The following are selected reports from the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct. They represent the officers’ accounts of the events described.
Bicycle Rights
Just after 11 a.m. on June 21, police responded to a 911 call from the 100 block of Denny Way reporting a car hit a bicyclist.
Several witnesses told responding officers the same story. The vehicle in question and a cyclist had been traveling west down Denny Way. The bike was splitting the two lanes of traffic: riding between a car in the inside lane and a Metro bus on the outside lane. The suspect car was in the inside lane.
When traffic stopped the bicyclist stopped his car in front of the suspect car, blocking it with his bike. He stood over his bike and began yelling at the driver, holding a heavy bike lock in his hand and making the motion of striking the hood of the car with it.
The suspect driver, who later stated she was afraid the bicyclist would break her windshield and get glass in her face, hit the gas and rammed the bicyclist. The bicyclist was thrown into the car in front of the suspect’s. That car was damaged with two dents and a scuffmark. The back wheel of the bike was bent, rendering it unrideable.
As all witnesses described the bicyclist as the aggressor in this incident, no arrests were made. Police advised all involved parties that the case would be sent to the law department.
Laying in Wait
At approximately 6:45 a.m. on June 26, police responded to a robbery at a store in the 3800 block of 34th Avenue West.
The victim is a bookkeeper for the store. She said she loads the registers with cash from the safe every morning. This morning while she had the safe open a man approached her from behind. He grabbed her and pushed her neck while he took money from the safe.
Once he was finished, he ran out the south doors and through the alley. Responding police searched the surrounding area for the suspect but didn’t find him.
Security footage showed the suspect, who was wearing gloves and a mask, come into the store and unfold a black bag. He pulled a handgun from his back pocket and put it inside the bag. He went to the back and waited at the safe for the victim to come open it. He got away with a little more than $3,000.
Failed Burglary
At approximately 1:45 p.m. on June 26, a woman called 911 to report somebody had tried to break into her grandfather’s house overnight.
She said her grandfather was in bed from 9 p.m. the previous night until 6 a.m. that morning. When he got up, he noticed his front door was difficult to open, like the door was stuck in the jamb. It looked like there were fresh pry marks on the door jamb and the metal trim around the door was bent.
The victim said a similar incident had happened about six months earlier, when someone drilled a hole in the front door near the deadbolt. In both incidents the would-be burglar failed to gain entry to the house.
Vigilant Neighbors
Just after 2:45 a.m. on June 24, police responded to a store in the 1700 block of Dexter Avenue North after neighbors called 911 to report two men broke a storefront’s glass window and were looting.
Responding police found a witness holding down a suspect; he was taken into police custody. The witness said he’d been in his apartment across the street when he heard the glass break. He went outside and saw the suspect climbing out of a broken window in front of the store. He chased the suspect, who tripped over a bush. The witness caught the suspect and held him down until police arrived.
A second witness on scene said she also lives across the street and heard the glass breaking. She thought it was a car prowler until she looked outside and saw all the lights were on in the store. She recorded the incident on her cell phone. It showed the suspect running back and forth inside the store and then climbing out through the broken front window. Next it showed the first witness stop the suspect.
Police observed the scene: a broken out front window and two shattered glass counters. Merchandise was missing from inside the counters. Some of that merchandise was found scattered around the ground where the suspect was stopped by the witness. The damage totaled about $3,000 plus about $500 of merchandise was stolen.
Viced
Just before 1:15 p.m on June 26, police responded to a burglary at an apartment building in the 1500 block of Fifth Avenue West.
A resident reported hearing a noise loud enough to wake him at about 2 a.m. on the 24th. Thinking it was nothing he fell back asleep. Earlier that day, he went down to the basement and found somebody had used vice grips to break the doorknob.
The burglar attempted to break into a locked storage room using vice grips but wasn’t successful. Vice grip marks were found on both doorknobs.