The following are selected reports from the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct. They represent the officers’ accounts of the events described.
Unintentional Stabbing
At 7:15 p.m. on Nov. 28, someone called 911 to report they’d seen a man pointing a knife at another man on the northeast corner of First Avenue North and Mercer Street. Responding police spoke with two homeless men who were panhandling in front of the store at First and Mercer. They both said they hadn’t seen any disturbance with a knife, but about 10 or 15 minutes prior, a suspect had pushed one of them over. That suspect had left the area going southbound.
A second 911 call came in stating there was a stabbing victim walking southbound on First Avenue North near Republican Street. This was about a block away from the original reported location of the incident. Police found the victim, who was drunk. He said he didn’t want to press charges against anybody. He said the incident happened about a block away, but wouldn’t give any additional information.
Police again approached the two homeless men who, after being informed the suspect did not want to press charges, admitted that they had been involved in the incident. They said the victim got off the bus and approached one of them, and tried to punch him. The second homeless man, in attempt to protect his friend, took out his folding knife and held it out in front of him in self-defense.
He told police he didn’t think the knife made contact with the victim, who walked off southbound. Police told the man they needed the knife, but he said he threw it down a gutter somewhere.
Startled Burglars
Just after 4:15 p.m. on Nov. 25, police responded to a 911 call from a construction site in the 600 block of Roy Street. The call reported that a group of construction workers had been assaulted with pepper spray. The assault occurred in the storage room of the building the construction team was working on. The crew had finished up for the day and had been bringing their equipment back to the storage room. The first victim to enter the room walked in on a group of three suspects, who had broken into the room. The suspects were startled, and one suspect swung a skateboard at the victim’s head before pepper spraying him. Hearing the commotion, the two other victims came into the room and were subsequently pepper sprayed by the suspects. The suspects then fled the room, leaving in an unknown direction.
Responding police and the general contractor for the site responded and found that the suspects had broken into the storage room by prying a piece of plywood off the east side of the building. After entering through the east side, the suspects walked through the garage on the south end of the building and kicked through a shared wall on the north end of the garage and south end of the storage room. The general contractor told police nothing was stolen during the incident.
Aggressive Shoplifter
At approximately 7:15 a.m. on Nov. 26 an employee of a store in the 2000 block of 15th Avenue West called 911 to report an instance of shoplifting that just occurred. He said he’d seen the suspect come into the store and grab a bottle of liquor off the shelf. When the suspect turned around the bottle was gone. The employee stopped the suspect as he went to exit the store and asked to see inside the suspect’s messenger bag. The suspect refused and pushed the employee out of the way, exiting the store and leaving the scene. When police arrived they watched the surveillance video with the employee and saw that the suspect did indeed put the bottle into his messenger bag. The video also showed the suspect push the employee at the door. Due to the nature of the incident, and the suspect refusing to give the merchandise back, police are considering this a robbery.
Strange Lurker
Just before noon on Nov. 29, a couple living in the 3400 block of 14th Avenue West called 911 to report their apartment had been broken into. They said they’d left the apartment at about 7:45 a.m. that morning, and one of them had returned about an hour later to discover the burglary. They said that when they left the apartment they saw a suspicious looking man sitting on the retaining wall in front of their apartment. When one of them returned, the suspect was gone. The front door had been pried open and two laptops, several pieces of jewelry, cash and a credit card had been taken from inside the apartment.
ATM Theft
Just before 1 a.m. on Nov. 26, police responded to an alarm break in the 2500 block of 15th Avenue West. Suspects had smashed out a small window next to the back door of the business, and the free standing ATM was stolen from inside the building. The suspects used a hand truck from the west side of the driving range to move the ATM to the east side of the driving range. They broke the top of the ATM off and left it at the east side of the range. The hand truck was found near a pathway to the adjacent truck lot. The suspects likely loaded the ATM into a waiting vehicle near the lot. Police searched the scene and found some potential fingerprints. They spoke with the manager of the business, and he said the ATM held, at maximum, about $300.