SPD just sent out an update on this morning's big police response in the Central District:

On September 2, shortly before 8:30 AM, East Precinct officers responded to a report of shots fired from an apartment balcony in the 2000 Block of East Yesler Way.  Officers nearby heard the multiple shots.  911 received numerous calls on the shots fired. 

The initial report stated that a black male wearing a dark colored sweatshirt came out of the apartment onto a small balcony and fired a handgun numerous times before returning back inside the apartment. 

Witnesses reported seeing the man do this twice.  Officers arrived quickly and surrounded the apartment.  There were also reports of the suspect possibly leaving the building and walking down the street and heading to nearby Pratt Park, so officers had to check those areas as well.  Officers were able to confirm that the suspect was still inside the apartment. 

SWAT officers responded to the scene and made contact...

SPD Blotter:

Robbery Detectives developed information during the course of the investigation that led them to the identity of one of the suspects involved in last week’s home invasion robbery in Highland Park. On September 1,  detectives with the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force located and arrested a 37 year old suspect at 260th and Pacific Highway South in Des Moines.  Robbery Detectives were following up on additional leads at a motel in Federal Way when another suspect wanted in this crime was spotted.  He fled when he saw detectives and multiple units responded to the area in an attempt to locate him. The suspect was able to elude capture.   At approximately 6:20 PM that 45 year old suspect was located and arrested by Federal Way Police and turned over to the Robbery Detectives.  Both suspects were interviewed  by detectives and later booked into the King County Jail on Investigation of Robbery.  This remains an on going investigation...

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg says he will seek the death penalty for Christopher Monfort, who allegedly waged a one-man war against Seattle police last year.

Monfort is accused of firebombing several SPD patrol cars at a city repair facility in the International District on October 22nd, nine days before he allegedly ambushed and fatally shot Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton—also wounding Officer Britt Sweeney—as they sat in their patrol car in the Central District last Halloween.

Here's the statement from the prosecutor's office:

This morning, I filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in the case of State v. Christopher Monfort, who is charged with aggravated first degree murder for the slaying of Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton.

Monfort is also charged with the attempted first degree murder of Seattle Police Officer Britt Sweeney, Officer Brenton's partner, the attempted first degree murder of Seattle Police Sergeant Gary Nelson, arising from Montfort's conduct...

From the Post Globe:

To effectively fight the prostitution of children, it helps to look at the chronic problem in terms of supply and demand.

“You will never bring down this business on the victim’s side. The driver is on the clients’ side,” said Kaffie McCullough, campaign director of the Atlanta non-profit organization A Future. Not a Past, dedicated to stopping the prostitution of children.

McCullough was one of about 80 service providers from non-profit, government and law enforcement agencies who gathered at Seattle City Hall Tuesday to focus on the problem. Few cities have a coordinated effort to help prostituted youth, and Seattle is now getting serious about tackling the problem.

The business is much bigger than many people think. McCullough shared the results of research in Georgia on the shadowy problem: 7,200 men a month in Georgia purchase sex with a female under 18 years old, and more than 400 girls are exploited each month. By 2013, that number could...

Seattle police are are looking for an armed man who fired off several shots outside of his Central District apartment this morning.

Police received a call about a man firing shots from a balcony of an apartment across from Pratt Park on 20th and Yesler at about 8:30am.

Officers have surrounded the building, and are now looking for the man. It's not yet clear whether the man is still inside the building.

Update: police only have a vague description of the suspect: a black male wearing a black sweatshirt.

Update @ 9:29- Seattle police are working with a crack negotiator—the man's mother—who is on the phone with the man, trying to coax him out of his apartment.

Update @ 9:35- Police believe there may be 3 or 4 other people inside the apartment with the man.

Update @ 9:36- Police have one person in custody and are trying to get three more people out of the apartment.

Update @ 9:42- Sounds like everyone is safely out of the unit.

Update @ 10:09- 20th back open to pedestrian traffic.

More info... (more)

An employee at a Capitol Hill shop told police he believes he was attacked by a shoplifting suspect earlier this week because he is gay, a police report says.

Around 2:00pm on August 29th, employees at a store on Broadway and Harrison spotted five black females, all around 20 years old, carrying bags and trying to leave the store with merchandise they hadn't paid for.

When one of the women set off a security alarm, an employee approached the women and asked them to stay in the store.

The women refused and left the business.

The employee followed the suspects down E Harrison Street, and called 911.

When the employee caught up to the suspects at 400 Harvard and told them he had called police, one of the women walked up to the employee, said "get away from me you stupid faggot," and punched the man on his shoulder.

The suspects then walked off and scattered, and the employee returned to the store.

The man told police the suspects "stole a large amount of merchandise using the bags to conceal the merchandise"... (more)

As we reported yesterday, there are some flaws in The Stranger's recent report on why pot arrest levels are "worse than ever" in Seattle.

Today, just as we said they would, Mayor Mike McGinn's staff issued a lengthy FAQ, correcting the record on the Stranger's pot hit piece.

We've already pointed out some of the inaccuracies we discovered in The Stranger's reporting, but here's another big one, by News Editor Dominic Holden:

This year, 147 people have been referred to prosecutors with pot as the only charge, according to records from the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and the city attorney's office. That is a fivefold increase in the number of pot-only cases (last year, only 28 of the 120 arrests were referred for prosecution with pot as the only charge). In other words, pot-only arrests rose from 23 percent to 85 percent.

This is a drastic shift toward busting people solely for pot.

Uh, not so much, says the mayor's office:

In the first four months of last year about 6,500 incident reports were filed with the City Attorney’s Office. In only six of those incidents was marijuana the reason for the contact. Only .09% of incident reports during this time period cite marijuana as the primary reason for a contact.

Although it may appear that marijuana was the “sole charge” in a lot of incident reports, it often looks that way because the reason for the stop was either a traffic citation (which isn’t a criminal charge), or to execute a warrant.

Most police contacts involving marijuana occur because of an unrelated offense. For example, of the incident reports filed between January 1st and April 30th of this year (the time period covered by the Stranger’s public disclosure request), there were only eighty that cited possession of marijuana.

Only 21 of those 80 incidents were not related to 911 calls, traffic stops, or on-street drug dealing, says the mayor's office. And of those 21:

[A]ll but six were incidents in which the officer stopped the suspect for a reason other than marijuana, and discovered marijuana incident to the arrest.

Those six remaining incidents all involved individuals openly smoking marijuana in front of a police officer.

Now that Mayor McGinn's office has corrected the record on The Stranger's piece, let's see if The Stranger does the same.

The full release can be found after the jump.

An FAQ on marijuana enforcement in Seattle

There have been a few questions recently regarding marijuana enforcement in our city.  We’ve put together a FAQ to help answer these questions.

1. Is enforcing simple possession of marijuana really SPD’s lowest priority?

Yes. In the first four months of last year about 6,500 incident reports were filed with the City Attorney’s Office. In only six of those incidents was marijuana the reason for the contact. Only .09% of incident reports during this time period cite marijuana as the primary reason for a contact.

2. Do police officers ever stop someone solely because of marijuana?

Yes, but very rarely. Although it may appear that marijuana was the “sole charge” in a lot of incident reports, it often looks that way because the reason for the stop was either a traffic citation (which isn’t a criminal charge), or to execute a warrant. If someone is arrested because of an outstanding warrant, the offense for which the warrant was issued isn’t a new violation, so review of the City Attorney’s records would cause one to conclude (incorrectly) that marijuana was the only criminal violation at issue.

3. Why do officers have to report that they took my weed? Can’t they just flush it and let me go on with my day?

Police officers are expected to document every incident accurately and by the book. When an officer comes across someone with marijuana, whether during a traffic stop or execution of a felony warrant, he or she is obligated to seize it. There have been a number of incidents across the country in which an individual alleges that an officer stole his/her narcotics. Because cities have been sued and officers relieved of their duties because of these allegations, it is SPD policy that every drug seizure be properly documented in an incident report.

4. Why can’t an officer just record that he seized marijuana? Does he really have to recommend prosecution?

Police officers don’t decide or recommend whether or not to prosecute. An incident report is simply a narrative description of what happened. Each report is categorized by the “primary charge”, meaning the most serious offense outlined in the report. An Assistant City Attorney will look at every report the police send over and decide whether or not to charge. The decision to charge rests solely with the City Attorney, not SPD.

5. Why does the officer have to send a report to the prosecutor at all?

We have recently changed the way we send incident reports to the City Attorney’s Office. Formerly, incident reports were paper reports that were walked over to the City Attorney’s Office. Now, these reports are electronic and go from the patrol officer to a detective sergeant to be reviewed for accuracy, and then directly to the City Attorney’s Office. The only time a report wouldn’t go to the City Attorney or King County Prosecutor is if there’s no evidence or no suspect. The law gives our elected prosecutors the discretion to choose what to charge, but it doesn’t give the same discretion to the police.

The fact that reports are transmitted automatically may account for the increase in incident reports involving marijuana, because in the past some volume of low-priority incident reports were probably never sent to the City Attorney’s Office in the first place.

6. You said the police rarely stop people just for marijuana, and yet the City Attorney is declining all these marijuana charges. Where are these charges coming from?

Most police contacts involving marijuana occur because of an unrelated offense. For example, of the incident reports filed between January 1st and April 30th of this year (the time period covered by the Stranger’s public disclosure request), there were only eighty that cited possession of marijuana. Of these:

• 17 (21.3%) involved 911 calls for service. 7 were for narcotics complaints, meaning someone called 911 about drug-related activity and that drug turned out to be marijuana. 10 of those were dispatched calls for non-narcotics complaints like fighting, trespassing, or someone behaving erratically and blocking traffic and marijuana was discovered subsequent to the arrest. While enforcing marijuana laws is our lowest priority, responding to our community is our highest priority. 14 (17.5%) involved the serving of warrants. That is, officers encountered someone with an outstanding warrant, searched that individual, and discovered marijuana.

• 20 (25%) involved a traffic stop. Even under the most liberal legalization proposals, driving under the influence of marijuana would remain illegal, so when an officer stops a vehicle and smells pot, a search is clearly justified.
• 12 (15%) involved a High Drug Enforcement Area. These are areas of our city which see a high volume of drug trafficking, and have been targeted for heavy drug enforcement. When a cop sees a hand-to-hand sale, it’s not always obvious what drug was sold until they make the stop. Additionally, street-level dealers of heroin or cocaine often deal marijuana as well. Thus, marijuana shows up in the incident report.

• If you remove those four factors, you are left with 21 of the 80 incidents. Of the 21, all but six were incidents in which the officer stopped the suspect for a reason other than marijuana, and discovered marijuana incident to the arrest. Those six remaining incidents all involved individuals openly smoking marijuana in front of a police officer.

7. I keep hearing that marijuana is basically legal in Seattle. How serious an offense is it, really?

According to the City Attorney:

Marijuana possession remains illegal everywhere in Washington, including Seattle. Enforcement of “personal use” possession is the lowest priority for both the Seattle City Attorney’s Office and the Seattle Police Department. I don’t prosecute simple marijuana possession cases, but marijuana possession is still a crime, and people risk arrest and search incident to arrest for possession, especially people who choose to flaunt marijuana in the presence of law enforcement.

As for the “serious offense” question, under Washington law, possession of any amount of marijuana with intent to manufacture or deliver the marijuana is a felony, regardless of the amount of marijuana. Possession of more than 40 grams of marijuana is also a felony, regardless of intent. Possession of 40 or fewer grams of marijuana without intent to manufacture or deliver the marijuana is a misdemeanor. The King County Prosecuting Attorney is responsible for prosecuting felony offenses, so it is up to the county whether and how to charge felony marijuana offenses.

The King County Prosecutor's office has declined to file charges against SPD Detective Shandy Cobane for his involvement in a racially charged incident near a Lake Union nightclub earlier this year.

"After reviewing a thorough investigation by the Seattle Police Department, we have determined that Detective Shandy Cobane did not commit the crime of felony malicious harassment, the state's "Hate Crime" law, during an incident that took place in April of this year," the prosecutor's office said in a prepared statement.

"Prosecutors have found that he did not intentionally target and then threaten or assault a person because of their race or national origin as required under the State's hate crime statute."

Gang detectives were called to the China Harbor nightclub around 1:00am on April 17th after a man reported he was robbed in the parking lot of the restaurant.

Police, including Det. Cobane, stopped three men near the scene, and a freelance videographer later captured Det. Cobane kicking one of the men in... (more)

A Seattle man previously convicted of setting fires and attempting to derail trains has been charged with kidnapping, impersonating a police officer, and attempted extortion after he allegedly called an escort to his apartment, told her he was a cop, and tried to coerce her into having sex with him.

Julian Tarver, 25, allegedly contacted an escort on August 21st through an ad on Craigslist and asked her to come to his apartment in the 700 block of N 95th in North Seattle.

When the 18-year-old woman showed up and asked for money, Tarver—an apparent Seattlecrime.com fan (lots more on that in a minute) on Department of Corrections supervision for a child pornography conviction—allegedly went into his bedroom, returned, flashed a badge, and told the woman he was an undercover Seattle police officer working with the US Marshals on a sting operation.

Tarver allegedly told the woman the marshals were waiting outside the room and would "fire or take [her] down" if she tried to leave.

The woman later... (more)

A man sustained several broken bones in his face after he was jumped in the University District earlier this week, according to a police report.

The man told police he was walking along 47th and University around 1:00, when he turned to walk up towards 15th Ave NE.

Four men jumped the man from behind, punching him in the head, and knocking him to the ground.

While the victim was on the ground, the suspects hit him in the face "numerous times," knocking him unconscious.

The man later went to the hospital where doctors found that his right eye socket had been fractured, and his nose had been broken. The man also sustained cuts to his face.

The victim wasn't able to provide police with much of a description of the suspects. The report says the four suspects were tall males in their 20s.

The man told officers he didn't recall having any altercations earlier in the evening.

We've got another report of a violent incident at one of Seattle's bestest intersections: 12th and Jefferson.

On August 27th, police were called to the intersection around 9:30pm, and found a man at a bus stop, with a wound on his hand.

The man told officers that an "unknown person" stabbed him in the left hand, between his thumb and index finger.

The man didn't see what the suspect used to stab him, and did not see where direction the suspect fled.

Less than sixty seconds after Officer Ian Birk spotted John Trouble Williams crossing a downtown intersection Monday evening, Williams lay in the street, bleeding to death.

At a press conference at Seattle Police Department headquarters this afternoon, Seattle police Chief John Diaz, Deputy Chief Clark Kimmerer, and Acting Deputy Chief Nick Metz spoke about the incident, which was captured on SPD's in-car recording system. But that tape still apparently hasn't given police a full picture of what led Officer Birk to fatally shoot Williams.

"I have a lot more questions than answers," Diaz said this afternoon, adding that police are asking anyone who witnessed the incident to contact SPD's homicide unit (206-684-5550)

"No one in the department wants to use deadly force," Chief Diaz said.

Police say Officer Birk—who is 27, and has been with the department for two years—was driving southbound on Howell St when he saw Williams cross in a crosswalk, carrying a wooden board and a knife. Officer Birk... (more)

The Seattle Times has spoken with a woman who says yesterday's officer-involved shooting didn't go down quite the way SPD says it did.

Seattle Times:

One witness who contacted The Seattle Times has questioned the department's version of events and said the man may not have even realized the officer was trying to get his attention before shots rang out.

Amber Maurina, 28, said she was driving home Monday afternoon from a doctor's appointment and was stopped at a red light at Boren and Howell. She said she was facing north on Boren and saw the officer stop his patrol car, which was facing south on Boren, and get out.

Maurina said a tall and scruffy-looking man was standing with his back to her. She said she never saw the man's hands but thought he might be urinating or fumbling around in a fanny pack. Maurina said she watched the officer approach the man and saw him mouthing something to the man, who did not appear to respond.

"His body stance did not look threatening at all," she said...

Seattlecrime.com has learned that this week—possibly later today—Mayor Mike McGinn's office will release a statement refuting a recent story by The Stranger that asserts that Seattle police are aggressively going after marijuana users, making more pot arrests than ever.

The Stranger's piece, Pot Paradox—published the week of Hempfest—claims that between January and June of this year, pot arrests doubled when compared to the same period last year:

Between January 1 and June 30, Seattle police have arrested 172 people for marijuana possession, according to records obtained from the Seattle City Attorney's Office. While that's not a lot compared to, say, New York City, that's far more than double the rate of arrests at the midpoint of last year[.]

The piece also claims data from the City Attorney's office indicates "the number of people arrested just for pot...is astronomically higher now" and that "this year, 147 people have been referred to prosecutors with pot as the only charge.... (more)

Armed robberies seemed to be popular this week. Here are a few reports we came across today.

West Seattle:

Related date/time: Aug-25-2010 2219
On 08-25-10 I was working a two Officer marked patrol car with my partner,
Officer J. Ross #7578. At approximately 2118 hours, we were dispatched to
an armed robbery which had just occurred in the area of 11 AV SW and SW
Henderson ST. 

We arrived and contacted the victim  at his residence.

The victim  stated he got off the bus in the area of 9 AV SW and SW Henderson
and was walking to his house at the above address when he was approached by
a male subject, who asked him for a cigarette.   

The victim told him he did not have a cigarette. The male then asked him for money. 
The victim told him he did not have any money.

The male then reached into his front waistband and produced a black
semi-automatic handgun and pointed it at him. The suspect then racked a
round into the chamber, and the victim gave him his backpack, wallet and cell
 phone.

The male then took off running Northbound...

We missed a few items from SPD's blotter yesterday:

SPD's new online reporting system kinda led to an arrest:

North Precinct detectives recently investigated a case where a citizen utilized the new Community Online Reporting Program to report her bicycle stolen from her front yard on July 27th. The bicycle was actually taken on July 22nd.   The key to this case was the fact that the victim recorded the serial number of her bicycle when she filed the report online.  A few days later the serial number was matched to a bicycle that was pawned at a South Seattle pawn shop.  The seller turned out to be a convicted felon who has a habit of stealing bicycles.  The suspect had sold the victim’s bicycle on the same day she reported it missing.  The case has been forwarded to the City Attorney’s Office   for charges and the victim was able to recover her bicycle.

And someone stole a Seattle Times delivery van yesterday morning.

In what might be the best burglary report we've seen in awhile, a Phinney Ridge man came home to find a burglar in his house, reduced her to tears, and sent her home without any shoes:

Aug-25-2010 1843

The victim stated that he arrived home at approximately 1400 hours and entered through the garage.

He noticed that the front door was unlocked but the dog gate was still up so he assumed that his wife had forgotten to lock the door when she left.

He then set some items down in the entry way and went out the front door to the side yard where he set up the sprinkler system.

He came back inside and started to go from the main level to the second level. As he rounded the first landing, halfway between the first and second floor, he saw the suspect coming down the stairs from the second floor with three bags / purses. He recognized one of them as his wives.

He asked her "Who are you? What are you doing here?" She attempted to explain that she knew his wife and that she was suppose to be there but could not...

A Seattle police officer fatally shot a man armed with a knife at Boren and Howell this afternoon. Updates after the jump.

Photo by MacGoogly. (more)

Find out after the jump.

What the fuck?... (more)

A fairly routine warrant arrest in Lake City Thursday morning has turned into a major police investigation after officers stumbled upon "hundreds of thousands" of dollars worth of stolen goods in a home rented by a man with ties to the Animal Liberation Front, police sources tell Seattlecrime.com.

The case, which initially drew the attention of SPD's intelligence unit and the FBI, began when Seattle police and Department of Corrections officers stopped by a home in the 13700 block of 35th Ave NE  around 9:00am on August 26th, looking for a man wanted on a domestic violence warrant.

Police found their warrant suspect—who was apparently staying at the home, but does not live there—but also discovered hundreds of thousands" of dollars worth of laptops, GPS, computers, tools, stolen checks, and other items commonly taken in burglaries and car prowls, according to sources,.

Police arrested two men: the warrant suspect, and another 31-year-old man who has ties to the Animal Liberation Front, an animal-rights activist group, which has been connected to vandalism at research labs at Washington State University, a chicken exodus in Skagit County, and a firebombing at the University of Washington.

Police believe the 31-year-old man who rents the home, where he also runs a contracting business, is involved in "fencing"—or buying and selling—the stolen property.

Police served a search warrant at the man's home Friday morning, and detectives are still combing through the house, collecting evidence and boxing up allegedly stolen goods.

Detectives have found significant quantities of what they believe are stolen items, and one Seattlecrime.com source says police believe the 31-year-old man was running a "major fencing operation."

Another person familiar with the investigation also says the man is in a "circle of friends" with an ALF member currently hiding out in Syria, although it is not yet clear whether the 31-year-old man is providing any financial assistance to the ALF. The FBI and SPD's intelligence unit were notified of the case, but North Precinct burglary detectives are handling the investigation.

The 31-year-old man spent a year in a Washington prison in 2003 after he was found outside of a Tukwila building, dressed all in black, with a laptop wired up to the building. The man's laptop contained files referencing a former board member of a pharmaceutical company which performs tests on animals.

The 31-year-old man was later convicted of stealing telecommunications property. He has not yet been charged in connection with the current stolen property case.

SPD North Precinct Lieutenant Ken Hicks was at the 31-year-old man's Lake City home Friday afternoon, and spoke briefly with Seattlecrime.com about the investigation.

While Lt. Hicks would not confirm how much possibly stolen property was found in the home, he estimated the value of the items recovered thus far in the investigation is somewhere “between a dollar, and a lot.”

Around 12:30pm on Friday, a UPS driver pulled up to the house and got of his truck with a package for the 31-year-old man who rents the home. Police told the driver no one would be able to sign for the package.

As the driver walked back to his truck, he told officers that UPS had recently “put a fraud alert on the house.”

The 31-year-old man was released from the King County Jail on August 27th.

A Seattle man is facing malicious harassment charges—Washington's hate crime statute—for an alleged assault at a 7-11 near Seattle Center.

Prosecutors say Brock Stainbrook walked into the 7-11 on 3rd and Denny around 12:30am on August 24th, approached a man standing near a coffee machine, and punched him in the head.

"You're not even American, you're Al-Qaeda. Go back to your country," Stainbrook told the man, according to court documents.

Stainbrook then damaged store equipment and then tried to attack an employee before he fled, court records say.

Police received a 911 report and broadcast a description of the suspect "as a white male, 45, wearing a white t-shirt, black pants, and carrying one shoe."

Police found Stainbrook at 4th and Vine and arrested him. Records say he told police he "struck a person on his turban because he was a prick."

According to court records, Stainbrook has prior convictions for assault, trespassing, public intoxication, DUI, and two separate convictions for making... (more)

Were you one of the many folks wondering what brought that noisy cop chopper to the edge of Capitol Hill early Sunday morning?

We got an email or two about the chopper—as did our news partners Capitol Hill Seattle —and called SPD this morning to find out what all the fuss was about.

SPD tells us that King County's Guardian One helicopter was called in to assist police in breaking up a 20-person brawl in the 800 block of Columbia street around 2:30am on Sunday.

Police didn't make any arrests.

Violent crime is down 13% according to SPD's two-month old statistics.

Here's what that apparently looks like:

Click here for a closer look at the map.

We'll see if we can get more up-to-date stats from the Seattlecrime.com crime lab and report back on how violent this summer's been.

Three of those wacky, problem Aurora Ave motels are up for sale, says the PI.com:

Among those being sold are the Fremont Inn at 4251 Aurora Avenue North, and the Isabella and Italia motels, at 4129 and 4217 Aurora Avenue North, respectively, all owned by Dean Inman.

Last summer, the City Attorney's office filed 180 criminal charges for various tax violations against Dean and Jill Inman, then owners of five motels, and the corporations representing their properties: The Wallingford Inn, Fremont Inn, Seattle Motor Inn, Italia Motel and Isabella Motel.

In April, four Aurora Avenue motel corporations entered guilty pleas to some criminal tax violations in Seattle Municipal Court. Under terms of the plea agreements, two of the motels, the Isabella and Italia, were expected to be sold or leased to non-profit groups for use as low-income housing or emergency shelter.

As part of the negotiated plea, prosecutors said charges against Jill Inman will be dismissed on the condition she commits no criminal...

It's Monday burglary report time!

As we mentioned last week, we've heard from several sources that SPD's burglary numbers are down overall as of late.

Here's what that looks like:

And here's a two week comparison (which still looks really, really bad from a totally anecdotal-not-based-on-running-any-numbers perspective):

How did your neighborhood fare in this week's burglary report?

By the way, you can zoom in on the map and find out how popular your neighborhood is/was with burglars by clicking right here.