Open Invitation
Just after 4:15 p.m. on July 26, police responded to an apartment in the 2200 block of 15th Avenue West after a resident called 911 to report a burglary. The victim told police that they often leave the front door of their apartment standing open when they leave. The resident was away from home that day between 11:10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and left the front door open. When the resident returned, they noticed a stack of 10 $1 bills were missing from their desk. The resident spoke with the building manager, who reviewed the building’s security camera footage, but refused to tell the victim who went into their apartment. Officers spoke with the manager, who said the camera in the hallway did capture another resident going into the apartment. Officers spoke with the resident who’d gone into the apartment, and they said they had been looking for the victim. They said they left right away once they realized the resident wasn’t home. When police told the victim who had gone into his apartment, they said they were friends and did not suspect them.
Rude Awakening
Just after 10:30 p.m. on July 26, police responded to a burglary at a house in the 2200 block of 15th Avenue West. When officers arrived, the homeowners were standing in their pajamas on the front porch, and were visibly shaken. There was a hole in the glass of the front door with glass on the front deck and on the floor inside the entryway, and a rock on the floor inside the door. The male victim said the two had been upstairs in bed at 10:25 p.m. when they heard the crash. He went downstairs and saw his wife’s purse was on the ground; it had been sitting on a chair near the door. The victim said he’d ensured the deadbolt was locked before he went to bed, but when he came downstairs it was unlocked. The burglar must have reached in through the broken window and unlocked the door, come inside to rifle through the purse and left right away. The burglar was most likely sorely disappointed to find the purse was empty. Nothing was missing from the house and nothing else appeared to be misplaced or disturbed. In the yard a side gate that was previously closed was now standing open. Police found fingerprints on the deadbolt and doorframe.
Strange Disturbance
At 4:30 a.m. on July 25, police responded to 911 calls from an alley in the area of 32nd Avenue West and West Smith Street reporting a disturbance. When they arrived, officers found a man lying on the ground in the alley bleeding from the head. He said he’d been attacked and hit in the head with a flashlight for no reason. The guy who’d hit the man with the flashlight was standing nearby. He said he’d been in his house when he heard a disturbance. He came out with his flashlight, because it was dark outside, and he saw the suspect on top of his neighbor’s son. He saw that the son was bleeding, and thought he was being stabbed. The victim’s mother was standing over the two men, trying to pull the suspect off her son. The man with the flashlight hit the suspect over the head three times, until he released his grip from the victim. Medics from Seattle Fire Department took the suspect to a nearby hospital. When police asked the victim’s mother to speak with him, she said his father had taken him to the hospital.
Officers met up with the victim at the hospital. He said he’d been inside when his family was awoken by the suspect causing a disturbance in the alleyway; he was yelling and banging around garbage cans. When he went outside to ask the man to stop, he charged him and began attacking him with a baseball bat. The suspect pinned him down, and he thought he was going to kill him, until his neighbor came out and hit the suspect with a flashlight.
Unhinged Behavior
Just before 7 p.m. on July 27, a woman called 911 from the area of Queen Anne Avenue North and West Crockett Street to report a suspect had just purposely burned her child with a cigarette. Police arrived and detained the suspect as she was attempting to get on a southbound bus. They found the woman and her child nearby and found a fresh burn mark on the child’s arm, consistent with a cigarette burn. The victim’s mother stated she and her child had been sitting at the bus stop waiting for the bus when the suspect approached and sat next to her child. The suspect looked down and put the butt of a lit cigarette onto the child’s arm. The mother immediately grabbed her child and left the area, calling 911 and waiting nearby. The suspect was arrested for assault and child abuse.
Between Friends
Just before 10:15 p.m. on July 28, officers responded to the area of West Mercer Street and Third Avenue West for reports of a fight. They found the victim with blood on his face and hands, and there was broken glass on the ground. The victim said three men had robbed him; one was his friend of ten years. The victim had cuts on his face and a possible broken nose. A witness approached the officers, and told them he’d seen the whole thing. There had only been one other person involved in the altercation, and he’d seen the two men begin to fight. He said it looked like the fight began over a beer. He broke up the fight after the suspect hit the victim so hard he fell over onto his face, breaking his glasses. The broken glass on the street was the beer bottle the victim had been holding. The witness said he’d followed the suspect to Kerry Park. Police located the suspect in Kerry Park. He said he’d been friends with the victim for 13 years, and they’d recently moved to Seattle together. The two fought because they were both alcoholics, and the victim had stolen a beer from their workplace. Police found the victim’s wallet in the suspect’s pocket, so they arrested him for robbery.