Community Post

SPD releases sketch of Madrona arsonist

Today the Seattle Police Department released a sketch of a man suspected in the Monday arson that heavily damaged a house on 33rd Avenue in Madrona.

Police say that the man knocked on several doors on the street prior to the arson, including on the victim’s, asking if he could check the backyard for a ball. Police say “it is believed this was a ruse to determine if anyone was home prior to committing his crimes.”

The SPD blotter contains more details on the suspect description:

The suspect is described as a black male with a medium to dark complexion, 18 to early 20′s, 5’11″ tall, 150 lbs., athletic build, and hair in corn rows. 

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 immediately and refer to this incident. 

This remains an active and on-going Seattle Police Arson investigation.

0 thoughts on “SPD releases sketch of Madrona arsonist

  1. One house destroyed, another house badly damaged, several lives endangered and an entire neighborhood afraid that when they go to work they won’t have a house to come home to.

    He knocked on multiple doors with a lame story about how his brother lost a ball in the back yard and could he go look for it? He found a house whose owner was trusting enough to step out for a moment. Then he set it on fire.

    This worthless thug needs to be thrown in jail for a good long time.

  2. Dear Scott,

    Please add the word suspect to the title of this story. It is the right thing to do.

    I think what happened is terrible and the person responsible should be punished. However, at this point the young man in the picture is a suspect. That is an important distinction to make. It is not fair to refer to a suspect sketch as “the madrona arsonist”.

    His story sounds fishy about the ball but that doesn’t give the media the right to circumvent the justice system and call him a criminal before it has been confirmed.

  3. I believe in journalistic standards even from neighborhood blogs. I also believe in standards of justice. I think Scott believes in some standards too.

    There is a reason why people need to be considered innocent until proven guilty and that is critical to our justice system. I hope you never have to personally experience being falsely accused to understand this.

  4. Jennifer’s right on this. We have established methods (in this case, treating suspects as suspects until a judge says otherwise) that keep us from generating false positives in justice.

    Treating the guy in the sketch as the perp is dangerous for several reasons, but primarily because it might not be him, and a young black kid in this neighborhood already has the chips stacked against him in court/police proceedings.