Armed robber strikes Lake City XXX store

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 From the Seattle Police Department:

A masked, armed robber remains at large today after striking in Lake City early Sunday morning. About 4 a.m. a man wearing a bandana over his face walked into the XXX Theater/Store, 12706 Lake City Way NE, and pointed a silver revolver at the clerk behind the counter.

The suspect demanded money and was given the cash from the register. There was a party going on down stairs and those attending were unaware of the robbery taking place upstairs. The suspect walked out of the front door and fled northbound. Nobody was injured during the incident.

Officers responded to the area and conducted a search with the assistance of a canine unit, however the suspect remains at large.

The suspect is described as a Hispanic male in his mid 20′s, approximately 5’06” tall.

Anyone with information about this incident or who may know the identity or whereabouts of the suspect is asked to call 911 or Seattle Police and refer to this incident. Anonymous tips are welcome.

Man tries to rob people on Lake City Way with his gun-shaped hand

A series of unusual robbery attempts happened in Lake City on Tuesday. Seattle Police report a man tried to rob people on Lake City Way with his hand in the vague shape of a handgun.

The man also had a pillow and crack cocaine with him.

From the Seattle Police Department's Blotter blog:

Officers arrested a 30-year-old man—armed with a pillow, crack cocaine, and a limited working knowledge of pantomime—Tuesday evening in Lake City after he went on a very unsuccessful robbery spree.
The suspect’s sad saga began around 6:20 pm at the Jack in the Box on 130th and Lake City Way, where he walked into the restaurant, approached two men as they were eating, put his hand in his jacket pocket like he was carrying a gun, and told them to hand over all their money.
Instead, both men got up from their table and asked a restaurant employee to call 911. The suspect, determined not to walk away empty handed, sat down at the victims’ table and began eating their food.
After picking over the victims’ lunch, the suspect grabbed a soda from the table and walked off down Lake City Way.
Down the road, the suspect approached a woman near a gas station at the corner of 130th and Lake City Way, brandished a handgun—which was simply his hand, formed into the vague shape of a gun—and said something to the woman.
The woman didn’t hear the suspect, however, because she was listening to music and had headphones on. She simply ignored the suspect and walked away.
Undeterred by his lack of criminal success, the suspect walked further down Lake City Way to a Wells Fargo bank, where he approached a man at an ATM and again did his best impression of an armed mugger.
This time, the victim yelled at the suspect and walked off, leaving the suspect to continue his walk down Lake City Way.
Finally, the suspect walked to the Lake City Bar and Grill, where he stood aimlessly in the doorway until an employee approached him and asked what he was doing.
One last time, the suspect stuck his hands in his pockets, making like he had a gun, and told the employee to give him money.
The employee told the man to leave.
Officers arrived moments later and, after confirming his identity with several victims, arrested the suspect.
When officers searched the suspect, they found a small pillow in his jacket, and some crack cocaine in his pocket.
Officers arrested the suspect and booked him into the King County Jail for robbery, drug possession and two warrants.

Truck stolen from Fred Meyer parking lot

A truck was stolen from a member of our community on Thursday night during a trip to Fred Meyer. The truck was taken from the Fred Meyer parking lot.

It is a black 1994 Nissan, license plater B61438S. There is an 80s "Magic Happens" sticker on the rear bumper.

If you see the truck please call 911. 

UPDATE:  The truck was found by Seattle Police in Wallingford, with "very little damage," said the owner. "A big thank you to everyone in the hood who was on the lookout. I appreciate your support."

Flags damaged on Veterans Day

A previous post here on Douglas Park Cooperative thanked the Lake City Lions Club for their work hanging flags around the neighborhood on Veterans Day.

We later found out from the Lions Club that two of the flags hanging on Elliott Bay Brewery were ripped from their brackets and damaged at some point during the day.

The group puts up the flags at sunrise on federal holidays and takes them down at sunset.

When they returned to Elliott Bay to gather the flags on Veterans Day all that remained were broken brackets on the side of the building. The two flags were later found but the eagles on top of the poles were smashed and the wire holding the flags to the poles was damaged.

"This was the first time we every had anything like that happen," said a member of the organization.

Wells Fargo bank on Lake City Way robbed

The bank on LCW and NE 130th Street (Google)

The Seattle Police Department responded to a robbery at the Wells Fargo Bank on Lake City Way Monday morning.

The department reported that shortly after 10 a.m. three men dressed in black walked into the bank. One of the men climbed on the counter and demanded money from the cash drawers.

The report said that none of the men flashed a weapon but witnesses reported seeing a gun tucked in one of the suspect's coats.

The suspects were seeing fleeing the scene in a red jeep. They ditched the car a few blocks away from the scene near NE 130th Street and Lake City Way.

The car was impounded by police. No other description of the suspects was available from Seattle Police.

Here is the original dispatch call for the burglary.

Four hours later, and just three blocks from the bank heist scene, Seattle Police responded to reports of an armed robbery. You can see the dispatch call for that incident here.

If you have any information about the incident please call 911.

Vandals apparently 'shoot hoops' with public benches at Virgil Flaim Park

It appears someone was unable to keep their composure at Virgil Flaim Park Tuesday night. We assume that after losing at basketball they desperately needed a way to impress their buddies —perhaps drug use was involved, see evidence below.

A wooden bench near the basketball court was torn apart and it appeared the perpetrator that destroyed our community property tried to shoot some hoops with the bench parts, as evidence suggested Wednesday morning. It appears the vandal was at least able to make a basket with one of the boards.

The following photo shows where boards were forcibly ripped from one of the benches in the park.

And of course a couple of these drug bags sold at stores such as 99-cent Etc. were  scattered around the scene, leading one to believe that aside from obvious anger management problems, drug use was likely involved.

If you have information about who damaged the benches or if you see general mayhem in the park please call 911. Not only does it give an officer a reason to interact with those present, it also creates a data set about activity in our neighborhood that can later be used to increase patrols or enforcement.

Note: If you read sarcasm into part of this it was intended because some of the behavior exhibited in our Lake City public spaces is absurd.

New tool to monitor police dispatch calls for neighborhood, via Twitter

A sample of the feed from Sept. 27

UPDATE: The Twitter data we used here via the Seattle Police Department is now featured on the front page of the New York Times. You can read their take on how this will benefit Seattle neighborhoods here.

The City of Seattle has won a number of awards for the open data set it offers to residents. Information is usually easily available via our tech savvy city government —assuming one is also tech savvy.

Now the Seattle Police Department has launched a tool that uses Twitter to disseminate information about Seattle Police dispatch calls.

There is a bit of a delay but most of the calls we have seen posted to Twitter are within one hour of the initial 911 call.

From the Tweets by Beat website:

In order to protect crime victims, officers, and the integrity of investigations, calls will display one hour after a dispatcher sends the call to an officer. The feeds also do not include information about domestic violence calls, sexual assaults, and other certain types of crimes. 

Douglas Park Cooperative has taken the information coming from the Seattle Police Department dispatch and created a custom feed for our own neighborhood that will be featured on the right column of our website.

The feed featured on DPC is for Lincoln 1 sector, the area north of 125th and east of Interstate 5.

So next time you see flashing police lights down the street all you have to do is come to our homepage to figure out what is going on. Also on our right column is a link to monitor Seattle Fire Department dispatch and yet another link to listen to a live police and fire scanner for Seattle.

Feeds for other neighborhoods can easily be monitored by going to the Tweets by Beat website and searching for a feed by address.

Thursday afternoon shooting puts Lake City problems in spotlight

Some of the problems our neighborhood regularly faces were put in a glaring spotlight on Thursday after a shooting outside of the 99-Cent Etc. store injured two people.

The location is a known gathering point where chronic public inebriates, drug dealers and others that exhibit nuisance behaviors regularly hang out. Judging from comments on news sites many people are uncomfortable going to the surrounding businesses because of the public inebriates and others that gather there. One commenter said "Much of Lake City appears to have become a north end ghetto."

The shooting happened next door to the Cedar Park Senior Housing Assistance Group apartments and across the street from the old Fire Station 39, a site the City of Seattle has proposed turning into housing for homeless families and low-income housing. Neighborhood groups, including Douglas Park Cooperative, are fighting the proposal as putting even more vulnerable people into an area already reeling from its addiction and violence problems —and an obvious lack of services that empower the community— would further encourage a vicious cycle.

Below is some of the coverage of the Thursday shooting. We have embedded videos where able and others are links to content on other sites.

KING5 coverage:



Q13 FOX coverage:


Here is a link to KIRO TV's story.

Here is a link to the Seattle P-I's story.

Here is the Seattle Times story. 

Here is info from the Seattle Police Department.

Two shot outside 99-Cent Etc. store

Medics and officers respond to the scene of a shooting outside the 99-Cent Etc. Store.

Two people were shot Thursday afternoon in the parking lot of the 99-Cent Etc. store near the intersection of 30th Avenue NE and NE 127th Street. One of the men was a bystander hit in the back by an errant bullet during an argument.

The Seattle P-I reported that the suspect in the shooting later turned himself in to police in Lake Forest Park about 6 p.m.

The shooting was first reported to 9-1-1 dispatchers about 3:49 p.m., as people were gathered nearby at the Lake City Farmers Market.

Police said there was a dispute between one of the men shot and two others in a nearby car. One man in the car fired multiple rounds, hitting the man he argued with in the leg. Another round hit a bystander in the buttocks.

A round also shattered the window of a residence at the Cedar Park Apartments and another was found next to a car in front of Grocery Outlet.

Most at the nearby neighborhood farmers market were unaware that there was a shooting about a block away. The sound of news helicopters hovering overhead drowned out a music performance but most went about their business.

One neighborhood resident said she was walking toward Grocery Outlet when an agitated man rushed toward her yelling about shooting someone in the butt. The man, known around the neighborhood as "Marine Dave," later returned to the scene and was treated by medics. He was rushed, along with the other victim, to Harborview Medical Center. Both are expected to survive.

Later in the evening a group publicly drinking in front of the Lake City Post Office said they know "Marine Dave" and that he was an innocent bystander. The group drinking in the parking lot also told the Seattle Times that the disagreement between the other victim and the shooter was over something "stupid" and should have been settled with fists.

"People have gotten lazy," the witness told the Times. "They want to just fire a gun when they should fight."

The people would not elaborate further on what the argument was over.

Witnesses at the scene said they heard six shots fired during the chaos.

Comments on news websites had lots to say about the direction Lake City seems to be headed and the number of people that gather in the area publicly drinking and panhandling. One reader from Lake Forest Park said, "Much of Lake City appears to have become a north end ghetto."

Hours after the shooting Douglas Park Cooperative held one of their twice-weekly neighborhood walks and had the largest turnout since the walks started more than six months ago.

Neighbors, many frustrated with the direction they see the neighborhood going, talked about problems in the neighborhood and discussed ways to combat what some see as the deterioration of their neighborhood.




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Pilot program to limit access to cheap beer, wine for chronic public inebriates begins

A sign at left informs that single servings of alcohol are not allowed before 1 p.m. at the 99 Cent Etc. Store

Some stores in Lake City have joined a pilot program where the businesses do not sell fortified beer and wine between the hours of 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. The program is an attempt to limit access to cheap beer and wine with a high alcohol content, drinks favored by chronic public inebriates.

It is well-documented by neighborhood groups that collect and count cans and bottles strewn on our streets during community walks that Lake City has a serious public drinking problem. Douglas Park Cooperative has collected staggering numbers of cans during its twice-weekly walks.

The new program comes after strong prompting from the mayor's office and cooperation form the distributors.

Neighborhood group Douglas Park Cooperative was first pursuing an Alcohol Impact Area for the neighborhood, a much more strict program. But the voluntary pilot program was proposed by the City of Seattle because of the difficulty of keeping updated lists of regulated drinks as makers of the drinks regularly change the drinks' names.

The program will be in place seven days a week and does not include bars and restaurants.

Under the program distributors encouraged retailers to participate in the program.

A tower of Steel Reserve tall boys in the 99 Cent Etc. store

Because the program is in its early stages there is not an accurate count of how many business in the neighborhood are participating in the pilot program. But signs stating that single servings of alcohol are not available before 1 p.m. have been seen at at least three convenience stores in the last few days.

The Office of Economic Development plans to work with the businesses to highlight other options for small businesses that relied on selling large amounts of fortified beer and wine.

City leaders have said that if the program does not prove successful an Alcohol Impact Area may still be enforced in Lake City.

Highlights from Reclaiming Lake City Parks Meeting

Those attending Monday's meeting shared common concerns with Lake City parks: negative experiences, perceptions of drugs, inebriation,crime, feeling like the neighborhood is in crisis mode - which leads to planning around nuisance behaviors rather than planning for positive events.  Residents are driving outside of Lake City for community space, rather than staying here.  Much of the discussion was specific to Virgil Flaim Park, however, many of the safety and action items can be applied to other area parks & playgrounds.

SAFETY

According to city attorney liaison, Jana Jorgason, there were only nine 911calls from  Virgil Flaim Park in the last year.  Meeting participants immediately disagreed based on their own experiences making calls. Action items from the discussion include:

Call911 for any suspicious or criminal behavior. When you do:

• Ask for the event number & record it. (Incident numbers are only created if an officer responds and writes a report, but event numbers are recorded when a call is received.)
• Don’t be disappointed if officers don’t respond immediately; all calls are logged and that information is used to deploy future resources.
• Give the exact address of the park.  (Issues with inaccuracies in the number of logged 911 calls may be related to differing addresses being given.)

Virgil Flaim Park  2750 NE 125th St

Albert Davis Park  12526 27th Ave. NE

• Alcohol is not allowed in Seattle public parks - so any drinking can be called in.
• Meeting participants asked for a copy of the questions 911 operators ask  - this will make it easier for residents to anticipate & answer questions when calling.
• Do not be discouraged by laissez-faire police response. In fact, if you are treated discourteously, contact a supervisor.

Establish a community Block Watch in properties surrounding parks. (Seattle Neighborhood Group can help with this.)

CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) for Virgil Flaim Park

Changes to property can help address problems. For Virgil Flaim, this requires coordination with Lake City Prof.Center and Dept. of Parks &Rec.  Lorig Properties, which operates the Lake City Prof. Center noted their budget is currently on hold as they negotiate the sale of the property with Seattle Public Schools (read more about the history & ownership of the property here). Suggested changes:

• Cut back laurel hedge to improve sight lines and remove hiding areas.
• Thin trees on NE corner
• Improve lighting
• Adding a kiosk to promote park activities
• Temporarily removing BBQ’s to see if it alters behaviors

POSITIVE PROGRAMMING

Activating parks helps push out problem behaviors by providing positive opportunities. Partnerships with Lake City Community Center or Meadowbrook Community Center were suggested.  SmallSparks grants for up to $1,000 are also available to help with this, and community volunteer hours count as matching funds at a rate of $20/hr per person.

• Ice cream socials
• Kite-making at community center with kite-flying at park
• Health & fitness programming
• Outdoor movies
• Weekly neighborhood sporting events, such as volleyball, kickball, or badminton
• Music series
• Family potlucks
• Crafts

RESOURCE CONTACTS:

Katie Gray, Department of Parks & Recreation, North Manager, 206-684-4561

Katie.gray@seattle.gov

Peggy Pullen, Department of Parks & Recreation, Maintenance

Peggy.pullen@seattle.gov

Thomas Whittemore, Department of Neighborhoods, North District Coordinator, 206-684-4096

thomas.whittemore@seattle.gov

Kelly McKinney, Seattle Neighborhood Group, 206-323-9666

www.sngi.org

Seattle Police Department (SPD) representative was not able to attend.

Several follow-up questions will be addressed to SPD & we will report back the answers.

People participate in the meeting at the Lake City branch of the Public Library

Meeting summary courtesy Families for Lake City. If you don't follow them you should, they are a fantastic neighborhood source of information. You can find them on Facebook here.

VIDEO: Suspected shoplifter restrained by Bartell employees, hit by bystander

A video was posted on YouTube on March 29th that is said to show a suspected shoplifter being restrained by Bartell's loss prevention officers. When the man accused of stealing resisted, a bystander intervened and repeatedly punched the man. And as is now common, the episode was captured on a cell phone video.

KIRO 7 reported on the video Monday. The shaky clip shows the suspected shoplifter being restrained by Bartell employees. A bystander attempted to assist the employees and then repeatedly punched the suspect in the ribs when the suspect resisted the Bartell employees.

“I was scared for the guy, the guy who was getting beat up. He was calling out for help,” said Musa Uke, the man who shot the cell phone video.

Uke posted the video to YouTube and wrote on the post: “A suspected thief getting beat down by Bartell Drugs employs and there undercover security guards all cause the kid stole some toothbrush, was this the right amount of force to be used you decide.....”

But as KIRO later found out, the man doing the hitting was not a Bartell employee but a bystander that intervened.

The man was suspected of putting a $150 toothbrush down his pants. When he was approached by Bartell's employees he ran outside.

“They pursued him out the store, as they’re trained to do, and they went to restrain him,” said Theron Andrews, the marketing vice president for Bartell Drugs.

“Our loss prevention team actually asked him to step away and not get involved because they had (the suspect) well in hand,” Andrews told KIRO 7. “We obviously don’t condone that, and we didn’t ask for or need his particular help at that point.”

Businesses in the Lake City area have been struggling against shoplifters recently. Tweedy & Popp Ace Hardware recently posted a wall of shame that shows suspected shoplifters captured by their security cameras.

Grocery Outlet has struggled with shoplifting with one representative saying at a community meeting that they are losing tens of thousands of dollars a quarter to shoplifting. 

Earlier in the week another citizen intervened in a pursuit of a suspect by a Seattle Police officer in Lake City. The man was commended by the department for his action.

The video of the incident at Bartell Drugs can be seen below:

Nuisance behaviors in our neighborhood, visual proof

As Douglas Park Cooperative members do our twice-weekly walks we encounter many dangerous, disgusting and downright destructive things done by people in our community that either do not seem to have a stake in our community or do not have respect for our community —and often respect for themselves.

We have taken to documenting some of the things we encounter. These photos are a small sampling of some of the things we have seen in recent weeks. There are many, many more but we do not photo document everything. We also realize that taking pictures of chronic inebriates or drug users could lead to confrontation that we have deemed is wise to avoid.

Below is a sampling of what we regularly see. Keep in mind that we conduct two weekly litter patrols and folks at the UGM shelter also conduct one per week. Other neighborhood groups also conduct patrols and find similar things.

Likely one of the most disturbing was when we found at least four unsecured hypodermic needles in the parking lot of the Seattle Gymnastics Academy, a place that students are likely to run barefoot to their cars after class.

The focus of DPC from day one has been nuisance behaviors, not the often troubled people that are known to do them. That responsibility is more in line with what the Seattle Police Department contributes to our mission. That is why we are pursuing the Alcohol Impact Area as a small part of the complicated puzzle that will better our community.

We potentially have a great neighborhood and DPC wants to help everyone succeed in reaching their potential and overcome their struggles. However, these nuisance behaviors and their results bring down everyone.

 

Needles outside Cedar Park senior apartments

One of the dozens of hypodermic needles found in the neighborhood

A collection of empties on the street

Scene after a stabbing at the 99¢ Etc. store

Shoplifting suspects captured by camera at ACE Hardware

Elliott Bay Brewing Co. is welcomed to the neighborhood

Graffiti in front of Seattle Gymnastics Academy

Another needle in a neighbor's hedge

Shopping cart full of trash and beer cans

More vandalism at the dead end of 28th Ave NE near Seattle Gymnastics Academy

Four Loko cans in Elliot Bay Brewing doorway

Bag used for drugs

Truck vandalized with pink paint stolen from shed at Seattle Gymnastics Academy

Loitering, drinking with about 6 empties at the Chevron gas station

Warning: After this point the images become quite offensive and disgusting. Continue at your own discretion.

Vandals break into Seattle Gymnastics Academy storage, paint car pink

A Toyota pickup was splashed with pink paint Sunday night after vandals broke into the SGA storage shed.

Vandals broke into a storage shed at the Seattle Gymnastics Academy and Seattle Preschool Sunday night. Nothing was noted to be missing from the storage, aside from a few gallons of bright pink and blue paint.

The vandals threw the paint on a pickup truck parked at the dead end of 28th Avenue NE, near NE 130th Street. The paint was also thrown on the street in front of the facility.

By day the dead end on 28th Avenue NE is home to the preschool and the gymnastics school and light indusrial and auto shops.

However at night, it becomes a hangout for drug users and chronic inebriates. People live in cars there at night and are asked to be gone by the time the school starts in the morning.

During recent walks there Douglas Park Cooperative has found hypodermic needles in the parking lot of the school —an area where students are likely to run barefoot to their cars after class.

Graffiti on a fence in front of SGA

Human feces and toilet paper are regularly found there are as high volume alcohol containers, used condoms, trash and graffiti. A fence in front of the SGA property has long had graffiti on it.

The City of Seattle recently replaced the 'Road End' and 'No Parking' sign at the end of the street after is was reported by DPC to be graffiti-covered and falling over.

Neighborhood home burglarized while occupied early today, suspect arrested

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About 5:30 a.m. this morning a woman in our neighborhood discovered a man in her house. She confronted him and he responded “I’m in the wrong house!” and left.

The woman called police and officers found the man about a block and a half from the residence.

As the suspect was being detained, officers found some of the victims property in the man's possession. She was later able to positively identify him as the man she saw in her house.

The 48 year old man was arrested and booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Burglary.  North Precinct Burglary detectives responded to the scene and processed the scene as part of their investigation.

This is another in a string of recent burglaries of North Seattle homes that are occupied at the time of the burglary. Recently officers arrested a teenager with a long history of crime in connection with some of the occupied burglaries.

Disturbing residential burglaries on the rise in North Seattle

You have likely seen the headlines. Burglaries are on the rise in North Seattle.

But most concerning to residents and authorities is the method of these crimes.

Many are happening late at night, while the residents are home.

In the early morning hours of March 6th, three home were burglarized within a few block radius. The method in all seemed similar and was done while residents were home.

In one burglary, an adult female resident in the 4200 block of Meridian Ave North was woken by a voice yelling, “Let’s go.”  She then heard what sounded like footsteps running down the outside stair case.  After she  checked the house she realized the suspects stole car keys and personal electronics. The car was not taken.

Twenty minutes after calling 9-1-1, officers and burglary detectives responded. They discovered that the point of entry was an unlocked back door.

In another burglary a man was home with his wife and two young children while their home was burglarized.  Personal electronics, car keys and the victim's car were stolen. The vehicle is a gray 2011 Audi A4, WA license ADZ8091. (If you see the vehicle please call 9-1-1.)

On March 5th another home was burglarized in Wedgewood. A 2004 Toyota was stolen from that home.

And on March 3rd three homes were broken into. Personal electronics and a green 2005 Acura MDX, WA license AFV-9085 was also stolen. In all of these the residents were home at the time.

This trend is unnerving as eventually a homeowner will wake up and a confrontation will likely happen with the burglars.

Most of these incidents involve unlocked doors and windows. Some involve the burglars breaking windows and doors to gain entry.

To reduce the likelyhood that your home will be entered, lock all doors and windows during the day and at night. Also, keep electronics and valuables away from windows and visible areas that might invite a crime.