbors say big flames were shooting from the roof for a while.
Photos from Evan Baumgardner.
So says KIRO TV. Looking for more details now, such as where they found him; other citywide media are now (12:23 pm) confirming the arrest, but no location yet. Slog says police will announce more details at 1:15 pm. 12:29 PM UPDATE: KING just reported the arrest was made at 40th & Cloverdale – they didn’t include a street direction (S or SW) though – we’ll check further – our money’s on S since SW is within earshot of us and we haven’t seen/heard anything. 12:37 PM UPDATE: Tony says in the comments on this item that KOMO reports MLK/Elmgrove as the arrest location (here’s a map), which isn’t far from 40th/Cloverdale, so we seem to have established it happened in South Seattle. 12:42 PM UPDATE: Confirmation on that. 1:43 PM UPDATE: More details in a just-updated Times story, which has yet another slightly different version of the arrest location (3700 block Cloverdale). (Previous reports: Here’s the original coverage yesterday; here’s the update early today about police finding the suspect’s car.)
So says Charlestown Cafe owner Larry Mellum, 
in an e-mail response to our inquiry about a note that a reader saw posted at CC, saying it looks like the project that posed the most immediate threat to the restaurant’s future is indeed stalled, or maybe even dead. (Background: First word of CC losing its lease was a year and a half ago; the community started rallying to save it last March; most recent Design Review meeting on the Petco store proposed for the cafe site was last August our last report on the project’s nonprogress was in December.) Tonight — here’s what Larry just e-mailed to WSB:
By all indications it appears that Madison Development has pulled out of the project. The Landlord’s agent, Rick Megenity, and I spoke last Friday and that is what he said.
Further, he indicated that Madison has not responded to the Landlord’s requests both in writing or verbally to tell them what is going on. Nor have they been able to meet the formal time lines for development that were laid out in the agreement between them. All that being said, Madison has NOT and I repeat HAS NOT formally backed-out. I don’t however believe that they have to. Because by virtue of their non-performance the contract likely has been breached. What this means without putting words in anyone’s mouth is that the Landlord is likely to proceed in finding some other means of re-development at the Charlestown location. They have indicated that this is how they would hope to proceed. In my conversations with them, we discussed putting some type of multi-use facility here that would include space for a restaurant suitable in size for a “Charlestown-like” location to be included. Although they cannot or will not lock themselves into anything at this juncture, I believe they would like it developed in that way.
So, there you have it. It looks like the community and ‘Charlestown has won the “first round” and by all indications we could be here for a long time to come. If not in our current form it will be in a form suitable for the landlord to receive what he wants — which is more rent out of the property, BUT STILL HERE situated with a couple of other retail and/or office tenants.
Thank you for your inquiry … and to all of West Seattle, thank you for your overwhelming support. It is truly humbling.
Best wishes,
Larry Mellum
Charlestown Street Cafe
We had checked both with Petco and with city planners in the past few weeks; Petco said only that they hoped to stay in West Seattle one way or another, city planners said they hadn’t heard anything in quite some time. (Previous WSB coverage of the Charlestown Cafe situation is all archived here.)
ADDED 3:20 PM: Thanks to WSB contributor Sage K for this photo of the bullet holes in the window at Longfellow Creek Apartments (map), from the shots 23-year-old Rey Alberto Davis-Bell (photo at bottom of this post) is suspected of firing (nobody was hit/hurt) before the deadly Central District shooting in which he may also have been involved:
ORIGINAL 2:19 PM POST: OK, here’s more of what we’re piecing together from various sources regarding who police are looking for in the shots-fired case at the Longfellow Creek Apartments a few hours ago that is apparently linked to the shooting that seriously injured two people at a restaurant in the Central District (2:50 PM UPDATE: one of the victims there is now reported to have died):
-According to Scott from Central District News, police are looking for “a 2002 black Lincoln, 4 door, with license 210 XMJ.”
-Another source tells us that the suspect, 23-year-old Rey Alberto Davis-Bell, 23, has a long rap sheet. Police say he’s who they’re looking for in the Delridge shots-fired case, though they’re not yet ready to definitively link him to the CD shootings. Here’s his photo as posted on Slog:
The King County Superior Court jury found ex-Huling Bros. employee Adrian Dillard not guilty of burglary, 
but guilty of theft and guilty of money laundering. His former co-worker Ted Coxwell was found guilty of burglary and theft. All this in the scheme that came to light a year ago, involving stealing money from a mentally incapacitated customer and also taking the truck he’d come to the dealership to buy. Verdict came in just after 1 pm – details to follow later. 2:25 PM UPDATE: The jury, 3 women and 9 men, deliberated about 5 hours total — 2 yesterday, 3 today, reaching their verdict just before noon, breaking for lunch, then delivering it at 1 pm. As reported here earlier this week, prosecution testimony lasted more than a week, but defense testimony took only a day. In addition to the verdicts as mentioned previously, there also was a special finding that Dillard should have been aware that the victim, Richard Grey, was particularly vulnerable. Sentencing is set for late March; one other development of note, the judge granted the request of Coxwell’s lawyer to set his client free — Coxwell has been in jail ever since his arrest in mid-January of last year — he’s already served more than the maximum possible sentence for the crimes of which he has been found guilty.
Police are investigating shots fired at the Longfellow Creek Apartments at Delridge and Juneau. Nobody hit but some damage done. Updates later. 1:30 PM UPDATE: Thanks to the commenters who pointed out that this is believed to be connected to a shooting in the Central District – we were downtown at the courthouse for the Dillard/Coxwell verdict and away from our usual immersion in the rest of the mediasphere.
Bulletin from the Seattle School Board meeting under way right now (live on Channel 26, though no further Denny-Sealth discussion is expected tonight) — in her “superintendent’s updates,” Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson said there will be a community forum at Chief Sealth High School on Feb. 4 to present the 3 options under consideration (continue current plan, continue current plan but add some $ to Sealth renovations, rebuild Denny on its own site and renovate Sealth separately) — this apparently is separate from the Westwood Neighborhood Council‘s planned Feb. 5 meeting on the project (we will check with the Westwood folks to be sure). Then, she said, a resolution will be introduced at the Feb. 13 school board meeting recommending which option to pursue, and the board would vote on it at its next meeting after that, Feb. 27. More later, including highlights of the Denny-Sealth speakers in tonight’s public comment period (all opposed to the consolidation project — is there a reason no supporters ever seem to appear?). 11:30 PM UPDATE: Speaker recap ahead:Read More
Thanks to WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli for checking this out (map) – big callout for starters but it was called off relatively quickly so nothing big, but in case you heard the sirens, we’re letting you know.
Just got a reader tip that traffic is starting to slow because of a medic call at 42nd/Alaska (Capco Plaza construction site) – don’t know the nature of what happened but at least two fire/medic units have responded, and our tipster saw somebody down on the ground being helped by fire crews. 11:23 AM UPDATE: Just went down to have a look – the scene is clear now.
This just out of the inbox, from Teresa (thank you!):
Was at the Westwood Starbucks this morning and there apparently is a man that is approaching women and actually trying to touch them inappropriately. One of the employees of Starbucks was calling the police as I was leaving. He apparently approached a grounds worker while I was getting my coffee. PERV!
No word so far if anyone was caught.
Just out of the inbox from Doug (thank you!):
I just witnessed the strangest thing up at the Junction (at 11 am). A commercial truck totally cut the corner too sharp turning right off Calfornia onto Alaska, and the top of the truck banged into the neon Easy Street overhang.. leaving a big dent.
The truck then proceeded to back up– scraping it again. People caught in the middle of the “walk all ways” scramble had to dodge this guy– one lady was so scared she totally stopped in the middle of the intersection and stood there.
The guy drove off.. and parked about a block away. Several people (including me) walked over and got his license tag. Don’t know if he plans on going back over to Easy Street … but I’ve already called and given them my information.
We subsequently went down and got the photo you see above. Not major damage – a gash underneath the overhang. And it did appear the truck driver went back. 12:50 PM ADDITION: 2 more photos, these from WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli, one with a different view of the dent, the second showing glass on the nearby crosswalk approach (which he mentions in the comments below):
First top line from the school board’s just-concluded work session – maybe the Chief Sealth HS community’s concerns about the consolidation project would be alleviated if the district added at least $5 million to the Sealth renovations, for items such as a new roof and a new gym floor? District administration wants to focus on either that option or the current plan; the newer school board members want some more financial facts on the “rebuild Denny at Denny” third option too, before discarding it entirely. More details shortly; the work session wrapped up at 5:41, and the board is now about to launch into its regular session.
Police, fire and medics are converging on California near the southwestern entrance to Thriftway. Looks like “a guy down in the street,” according to our witness; more when we find out more. 2:25 PM UPDATE: Call closed, scene clear. Apparently a medical problem rather than an accident.
EVENING UPDATE: Please see other coverage higher up the WSB home page (here and here) for additional info; we did, however, just add the photos seen above, sent by friend Krissi. AFTERNOON UPDATE: Just checked the Red Cup door; the service for Angelia Paulsen is this Friday morning, 11 am @ St. Stephen the Martyr Church in Renton. Here’s the note that’s on the door:
ORIGINAL 9:23 AM REPORT: Meredith just e-mailed to say that Red Cup Espresso in The Junction is closed and a note on the door says its owner has died. 9:28 AM UPDATE: Another reader e-mail says the owner died in a traffic accident yesterday morning and services are this Friday. 9:40 AM UPDATE: Washington State Patrol public information officer Trooper Jeff Merrill just confirmed to WSB that 36-year-old Angelia Paulsen, Red Cup’s owner, is the woman killed when her car crashed on I-5 in South Seattle early yesterday. Citywide media covered that crash; thanks to “k” for finding a short mention in the middle of this Times “digest.”
Fire charred the northeast corner of an apartment building at 9200 15th SW this afternoon. Multiple fire units and police were on site. NEW INFO: According to a 5 pm update on the Fire Department media hotline, the flames were confined to one unit on the 1st floor, where one person lived; firefighters evacuated everyone safely from this 10-unit apartment building (county property records here), and no one is hurt. (Later Monday night, investigators determined “smoking materials” accidentally started the fire.) Photos are by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli; we also added 2 WSB video clips below these next two photos:
Thanks to everyone who e-mailed, called, and texted to make sure we heard about this!
If you are anywhere near West Seattle HS, you know there’s a fire callout there right now. First it called out as an automatic fire alarm, now scanner traffic says a maintenance person thinks there MIGHT be a “small” fire in one room. So the fire department’s checking it out. 7:23 AM UPDATE: Now they’re talking about resetting a detector, so this doesn’t sound major. 7:29 AM UPDATE: The 911 log shows the call closed. Just in time for the first day of school post-break.
ORIGINAL 1:42 PM REPORT: The fire department’s sending out a big response in that direction – a diver apparently got into trouble – report of CPR under way now – diver’s companions all out of the water and accounted for. 2:35 PM UPDATE: Scene was cleared by the time we got to Seacrest. Appears the diver was rushed to the hospital. 2:40 PM UPDATE: Information gathered at the scene by WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli, who took the photo above (more to come):
The injured man was recently engaged. He and his fiancee are avid divers. In fact, I learned that when he recently proposed to his girlfriend they were on a dive together. He put a ring in a shell and sank it in advance of the dive. When they found it he opened the shell and had an underwater sign to ask if she’d marry him. Today there were a handful of divers out there. This man was off diving on his own in 25 feet of water. The fiancee was not diving with him today but was on the scene and was visibly shaken. Another diver told me that when the diver did not come up his friends alerted the other divers who went over to where he was diving and executed a search.
2:55 PM UPDATE: According to the fire department’s media-hotline update, the diver is in his 40s and was indeed diving solo, and as Christopher learned, found unconscious underwater. The fire department did not have an update on his condition – we will check on that again later. More of Christopher’s photos:
2:35 PM UPDATE: Everything’s open again now.
ORIGINAL REPORT: Breaking news from WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli: A crash has closed the bridge heading toward downtown, around Fauntleroy. 911 website shows 2 fire/medic units on the scene. Sounds like they are diverting cars from Fauntleroy to Avalon. Right now you can see that on this city traffic cam showing the blocked-off Fauntleroy entrance to the bridge; here’s the latest image … 3 PM NOTE, live traffic cams now removed from this post because they’re no longer relevant BUT here’s an earlier photo of the 35th roadblock, thanks to Eric for sending it:
Just back from King County Superior Court, where former Huling Bros. salesperson Paul Rimbey was sentenced less than an hour ago for 1st-degree theft, after a jury found him guilty last month for his role in a scheme to steal from a mentally unstable dealership customer. His lawyer wanted the basic maximum, 3 months; the prosecutor asked for 18 months; the judge made it 9 months, with work-release provisions so Rimbey can continue at the fulltime job he says he just finally got after a year of trying to find work. He cried while pleading for leniency, and supporters/relatives in the courtroom cried too. 2:31 PM UPDATE: Here’s our full report:Read More
| 6 COMMENTS