POLICE BLOTTER | April 26, 2017

The following are selected reports from the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct. They represent the officers’ accounts of the events described.

No Free Refills

Just before 8 a.m. on April 18, police responded to a 911 call reporting a disturbance inside a grocery store in the 100 block of Mercer Street.

When officers arrived, they found the suspect outside on the sidewalk. His knuckles were bleeding; he said this happened while he was being dragged out of the store by employees.

Seattle Fire Department crews responded and medics bandaged the suspect’s knuckles. The store manager told police he’d responded to the bakery after being informed there was a disturbance wherein the suspect was demanding a free refill on a cup of coffee, which is against store policy. He said the suspect was yelling and using racial slurs, so he asked him to leave. The suspect refused to leave.

When the manager put his hand on the suspect’s shoulder in an attempt to guide him out of the store the suspect began yelling and waving his cane around, hitting the manager several times. Several employees grabbed the suspect and carried him outside.

When they put him down on the sidewalk he punched the manager in the side of the head. The employees held the suspect down until he calmed down. The other employees told the same story as the manager. The incident was also captured on the store’s surveillance cameras. The suspect denied hitting the manager, but he was arrested for assault.

Can Toss

Just before noon on April 17, police responded to a convenience store on Denny Way after the clerk called 911 to report a customer had just thrown an energy drink at his face.

The clerk stated the suspect, who is a fairly regular customer, approached him at the counter and accused him of staring at a female customer. The clerk told the suspect to leave, and before he did he grabbed an energy drink bottle and threw it at the clerk, him in the left cheek just under his eye.

Ambushed

At approximately 1:45 a.m. on April 18, police responded to a robbery in the 100 block of Mercer Street. The victim had a large cut on his forehead.

He stated two suspects, a male and a female, had run toward him while he was walking down the sidewalk and pushed him to the ground.

The male kicked him in the head then the female suspect went through his pockets and stole his phone, change, and bus pass.

After the robbery the suspects ran south on Second Avenue West. The victim told police the female suspect lives in his building in Ballard.

Kick to the Shin

At approximately 4:45 p.m. on April 15, clerks at a convenience store on Denny Way called 911 to report a suspect had just assaulted a clerk.

They stated the suspect entered the store and said he wanted a phone. He sat down on the floor next to the cashier's area, near the cigarette cases and lottery tickets.

The clerk told the suspect he couldn’t be in that area. He stood up and walked towards the door, then turned around and came back. He kicked the clerk in the shin and jumped over the counter.

The second clerk confronted the suspect, and he left the store. He was last seen heading northbound on Queen Anne Avenue North.

Pharmacy Robbery

Just before 11 p.m. on April 14, employees of a grocery store in the 1900 block of Queen Anne Avenue North called 911 to report a robbery at the pharmacy counter.

The employee on duty told police she’d noticed the suspect had been loitering near the pharmacy counter for a while before he jumped the counter and approached her stating, “Shut up give me promethazine and codeine.”

The suspect was very specific saying he wanted promethazine and 30 milligram Oxycodone tablets. The victim opened the safe the narcotics are stored in and informed the suspect there was only one bottle of promethazine and no 30 milligram tablets of Oxycodone.

Instead, the suspect took more than 400 tablets of different dosages. He jumped over the same counter and ran out of the building.

The store manager told police the incident was recorded on the store's surveillance cameras. Police tried to set up a canine containment to find the suspect, but due to the high-traffic of the area, weren’t successful.

Storage Unit Break In

Just after 2 p.m. on April 15, police responded to a forced burglary at a storage unit in an apartment building the 100 block of Taylor Avenue North.

The victim stated a tent, a winter jacket and a backpack were taken from the unit. One other storage unit in the room was reported broken into on April 11. In that report, the victim stated he’d been to his storage unit on March 29 and everything was intact. A security officer stated that he checked the storage room at 5 a.m. on April 11 and everything in the room was in order.

He said none of the lockers were open, and there were no signs of forced entry into the room. The burglary was discovered at 6:30 p.m.

There were no signs of forced entry into the storage room only the individual units. The locks and latches were bent but the padlocks were still place.