From the Seattle Police blotter:

Traffic Collision Investigation Squad (TCIS) detectives need the public’s assistance in locating the driver involved in a felony hit and run that occurred yesterday afternoon in the International District.

On Wednesday, at about 1:40 pm, a 72-year-old woman was walking northbound on 10th Avenue South at South King Street.  At the same time, a Ford Explorer was traveling south on 10th Avenue South approaching South King Street.  The Explorer made a left turn onto S. King Street and struck the pedestrian.  The Ford continued driving and made no attempt to stop or render aid to the victim.

Seattle Fire and police responded to the collision scene.  The victim was transported to Harborview Medical Center with significant, but non-life threatening injuries.  TCIS detectives responded and began their investigation.

The suspect vehicle was described as a newer, possibly green Ford Explorer SUV driven by a black female in her 30′s-40′s.  Officers did an extensive area check for the vehicle but were unable to locate it at the time.  The vehicle should have front end damage to it.  Anyone with information on this collision or the identity of the driver is urged to contact the Seattle Police Department’s Traffic Collision Investigation Squad at (206) 684-8923.

Connect with your neighborhood.  Attend the Squire Park Quarterly Meeting, Saturday, Oct. 12th, 10:00 AM to Noon, Centerstone, 722 18th Avenue.   It is a packed agenda, but there will be room for you to share what is on your mind briefly.

• Representatives from the Seattle University Youth Initiative will let us know the latest news on their efforts in the community,

• Meet the District V candidates for Seattle School Board.  

• Neighborhood schools and will TT Minor become a neighborhood school again?

• LIHI will report on the Nicklesville encampments.

• The Fair Elections campaign will be there.

• Get to know the Swedish MIMP.

Bill’s comment expresses the Board’s recommendation.  We will be asking the community to vote on this Saturday:

“Saturday’s SPCC meeting is an opportunity to meet and join Squire Park neighbors who need your help in carrying on an important effort for neighborhood children and schools. The effort was described in CD News: “Neighborhood Group Organizes to ask Seattle Public Schools to Reopen T.T. Minor” Sept. 27, 2013. The Seattle School board will decide this month on school-assignment boundaries that will have a profound impact on our neighborhood. The short-term request of the group is to maintains the current boundaries of Stevens Elementary in order to provide stability to the families of the Squire Park neighborhood. The long-term goal is to reopen T.T. Minor as a neighborhood elementary school as soon as reasonably possible. A strong neighborhood voice is needed. Come to Saturday’s meeting to learn how you can help.”

See something others should know about? Email Central District News.

• Boylston/Madison rent robbery: Police were called to a Central District residence Saturday night where a man told him he had been robbed of his rent money 90 minutes earlier while sitting in his vehicle in a parking lot at Boylston and E Madison around 4:30 PM:The victim told police his assailant ran from the scene westbound on Seneca. He described the attacker as a black male in his 30s, 5’11″ and wearing a red sweatshirt with white Nike logo on it along with dark pants and red shoes with white soles. The man told police he lost $411 cash in the robbery.
• 22/Union mugging: A female victim had her phone yanked from her hands in a street robbery last Saturday night just before 7 PM at 22nd and Union:
  
• SPD — First Hill shooting was robbery: Tuesday’s shooting inside a First Hill apartment near Harborview involved drugs and cash, SPD says the victim told arriving officers:The male victim suffered a non-life threatening gunshot wound to the shoulder in the incident that involved SPD searching the 300-unit building floor by floor and, for a time, unit by unit. No arrests have been announced.
• Car part ripoffs — This particular report comes from a reader who lives in the CD but we’ve heard about other incidents on and around the Hill — unfortunately, not much to do about preventing the crime. But at least you’ll know you have company. The incident below occurred on October 6th:
  

  Last night on the 25th block of Jefferson street (right next to the Garfield play field) my Catalytic Converter in my Toyota Tacoma was stolen. The catalytic converter is a vehicle emissions control device which converts toxic emissions into less harmful byproducts. I immediately reported it to the police and my insurance company. Then I decided to shop around for a muffler repair man. The repair man informed me that this is a pretty common occurrence. Every week or so, he gets a call from someone with very similar stories to mine. He also told me that most of these thieves strike very close to the previous site. He concluded from this that the thieves will scope out a car, steal a converter, and then the next week move a block or two away. I have very little faith that the police will be able to catch these perps, mainly because they work in the middle of the night, will be underneath your car so even if you do look out to check, they will be undetectable. They also don’t need to pop the hood, break windows, or break into the bed of the truck to steal what they want. The only way to keep these thieves away, would be to have a motion sensing alarm put on your car.

Seattle Police blotter has the details:

An armed man remains at large after a shooting in the Yesler Terrace area [yesterday] afternoon.

At approximately 4:06 p.m. officers responded to an apartment in the 800 block of Jefferson Street for the report of a man shot.  Officers located a male victim who sustained a gunshot wound to the shoulder area.

Early indications are that the victim’s injuries are non-life-threatening.  The circumstances leading up to the shooting are unknown at this time and remain under active investigation.

The suspect remains at large.

He is described as a black male, mid-30′s, 5’4″ tall, with short hair and last seen wearing a black hoodie and black jacket.  The suspect was armed with a small black handgun.

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.

Several students from Washington Middle School will cut the ribbon today on a drug prevention mural at a nearby bus stop.

The mural is a project of a school club called Huskies Against Drugs & Alcohol, which is named after the school’s mascot. The club was formed by two sixth graders, Alan Mendoza and Vieagus Ortega. The students collaborated with Dever Dunnett, an artist from Arts in Motion, and the three painted panels at a nearby bus stop shelter every Monday after school. Eighth grader Amira Abdel-Fattah later joined in the efforts.

The event will start with a student presentation in the school cafeteria, followed by the ribbon cutting at the bus stop, across the street from the school. The event begins at 3:15 p.m.

The latest development in the ongoing discussions regarding the implementation of I-502  involves the geographic dispersion of pot shops in Seattle.

We previously reported that the Washington State Liquor Control Board has made no decisions about whether they’ll allow clustering shop locations or make efforts to deliberately disperse them. That decision will affect the 23rd and Union corner’s potential to one day house multiple marijuana retail locations.

Yesterday, the Seattle City Council wrote to the Board encouraging it to incorporate geographic dispersion of marijuana retail licenses into their rules.

The letter states, in part:

The Liquor Control Board may not issue licenses for the sale of marijuana to businesses located less than 1,000 feet from an elementary or secondary school, playground, recreation center, child care center, public park, public transit center, library, or game arcade Where admission is not restricted to persons age 21 or older. These restrictions result in limited areas of Seattle being available for retail sales.

We are concerned with how these restrictions could interact with the proposed rules for marijuana retail licenses. New section WAC 314-55-081 (l) of the proposed rules for marijuana retail licenses states that should the number of eligible applications exceed the allotted amount of retail locations in a city (21 in Seattle), licenses Will be granted by lottery.

Should there be more than 21 eligible retail applications in Seattle, and the licenses are granted by lottery, this could potentially result in clustering of retail sales in a few areas, and other eligible areas having no retail locations.

Should a lottery result in a lack of geographic dispersion of retail locations within Seattle, this could make fulfilling the goals of I-502 more difficult.

We encourage you to incorporate consideration of geographic dispersion of retail licenses into
your rules.

You can download the full letter here.

The Seattle Times reported yesterday that eleven students at Garfield High School have been “banned” from school grounds while the recent hazing incident is under investigation.

Here’s more from the Times:

The Seattle school district has “banned” 11 Garfield High School students suspected of participating in a recent off-campus hazing incident until officials decide whether further discipline is warranted.

The students were told Friday not to return to class on Monday. Such “emergency expulsions” generally don’t last longer than two weeks, said Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman Teresa Wippel.

“It’s not an official disciplinary action. It just removes students from the school environment while the investigation is being conducted,” she said. “They are banned from coming on campus, and they also can’t participate in any sports or extracurricular activities while they’re emergency expelled. So they’re not supposed to have any contact with Garfield at all.”

Generally, Wippel said, “Ten days is the most that we would keep anybody out. And during that time, we do encourage the students to do their classwork at home and to keep on top of their work by corresponding with their teachers.”

Eight of the 11 students also have been identified by Seattle police as suspects in the incident, Wippel said.

Garfield Principal Ted Howard and a group of police officers broke up a large student gathering after school on Sept. 27 at the Washington Park Arboretum. They discovered underclassmen were being paddled, wearing diapers, having eggs thrown at them and shoe polish put on them.

Howard recognized some of the students’ faces, though others ran before he could identify them, and some were wearing disguises, Wippel said.

It’s not clear how many students were subjected to the hazing, but students and school officials have made clear that these types of incidents, known as “froshing,” are nothing new at the school. Wippel characterized it as a “tradition” at Garfield.

Student Body President Kellen Bryan confirmed that: It happens twice a year, he said — on Fridays before the homecoming and “purple and white” weekends. The student government doesn’t condone it. In fact, it provides alternatives, such as free barbecues, specifically to discourage students from taking part, Bryan said.

Another senior said it’s so pervasive in the school culture that some feel as though the only way to join clubs and meet upperclassmen is by first going through the “froshing.”

Wippel said Howard and other school officials are investigating each of the 11 students on a case-by-case basis to decide if further discipline is warranted.

Read the rest of the Times’ report here.