Just heard a bunch of sirens, and saw this post in the Stranger Slog:
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/01/02/shots_f
“City Shots Fired at 23rd and Union
Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee on Fri, Jan 2 at 9:39 PMSeattle Police have locked down the intersection at 23rd and Union in the Central District.
As many as a dozen shots may have been fired in the area.
Police have apparently recovered a gun, taken two people in to custody and are interviewing witnesses in the area.
Update by scott: Geez – I got out for a Friday dinner and all hell breaks loose. Thanks to Sara for starting the story. We’re replaying the scanner now:
9:21pm – 499 on-view possible shots fired in the key bank parking lot. Shooting victim – gunshot wound to the leg. Suspect left in a Lexus. Lexus left northbound on 24th, gold lexus.
9:22pm – 494 Got the vehicle southbound on MLK from Spring. Vehicle refusing to yield. Pursuit, southbound, passing Jefferson. Approaching Yesler. Ask for K9, Guardian 1. Passing Jackson.
9:24pm – Southbound at Judkins, alert South precinct. Passing Massachusetts. South on Rainier. Westbound on Lettitia? 2 black males running. “Stop!.” “We got one. Outstanding one is wearing a green puffy jacket with fur-lined hood. ” He ran into a car-lot fenced area.
Robert 3. Another vehicle. 2 adults alert and conscious. Both in their 40s. These were an elderly couple in a car that was hit by the suspects.
9:29pm – K9 on the scene, starting a track
9:32pm – Westbound through the brush in the greenbelt. Guardian 1 helicopter not available tonight. (due to end-of-year county furlough for budgetary reasons?)
9:33pm – Taking one into custody
9:37pm – About 12 shell casings at the scene of the original shooting
It appears to have happened in the Key Bank parking lot and some folks in the area were wondering how to retrieve their cars there. I believe one person was shot in the leg. I have a picture or two, nothing great. The pictures are mainly of two Sheriff’s cars, but a firetruck and medics were also on the scene along with police cars. I will send them to Scott.
There’s not supposed to be any cars in the bank parking lot except during business hours. Bank management has promised those of us who are neighbors that they would monitor this every night and week end and cite offending vehicles, and there appeared to be huge improvement in this since they remodeled the bank office. The lot had been posted to this effect; haven’t noticed lately whether the signs are still there. (The parked cars were hiding and therefore enabling the illicit activities that were rampant there before the monitoring began). And my understanding was that it is definitely “park at your own risk” (or better, not at all) except when the bank is open.
Guess it’s time to talk with Key Bank again!
“2 adults alert and conscious. Both in their 40s. These were an elderly couple in a car that was hit by the suspects.”
ahem. Perhaps I’m overly sensitive because 44 is leering at me like a John in a pulp novel, but since when is someone in their 40’s considered “elderly”? ;-)
sorry – we had two conflicting descriptions and didn’t notice the disconnect. We’ll go with 40s
Thank you. I’ll take my head out of the oven and put down the Amaretto.
(Don’t worry – the oven is electric and anyway, I never said I would turn it on. If I did, the worse it would do is give me a bad perm)
this is one more act of potentially deadly violence in a neighborhood area our families and our neighbors (young, old, black, white, etc) pass at least a couple times a day/night. at some point, we need to take our concerns directly to the mayor’s office. do a freekin’ sit-in or something – – insist on getting the mayor’s time and enlighten him with our own first hand accounts and our own distinct understanding of escalating gun violence in our area over the last 12months.
That’s OK, Scott – “elderly” is what came over KOMO 1000 several times too!
The mayor doesn’t care. And neither does the council. This town doesn’t have a city council, it has a downtown council that toadies to real estate developers. And all the talk about “containment zones” and silly pissing about north versus south just plays into their hands. It’s a friendly mythology that keeps the little people busy (and feeling self-important) while they fatten their nests.
Since no one credible is going to run against Mayor McCheese, it’s not going to get any better anytime soon. Unless, of course, some big developer decides he wants to glamorize the CD. Then all bets are off.
Just wondering…how is the victim in this case? Recovering, cooperative? Let’s hope so.
So… are you saying that nothing will help? Give up?
McCheese flip-flopped on the ridiculously high-profile salt issue. I think it’s safe to say that, given enough public pressure, or the right kind of pressure, he acts.
I’m not ready to give up. We’re smart people. Let’s figure our how to get under his skin.
What I’m saying is we need leadership in the city in general. We need a district-based council, so that decisions about the city will be made by people from around the city, and in the council chambers – not at the Rainier Club or the bar at the Olympic Hotel.
Other cities – true “world class” cities – would have had McCheese’s head on a platter after what we’ve endured for the last few weeks. Anyone remember the fate of Chicago Mayor Bilandic? He’s the one who lost to Jane Byrne after a particularly harsh snowstorm. But we go along to get along here, and let the powerful walk all over the citizens. That’s why some neighborhoods get services, and others don’t.
I was in the International District in the evening yesterday. There were a few large groups of youngish thug types hanging around.. Not the usual spots.. I’m guessing they knew there was going to be some action in the CD last night & tried to avoid hanging out in the area.
There were three victims, the shootee and the elderly-40’s couple in the car that was hit by the fleeing suspects. Radio report a few minutes ago said all are at Harborview and expected to live.
whether we need leadership in the city in general or not. The people reading this blog aren’t going to be enough to change the system, and posting about it won’t make it so. We can do what we can do, and we have to start there. The whole “world class” thing is soooooo done.
I’d say Sara has it right – the negative attention Half-Dime got for the roads issues was enough to get him to “take action” – with the right amount of negative attention, we could get some action as well. I’m not sure what that would look like, and I’d say knowing what we want would be a good precursor to going after him.
We live near 24th and union and heard the shots from last night. The night before there was a fight that broke out between some guys – we know about it because one of them was screaming HELP ME!!! We called the cops but didn’t hear anything more about it. The next night at pretty much the same location there is a shooting. Related incident or just another unrelated shooting that seems to be happening a lot in this area?
No surprise … gang-related incident:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008586755_w
Boy, I did not even weigh in on this till late and I am attacked!
Your comments seem like a rant and your attacks do not make sense. Yes, we are a contaiment zone and as soomn as that is admitted and resolved the better!
Boy, I did not even weigh in on this and I am attacked!
What gives with the censorship on the CD news replies. I tried to send a comment and it was not printed. I used an old yahoo email address and it suddenly appears.
Scott, are you censoring people?
Tee Hee. At 53 YIKES guess I have entered the realm of older ladies… But, i would not wish to be considered elderly either…
43 is a fun age, ehjoy!
I will sign that petition. I DID a few years ago and had to wade through graffitti to get to it.
Actually, I prefer distrcit reps PLUS a few At-Large.
Another, additional or alternative thing is to look at the Washington DC Advisory Neighborhood Commission setup. Just google DC ANC and Look at it! They are elected and deal with all things Land Use. When I lived there, NOTHING happened in my hood without my ANC being involved — else they would have been booted out of office, Does not prclude the active community council, i.e., I lived in Brookland and they had a very active community and community blog, etc…
The ONLY thing that matters is you all near 23rd and Union and down to MLK and Jackson getting your D**N act together and creating REAL community council. I’m in Mad Vallley and I have a Place to go. The war people had with the city government over the flooding is something to hear…and we are not doing so great on the break in front — CD News is doing better there. But, the shooting and murder stuff — TAKE HOLD OF YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD PEOPLE AND CREATE A REAL COMMUNITY COUNCIL.
I am blue in the face from screaming.
Squire Park has 12th-23rd and Union to Jackson. What we’re really talking about is what’s left – Union to Madison, or further south (the part not covered by Miller Park) and then east to MLK (east of which is covered by Madrona).
Sorry eyes – we’ve had to increase our spam filters due to the onslaught of bots trying to spam the site. I’ve removed you from the list.
FYI – Last week you left a comment that only said “Costco has a good wireless system cheap.” There’s a very high density of spammy words in that, so that’s how you ended up flagged. In general, more text with few links will help prevent it in the future. And registered users will always be more trusted.
What is ‘left’ is: 23rd to MLK and Jackson to Howell, plus Radio Hill (the triangle of Union/Madison/23rd)
Remind us of where the violent incidents have occurred again?
Most CC’s are concerned with the big boundary streets, tho, even if it’s on the ‘wrong’ side of the street. And, there are some overlaps, which is nice for people who live in the shared areas.
There’s Central Neighborhood Association listserve. There is a sort of block watch/Garfield Community group of a few blocks just surrounding Garfield HS. And, there are other block watch/neighbor list serves in those areas.
Covered areas:
Miller Park – Andrew can speak to how far south it goes, but the Madison-Miller Urban Village goes south to Pine and east past 23rd, so the association takes much interest on what happens on the ‘other’ side of Madison.
GMVCC – West boundry is 23rd, south boundry is Howell http://madisonvalley.org/Online_Articles/Map.htm
Madrona – Denny, Mlk, Cherry, 31st, Terrace, to the lake http://madrona.us/map.htm
Leschi – generally Cherry, MLK, Jackson (or so) to the lake Can’t find their exact map or website.
South of Jackson: Mount Baker, Coleman, Judkins.
Most 501C incorporated CC’s have a mapped areas as part of their incorporation.
Cherry to the north; Norman to the South; MLK to west and the lake to the east. We are 501C and have our map on our brochure (outdated technology, I know). Our web person had to leave suddenly so have no working website.
As someone who frequently spaeaks at City Council hearings, I do feel it is worthwhile. I happen to demonstrate on Friday mornings at this corner and I would try to involve the other women who are there. It would be important to get business owners involved, esp. the person who is developing the SW corner. I drive by on my way home from the theater in the evening and I suspect Thompson’s is not happy about that crowd that gathers in the driveway by Key Bank. Some motion activated lights in the back of the Key Bank parking lot might discourage some gatherings and there is probably other technology out there (opera music?) Just being funny here but seriously, this is worth pursuing and don’t just write off the council. Conlin lives in Madrona and he has some political aspirations so it would be important to lean on him.
Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic will host a forum for community members to discuss and respond to the recent increase in violence in our area. Time: 6-8pm
Place: Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic; 2101 E. Yesler Way. Questions? contact Rosie Moore (206) 860-0480 at Garfield Teen Health center
If you want things to change we will have to become a more active presence in the neighborhoods we live in. The 23rd and Union corner has deteriated in the last few years since the building across the corner from the Philly Cheese Steak restaurant was condemned and demolished.
I live near the corner of Jackson and 26th Ave South and am currently working at making that are more hostile environment for crime to take place – we currently have a lingering drug selling and prostitution element sporadically spaced through out the day and night.
If you are interested in becoming an active part in the neighborhood watch program on or near Jackson street between 23rd and MLK send a message to [email protected] . If you are trying to get a neighborhood watch in your neighborhood going I would be happy to try to help with that as well – hopefully with an eventual linking of all of the area between Jackson Street and 23rd.
Matt.