Capitol Hill Seattle
|
|||||||||
Storiesin Capitol Hill |
View by List | Grid |
Assailants described as appearing to be too young for even PG-13 movies have been reported in two different armed purse snatches on Capitol Hill and First Hill.
Here's the account of the pint-sized bandit's Sunday morning hold-up:
The victim in the incident told officers she was robbed by two young black males, one approximately 13 to 14 years old, the other she believed to be 10 or 11.
The victim told officers she was approached by the two as she walked near . One of the kids pointed a black pistol with a white stripe at her and demanded her purse. The woman told police that at first she did not take the threat seriously because of how young the two street robbers appeared but then the one with the gun appeared to chamber a round. At that point, the victim said, she handed over the purse to the boys who ran away and got into the car described above.
A duo matching the same description and with the same game plan struck again early Monday morning on First Hill near . CHS reports that the incidents are reminiscent of a string of armed robberies in the area this spring involving a group carrying an air gun for their firepower.
SPD says no breaks in the case yet.
Yesterday, we told you that a woman talked a mugger out of robbing her at an ATM in Wallingford, and now we've got a report that a woman lectured another robber into submission on Capitol Hill last week.
According to a police report, the woman was waiting for a bus at 19th and Thomas on Capitol Hill around 2:30am on May 20th, when a woman came out of the bushes near the bus stop and told the victim to "hand over her bag."
Although the suspect was holding a revolver, the victim "proceeded to lecture the suspect about trying to rob her in her own neighborhood," the report says.
The suspect was apparently uninterested in listening to the victim's lecture, and left the scene.
The victim wasn't able to call police until about an hour after the incident because her cell phone battery died. Police were unable to locate the sheepish suspect.
In other news, being loud and authoritative just might be more effective than carrying mace!
A woman was robbed of her cell phone at a bus stop on Capitol Hill earlier this month after she fell for the old ask-someone-for-the-time-and-steal-their-cellphone trick.
A police report says the woman was waiting at a bus stop near 11th Ave and E John St at about 10:30am on May 10th when a man approached her and asked her for the time.
When the woman pulled out her phone to check, the suspect asked if her phone was an iPhone, and then tried to grab the phone out of her hands. The suspect then knocked her to the ground and stole her phone.
When a witness at the scene confronted the man, the suspect told them "thats my girlfriend and that bitch took my phone." The man then fled the scene. According to the report, the woman told police she'd never met the man before.
Several witnesses at the scene chased after the suspect—one on foot, the other in a car—who got into a white Saturn and drove off.
One witness followed the suspect in his car, but eventually lost him around 18th and Mercer when the suspect "started recklessly going through red lights."
Police were able to track the Saturn to an apartment at 18th and Mercer, but when officers checked the unit, a neighbor said it had been vacant for at least a month after the previous tenant was evicted.
April 27, Capitol Hill
A smiling robber ran up behind a woman, grabbed her cell phone and fled near 16th Ave. E and E Thomas St. around 4 p.m. April 27, according to the police report.
The robber fled south on 17th, then west on John. One witness, who was walking east on John, told police the unknown robber was smiling and said, "This is crazy," as he ran by.
No suspect was located. The victim received a Band-aid for a scratch on her finger.
April 25, Downtown
A person in his late teens was waiting for a bus with his wallet in his hands at 3rd and Stewart around 10:45 p.m. April 25. An opportunistic suspect in his mid-20s with a small afro, blue jeans and a tan jacket approached him and slapped the wallet out of his hands and onto the ground. The suspect then picked the wallet up and ran west on Stewart, then north through an alley between 2nd and 3rd.
The victim chased after the suspect, but when they headed into the alley, the suspect said he "had a burner," and the victim stopped chasing.
The suspect was not found.
April 19, Beacon Hill
A college student was robbed around 8 p.m. April 19 near the Beacon Hill Link Light Rail Station. The robbers made off with his wallet and backpack, which contained his school supplies for college, such as a graphing calculator, according to the police report.
A witness said the two attackers followed the victim from the transit center, and that the victim was unaware he was being followed. The two then approached the victim and started yelling. The victim said they threatened to beat him. He handed over his wallet and North Face backpack.
He had $15 in cash in the wallet, and his backpack held his red water bottle, keys for his car and house, and school supplies, such notebooks, pens and a graphing calculator.
The suspects fled in different directions. No arrests were mentioned.
Three teens police say were working as a street robbery team have been charged in a one-night string of armed muggings around Capitol Hill in mid-April.
18-year-old Cedric Brooks, 17-year-old Delnik Brown and 19-year-old Shanica Lee faces charges of two counts of first degree robbery and one count of attempted first degree robbery each in connection with the string of area street robberies that occurred on Saturday morning, April 12.
According to court documents, Brooks was the man identified as carrying the air gun and brandishing it as a weapon in the hold-ups. He has prior convictions for vehicle prowling, according to the documents.
Delnik is a minor but faces charges as an adult due to the nature of the crime he is accused of. He has two past convictions for robbery and another for a vehicle prowl.
Meanwhile, Lee, pegged as the driver by police, has a prior conviction for theft. She remains at large after being released from police custody following her arrest the night of the robberies. Brooks and Delnik remain behind bars.
Last week, Brooks entered a plea of not guilty on all counts but his trial date has not yet been set. He could face up to five years in jail if convicted. We are working to confirm the status of the case against Delnik.
The three gave police south King County addresses, according to court documents.
The first street robbery happened round 12:35 AM at Summit and Harrison, followed by another around 12:45 AM at Summit and Union and another just after 1 AM at 15th and Union. The alleged street robbers were nailed near Terry and Madison when an officer noticed a vehicle matching the description of a getaway car seen in one of the attacks.
In the first attack, a man was pistol whipped and his wallet was stolen. In the second, near 15th and Union, a man was punched in the face but was able to run away without being robbed. In the last attack, a couple were robbed of their cell phone, a messenger bag and cash.
In all three robberies, victims described their attackers as two black males and said one wore a red jacket. The duo used a handgun to threaten them, the victims told police. One witness reported seeing them flee the area of the attack in a reddish car with a bad taillight, according to a police department spokesperson.
Victims were able to identify Delnik and Brooks as their attackers and, according to the court documents, Brooks admitted to police that he had committed the robberies armed with an air gun while Lee admitted that she was the driver on the night of the robberies. Delnik told police that he was present during the robberies but did not participate.
Police officers recovered one of the victim's messenger bag from the car. Beneath the seat, officers found an Airsoft pistol, according to a police spokesperson.
Previous
The woman who was hit by a car in a parking lot near Harvard Ave and E. Thomas has died, according to Seattle Police. SPD says the woman was walking on the sidewalk Monday afternoon in front of parking spaces at an apartment building when she was struck by a truck backing into a spot. The driver was arrested and booked into jail for investigation of vehicular assault. He also showed "signs of impairment" when tested for alcohol or drugs. We have received information with various ages listed for the victim. SPD says she was 91. Some more details from CHS commenter --MC:
I agree that people should slow down in the intersections, but in this case the accident took place in the parking spaces behind the apartments. The SUV driver backed too fast into the space and knocked the old lady down. He ran off, but was later apprehended.
Vehicle/pedestrian collision fatality on Capitol HillTCIS detectives responded to investigate the collision and process the scene. Detectives were informed later that the victim died at the hospital from her injuries. This remains an on-going investigation.
Two female students were suspended from Seattle Central Community College last week after an argument at SCCC's beauty school turned ugly and erupted into a brawl, and police were called.
The argument began at about 6:45 on April 7th, when one of the fighters took offense to some comments made by the other student. They began yelling at each other loudly enough to attract the attention of a school staff member. One of the girls threw a stack of books to the ground and the punches started flying.
The girls fell to the floor, punching and kicking each other until they were separated by school staff, who called the police. One of the fighters had a cut on her lip from a kick, but did not want medical attention.
No one was arrested and neither girl wanted to pursue charges.
Seattle police arrested a man armed with a "slap stick" and a handgun at R Place on Capitol Hill last week after the man allegedly assaulted an employee.
At about 11:30pm on March 26th, staff at R Place—on Boylston and Pine—contacted a man who was "drinking and causing a disturbance" at the bar, and asked him to leave. Instead of hitting the bricks, a police report says the man "yelled incoherently" and stuck his hand in an employee's face.
When employees tried to remove the man from the club, the report says the man pulled out a "slap stick"—a leather sheath wrapped around a thick, heavy piece of metal which, according to the report, is a prohibited weapon—and smacked a staff member in the head, "causing an inch-long laceration and swelling."
Security staff grabbed the man and escorted him outside the club. When police showed up, the man told officers he was carrying a handgun in an ankle holster.
"The weapon was recovered and found with a round in the chamber, the magazine full, and ready to fire," the report says.
The report indicates the man told officers he didn't know it was illegal to carry a gun in a bar.
Police arrested the man for assault with a deadly weapon and booked him into the King County Jail.
A man was arrested for attempting to steal $1,000 in boneless beef tenderloin and attacking a security officer with a screwdriver at the Capitol Hill QFC on 15th and Harrison, according to the police report. The security guard was shaken-up, but was not hurt.
Police were called to the scene around 9:15 p.m March 23 when a caller reported that a man was loading boxes of beef into his blue Saturn station wagon. After being notified by an employee, a QFC security guard (employed by Phoenix Security) identified himself as a security guard to the hamburglar, who attempted to get in his car and flee. The guard caught-up to the man near the drivers' side door where a struggle ensued. The porterhouse pilferer allegedly grabbed a screwdriver from the passenger seat and tried to stab the guard with it. The guard was able to dodge the attacks.
Another security guard, who witnessed the struggle and the attempted stabbings, was able to reach through the passenger side door and handcuff the alleged beef thief.
When interviewing the first security guard, the officer noted that the guard's hands were shaking and he had beads of sweat on his forehead. The guard summed the events up: "That guy was stealing meat and when I tried to stop him he tried to stab me with a screwdriver."
A bartender at Neighbours on Capitol Hill was left with bumps and bruises after he was assaulted in an apparent gay bashing near the club last week, a police report says.
Shortly before 3:00 a.m. on February 17th, the bartender called police and said he had been assaulted at Harvard Ave and E Pike Street about 20 minutes earlier by a man wielding a baseball bat. The police report notes officers had received a call about a disturbance at Harvard and Pike around the time the man claims he was assaulted.
The report says when police arrived, they found the bartender, who appeared "heavily intoxicated." He then introduced himself to officers "by saying he is a bartender at Neighbors and he is gay." Neighbours staff could not be reached Thursday night to confirm whether the man is an employee.
The man told police he was walking to his truck with a friend when he heard two men "yelling gay epithets at him."
The bartender confronted the two men, who were sitting in a silver Mercedes, the report says, and the driver got out of the vehicle, pulled out a baseball bat, and hit the bartender in the head.
The bartender told police he "diffused the situation" and the two men left.
Medics checked the bartender out—the report says he repeatedly told medics he was a "cowboy"—and recommended he go to a hospital to be treated for the bump on the back of his head and hearing loss he had suffered in the attack.
The police report indicates the man provided police with several different versions of his story—likely due to the fact that he was drunk—but told officers a QFC security guard had witnessed the assault.
Police spoke with a QFC guard, who told officers he witnessed the victim "slamming his hands on the trunk of a silver Mercedes" prior to the attack. The guard's account makes no mention of whether the two men in the Mercedes made anti-gay remarks.
According to the guard, the two suspects told the bartender to get away from their car, and one of them pulled out a baseball bat.
The security guard told police the victim "dared" the suspects to hit him, and then lunged at the man with the bat, who struck the bartender in the head. The bartender then lunged at the man a second time and was again struck in the head before he was taken away in a truck by a woman, the guard said.
When police confronted the bartender with the guard's version of events, he eventually admitted that a friend had taken him away from the scene. Police then asked the bartender if he'd had too much to drink."No, I haven't had too much to drink...I'm a bartender," the man told police.
"When I told him that the comment doesn't mean much...he looked confused and then said "Blow me!," Officer Kathryn Andre wrote in her report. "I believed he meant a breathalyzer to show his level of intoxication."
The man told police he would go to the hospital and went on his way.
While the victim's muddy recollection of the incident makes it difficult to tell what did and didn't happen, the incident is being investigated by police as an anti-gay assault.
What may perhaps be the most troubling detail of this incident is the fact that the QFC guard witnessed the attack and apparently did not intervene or call police.
We'll see if we can find out more about this incident—which police are investigating as an anti-gay assault—later today.
Photo via Google Street View
According to police, a woman was assaulted by an aggressive panhandler. outside of the City Market on Bellevue Ave and Olive Way on Capitol Hill around midnight on February 15th.
She was walking in front of the City Market when she heard a man behind her ask for change. "Without turning, she replied that she had no change," a police report says. "The Suspect then grabbed by the hair from behind and pulled."
The woman struggled with the man, who eventually let her go.
The woman walked away and called 911.
The report says police may have seen the suspect sleeping in the doorway of a nearby laundromat earlier in the evening, but when officers went to look for him he had moved on.
Just heard a scanner call for an assault w/weapons at Denny and Howell. More info coming, but that's what the red dot on the map is all about.
Update: Doesn't sound too serious. There was a man down but the scene was secured pretty quickly and some units have already left. We'll update when we know more.
Update x2: We've now heard this was a self-inflicted injury with an airsoft gun.
According to police, an angry, naked man assaulted a Seattle police officer following a domestic violence incident on Capitol Hill last week.
On February 4th, police were called to a home home in the 200 block of 14th Ave E at about 10:00 p.m. after, the report says, the man assaulted his girlfriend—with whom he has a six-month old child—after she refused to have sex with him.
Police found the man totally naked, brushing his teeth in the bathroom. Police handcuffed the man after he became "hostile towards officers."
The report says officers "offered to assist [the man] in putting on some clothes," but the man wasn't interested in covering up. "Just try to force me to put my clothes on," the man reportedly told police. The man then "made it clear that he would resist..or assault officers if we attempted to put his clothes on," the report says.
Police called for backup and escorted the man to a patrol car—apparently sans clothing. The man refused to get in, struggled, and apparently assaulted an officer. The report does not provide details on the assault, but it does not appear the officer was seriously injured.
At the East Precinct, the report says the man "looked hatefully at two female officers and mumbled something to himself." Shortly thereafter, in an interview with police, the man told officers he is "Sudan refugee and a Dingo Warrior, so he was not scared of anything." The man—who, according to the report, is a defense contractor at Fort Lewis—also told police he "hated the United States and wants to be deported back to Sudan."
Seattle police are looking for a gang member suspected in several robberies at a school on Capitol Hill.
Police were called to the Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center/Nova building on 21st Ave E and E Thomas shortly before 8:00 a.m. on January 12th after a student was robbed near the school's playfield. According to the report, the suspect approached the student, grabbed him by the collar, brandished a 4” knife, and told the boy "give me all you have" in Spanish and English. The suspect grabbed a gold necklace off of the boy and then fled. Police searched the area but were unable to find their suspect.
The suspect is described in the report as a "Hispanic male, 5'9"-5'10", thin build, black short cropped hair, black mustache, 1-eyebrow pierced and the opposite eyebrow was partially shaved, and a lower lip ring." The suspect was also wearing a sash around his waist, indicating "possible street gang orientation within the Hispanic community." Police believe the suspect may have robbed another student inside the school a day earlier.
Staff at SBOC and Nova were told to watch out for the suspect and call 911 of they see him again.
A 52-year-old men was rushed to Harborview in critical condition early this morning after he nearly died attempting to rob a man half his age on Capitol Hill.
According to Seattle Police Department spokesman Jeff Kappel, a 26-year-old man was walking in to his apartment building in the 1600 block of Melrose Avenue at about 2:30 this morning when the 52-year-old came up behind him, grabbed his groin and his wallet, and attacked him. The 26-year-old man fought back and two bystanders had to jump in and separate the two men. Moments later, the 52-year-old robber collapsed.
The bystanders flagged down a patrol car and officers used a defibrillator to resuscitate the 52-year-old robbery suspect, who was then taken to Harborview in critical condition. He is currently under guard at the hospital and will be booked into the King County Jail for robbery as soon as he is released.
He might want to think about a new line of work when he gets out. He's clearly getting too old for this shit.
Police were called to Boylston and Union just before 6:00 p.m. after a man in his thirties was shot in the chest. According to a source, multiple shots were fired. A white male in his mid 30s was struck in the chest with at least one low caliber round. Our source says the victim is carrying multiple cell phones and has a strong odor of marijuana about him.
It sounds like police are searching for a black Mercedes.
Capitol Hill Seattle spoke with a witness at the scene who says this was a robbery. As we noted earlier today, SPD crime stats show robberies are up 19% over last year.
The man was alert and conscious when officers and medics arrived, but he is being taken to Harborview to be treated for what looks like a fairly serious gunshot wound. According to Seattle Police Department spokesman Jeff Kappel, the victim has life-threatening injuries. Our sources tell us the man is expected to survive.
Kappel says the suspect or suspects fled the scene in a dark colored sedan and "remain at large."
As of 8:00 p.m., police have reopened the street.
Photos via Capitol Hill Seattle
