“Anyone know if there are any organized block watches on N Beacon Hill? Mark Solomon the SPD coordinator for our area apparently notified someone but I never heard from them. Just wondering. Seems a good idea.”
Anyone have any information? Comment here or in the forum.
The City of Seattle is currently conducting an online survey on the topics of public safety and the Seattle Police Department, with the help of graduate students from the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Affairs. The project will gather Seattleites’ views about public safety concerns in their own neighborhoods and on public transportation. The resulting data will be used to help police and city officials improve police services.
The survey is anonymous and takes about 15 minutes to complete. You can access it here.
To the BHB:
This past Sunday morning my son and his roommates who live in a house near the corner of Beacon Avenue and Columbian Way were the victims of an attempted home invasion. Around 5 a.m. Sunday morning a car load of five Asian young men drove up to their house and began trying to break in their door and get in to the house. My son and his two roommates woke up and were alarmed by the noise, grabbed baseball bats to prepare for the worst. As the intruders banged on the door and broke a window, they called 911 and the police responded in five minutes. The car left before the police arrived, they were left shaken.
The police took their report and said they could only report it as a property damage crime. They were able to identify the car, but not the plates, and had descriptions of some of the intruders.
Today they went down to the police precinct to see if they could speak to a detective about the incident, but were told that there was no one there they could talk to, and that they was no way for them to take in the additional information they had. Basically they were told “tough luck.”
This is criminal to me. Things could have gone so much worse, and could have possibly ended in tragedy. Is there any one that they might be able to connect with on Beacon Hill that could help them? Someone in the Police Department? City? An attempted home invasion should not be taken lightly, but the police seem not to care. I’m at a loss as to who they can turn to for help. Any direction would be welcome since they love living on Beacon Hill, but are ready to move because they no longer feel safe.
—Matt Chan
Cat B wrote mentioning a spate of burgled and damaged vehicles near 17th and Bayview over the weekend:
The thieves broke a front window and stole some items from my car parked on 17th Ave S near S Bayview St. A friend’s car was also burglarized in a driveway on 16th Ave S near Bayview and her neighbor’s car was also targeted. I encourage those who were vandalized or burglarized to inform the police for tracking purposes.
We encourage that, too. Call the police and file a report. The non-emergency line is 206-625-5011.
Thanks Cat!
On December 26 at about 12:25 am, a woman was robbed on the Chief Sealth Trail in the 2600 block of South Orcas Street. She told police that the robber put a gun to her back and said “Give me everything you have.” She gave him her wallet and he took her money as well as her cell phone, then took off running northeast through the park.
The woman then ran to Beacon Avenue South and rang doorbells until she was able to get someone to call 911 for her.
A K-9 search for the suspect was unsuccessful. The suspect was described as a black male, about 6’0″, wearing a dark beanie, braided hair, a gray zipper sweater, dark pants, and white Jordan tennis shoes.
The police report is here, and the SeattleCrime.com report is here.
Another crime took place on Tuesday, December 28, when a 63-year-old woman was violently sexually assaulted in the 1700 block of South Angeline Street at about 5:50 pm. The woman fought back and the suspect fled, taking her handbag.
The suspect (pictured to the right in a police sketch) remains at large, and is described as a Hispanic male in his 30’s to 40’s, 5’10” to 6′, clean-shaven, with a brown complexion and medium build, and wearing a beige or light-colored jacket and a beige hat.
The SPD Blotter report is here.
If you have information about either of these incidents, please call 911. If you have information about Tuesday’s assault, you can also call the Seattle Police Sexual Assault Unit at 206-684-5575. Anonymous tips are welcome.
View Assaults on Beacon Hill, 12/10 in a larger map
The P-I‘s Seattle 911 blog is reporting on a crime that occurred around midnight last night in the 1700 block of South Hanford Street. Two brothers were robbed by a group of four men. One of the brothers was stabbed twice during the robbery and was taken to Harborview for treatment.
Information is pretty sparse, but Casey McNerthney has posted some additional details on Twitter.
From our news partner The Seattle Times:
…Deputy Police Chief Nick Metz, said that a passer-by called 911 at 2:25 p.m. to report a man slumped over the steering wheel of his car that was parked in the 1400 block of South Atlantic Street. Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Sue Stangl said that paramedics responded to the scene for a 911 call regarding a man who was possibly ill in a car.
Metz said the firefighters tried to get the man to open the vehicle door, but he refused.
When a firefighter finally got the door opened, the man pulled out a handgun, said Metz. He said that the firefighters backed off and took cover as police were summonded.SWAT officers responded. The man “still had the weapon in his hand,” and the SWAT officers “ordered several times for him to drop the weapon,” he said.
Neighbors were confined to their homes temporarily while investigators worked the scene.
Read more in The Times. And more about the possibility of “suicide by cop.”
11/23 Update: More details on the SPD Blotter blog.
Neighbors in the area of 17th Avenue South and South Walker Street on North Beacon Hill were awakened late Thursday night by the sudden sound of metal grinding on metal followed by the long honk of a car horn.
Not knowing if something had fallen out of the sky nearby, one neighbor at the top of the stairway looked around the house in the dark, saw nothing, and went back to bed.
It wasn’t till daylight that the point of impact and projectile were discovered. A dark green Ford Explorer took a wild ride down the Walker Street Stairs, from the cul-de-sac near 16th Avenue, down to 17th Avenue and across into the cul-de-sac above the stairway to 18th Avenue.
Along the way the SUV broke some railing, bottomed out at the midway landing, then annihilated the steel guardrail and neighborhood bulletin board at the bottom. The impact was enough to rip the guardrail out of the ground, break up the concrete sidewalk it was anchored into, and send a chunk of concrete clear across 17th Avenue to the east. The SUV bounced onto the planting strip, went up the sidewalk (missing parked cars) and stopped when it hit a neighbor’s tree.
Injuries to the driver appear to be minor, as she was seen being helped away by friends with a van, who also pushed the Explorer out of a driveway and to the side of the road. Whether the damaged SUV will be towed by the owner or the city as an abandoned vehicle remains to be seen.
Neighbors recalled that a similar incident happened about ten years ago, but the car was smaller.
(All photos by David Gackenbach.)
View Walker Street Stairway in a larger map
Neighbor Tess writes with concerns about Stevens Place Park (commonly known as Triangle Park, located on Beacon Avenue South between South Forest and South Stevens):
I don’t know if a blog post is the best venue for this query, but i would love to get feedback from the community. I live on Beacon Ave S, right across the street from the little triangle park at S Stevens near the library. I also live very close to the #36 bus stop. Obviously, where we are situated we get a lot of traffic and noise from passers-by. However, we also get a lot of drunk people who hang out on the benches in the triangle park, sometimes cross the street and sit in the bus shelter and sometimes also migrate to the dentist’s office parking lot. We get a lot of yelling, screaming, singing, smashing bottles, foul language, and even public urination (against the tree in the triangle park or against the hedges in the parking lot). We have a family with little kids that lives downstairs and they often play on their toy bikes in front of the house. It’s hard to know what to do. Does anyone deal with this? Any suggestions?
The BHB headquarters is very near Stevens Place, and we have noticed the same occurrences, including public urination, confrontational behavior with neighbors in the park, and activity that looks very much like drug transactions; this has been the status quo at this park for a while now. What are your thoughts on the matter?
While waiting for the bus I was flashed. I had been waiting for the 106 to downtown at the 18th Avenue South and Swift Avenue stop at 8:00 am on Thursday, September 16th. A man walked west on 18th to the stop and crossed in front of me along Swift than back again. When I turned to look at him he had turned his back to the traffic on Swift and exposed his erect penis. I snapped a picture but only got him as he ran back up the hill, east on 18th.
I called 911 and later filed a report with an officer. The man was Caucasian, 5′ 8″ to 5′ 11″, average build, between 35 and 45 years old with brown hair. He was wearing a grey fleece shirt and jeans.
I want to warn the parents of any kids who use that stop for access to Cleveland High School. The man did not seem to be one of the nearby registered sex offenders. If you have an encounter please call the police so we can catch this guy.