The police report reveals a few more details about a May 4 incident where several shots were fired near Garfield Community Center. Nobody appears to have been injured, but police did arrest three people.

From the police report:

On 5/4/11 at 1614hrs, Radio announced multiple gunshots at the
 , located at 2323 E Cherry St. The call was further updated
that a possible victim car was last seen E/B on E Cherry St from that
location. The car was described as a well-kept white older American-made
two-door car with dark tinted windows. It was occupied by a black male and
black female.
I came into the area from the south. When I arrived at the community
center, I was flagged down by W/  . She stated that she saw a group of
five black males flag down a white car. She then saw one of the males,
described as a black male with shoulder-length dred locks and wearing a red
jacket with black patches, use a black handgun to shoot at the car. All
five males ran to the community center, then south through the playfields
to the teen life center. They then ran eastbound to 25th Av.
 W   flagged me down and said she saw the entire incident. She said
that she also saw the five black males standing between the parking lot and
E Cherry St. She saw the same described black male pull a black handgun out
of his jacket and shoot at the white car. She saw a black female hanging
out the passenger side yelling at the black males as it drove off
eastbound. The black males then ran toward the teen life center.
Multiple witnesses were contacted at the scene by responding Officers.
Witness accounts varied from the shooter shooting north at the car on E
Cherry St to the shooter shooting south at the car in the community center
parking lot. Officers searched both directions for gunshot damage, finding
none.
Five spent .380 caliber casings were located on the sidewalk just south of
the intersection of 24th Av and E Cherry St by Officer George. Officer
 George photographed their placement. I recovered the casings and turned
them over to Officer George for submittal to evidence. Officer Turner #6746
located a possible suspect jacket at   26th Av. Officer George recovered
the jacket and submitted it to evidence.

A car similar to the described victim car that is used by known gang members was stopped, but officers determined the occupants did not take part in the shooting incident, according to the report.

A day after this incident, more shots were fired near the Community Center, this time apparently stemming from a road rage incident.

If you have been by the Alleycat Acres farm at 22nd and Union, you may have noticed a key change to the space: More plots for growing food.

Of course, more plots means more work. Stop by the farm Sunday, May 15 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for a work party to get the farm ready for the summer work season. Starting June 8, people will be working every Wednesday evening at 6 p.m.

Come help nurture a productive urban farm that used to be a trash-filled vacant lot. And who knows, maybe you’ll even find the love of your life.

Summer work schedule:

Sunday, May 15th: 11 am – 1 pm

Saturday, June 4th: Garden Tour & Work

Wednesday, June 8th: 6 pm & every Wednesday night thereafter.

To keep up on opportunities to help out at the farm, you can follow Alleycat Acres on Facebook and Twitter or check out their online calendar.

Timothy L. Dampier, a minister who has been involved in youth programs around the Seattle area and in the Central District, has been charged with several counts of child molestation, according to KOMO. Police say Dampier has admitted to several of the incidents and is being held in King County jail on $500,000 bail.

From KOMO:

Dampier has also been involved in a number of Seattle-area youth programs at the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, New Hope Baptist Church, Ruth Dykeman Children’s Center, Ruther Child Center, Samuel House, Union Gospel Mission and Seattle Parks and Recreation. He also works as a minister at several Seattle churches, detectives said.

When Dampier was hired as a musician at the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in the city’s Central District last month, a member of the church reported having been sexually abused by Dampier when he was 10 years old, according to the statement of probable cause. The man said Dampier abused him inside his van after church functions for three years, and added he was concerned for the safety of the children at the church.

“After hearing the charges, my knees just, my knees physically buckled and my heart just sank,” said Rev. Robert Manaway, pastor of Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church. “Kids would run up and pull his hair, talking, laughing. That’s the interaction we saw with him with children in our church.”

Work is under way at the Midtown Center at 23rd and Union to move things around and create a new neighborhood drop-in center. Quality Tax, which is currently located south of Earl’s Barber Shop, is moving to the corner space that until recently housed the Seattle Police Drop-In Center. A new space, operated by the Union Street Business Group, will be created between Earl’s and the new Quality Tax location.

“It will be like a mini chamber of commerce,” said Tom Bangasser, owner of the Midtown building. The office, which has been in the works for a while, will be a space where people can stop by and see design drawings or plans for proposed projects, among other uses. SPD officers will also be able to use the space to make calls or complete paper work, as some officers had been doing at the previous drop-in center.

“We very much appreciate the property owner’s accommodations for us to be in that space,” said Seattle Police East Precinct Lieutenant Joel Guay. “When it’s done, the police presence will be appropriately a lot less in-your-face.”

The building is also getting something of a makeover. The big SPD shield on the drop-in center sign, which was intended to send a message to people engaging in criminal activity at the corner, will be coming down.

“That’s not as needed now as it was,” said Bangasser. The building will also get new awnings to replace the current ones, which Bangasser called “tired.” A designer is currently working on new awnings, and Bangasser hopes to have most of the project completed by the June 4 Central District Garden Tour.

The SPD Drop-In Center has been the target of vandalism in the past year. Two people were sentenced to community service after smashing the center’s windows last July. Arsonists also targeted the center in February during weeks of heavy protests against police brutality. However, Bangasser said the vandalism to the property, which he allows SPD to use for free in exchange for their increased presence, was not a factor in making the changes.

The upcoming Skillet Diner at 14th and Union is scheduled to open May 20, according to Capitol Hill Seattle. Owner Josh Henderson said he wants the diner to be a neighborhood destination, opening at 7 a.m. every morning and staying open until midnight during the week and 2 a.m. during on weekends. That means late night poutine and early morning espresso in the neighborhood.

The menu at the storefront Skillet location will be much larger than the menu at their popular mobile food Airstream trailer, Henderson told CHS in march.

“I’d love for us to be a neighborhood place and filled with people who live here,” he said. He picked up two of the skillets given to him in . Give Skillet your pan and you’ll get a $40 gift certificate. The donations, Henderson says, will be displayed on the east wall of the diner by the dozens — a wall of skillets.

You can follow Skillet on Twitter to keep up to date on their trailer and the new diner.

Seattle’s Salt Horse is premiering a site-specific dance performance called “Titan Arum” inside Washington Hall. The performances, which will run at 8:30 p.m. May 13-15 and May 19-21, will be accompanied by visual works by Margot Bird.

Michael Upchurch from the Seattle Times reviewed an excerpt from “Titan Arum” performed in December at Velocity Dance Center on Capitol Hill:

Salt Horse, led by Beth Graczyk and Corrie Befort, is a familiar and surreal affair, often employing unlikely props and costumes. But in “Serpentinite,” an excerpt from the forthcoming “Titan Arum,” Graczyk and Befort hone their imaginative world down to pure motion. Six dancers continually cross space at wildly varied speeds, the moves of each like a dialect that isn’t intelligible to the others. Sometimes they seem not so much to move as to be moved by twitching and sometimes terrifying unseen forces.

Tickets are $18, $15 for students and seniors and are available at brownpapertickets.com.

From the Titan Arum press release:

Joining Salt Horse choreographers Beth Graczyk and Corrie Allie Hankins, Jessica Jobaris and Shannon Stewart. Salt Horse performances by renowned musicians Stuart Dempster, Greg This work is lit by Salt Horse’s own accomplished TD, ilvs Strauss.

Salt Horse offers this unique meeting of performers in a space rich with performance history to play with how the potential of any moment is dependent upon the synergy or collision of its parts.  Fierce, sensual movement collides with lush, live acoustic sound. Disproportionately gigantic paper sets emerge and vanish. Living costumes bloom and fade. Salt Horse brings its signature surrealist lens to Washington Hall to warp and vivify perception.

We don’t have many details yet, but there has been a report of shots fired near 24th and Cherry. Police are looking for a four-door sedan with a black female driver in her early 20s with a weave. They believe the alleged shooter was a light-skinned black male with braids sitting in the rear driver’s side seat of the vehicle.

Seattle Crime reports that the white suspect vehicle may have been a Monte Carlo and apparently opened fire on another vehicle on the street around 5:15 p.m.

Police have not reported any injuries in the incident. We will update as we learn more.

Police responded to reports of shots fired yesterday at the same location. No word yet if the incidents are related.

Seattle Times reports more details about the firing of Garfield High School Athletic Director Jim Valiere earlier this year. The Times reports that the alleged scandal involved fake Spanish classes for several players, including basketball star Tony Wroten, Jr.

From Seattle Times:

Basketball star Tony Wroten Jr. sat in his second-year Spanish class at Garfield High School earlier this year and sent out a curious message.

“just me and my 2 bros,” he posted on his Twitter page in January. “we got a 3 person Spanish class. #Niccceeee.”

Wroten, the University of Washington’s top recruit, found himself in the tiny remedial class after an investigation showed that the Garfield athletic director in 2010 had given him and another star athlete passing grades in a Spanish class that never existed.

Several suspects were arrested after shots were fired near the Garfield Community Center this afternoon, according to SPD. No victims were located.

From the SPD blotter:

On May 4th, at approximately 4:12 PM, someone called 911 to report numerous shots fired near the Garfield Community Center in the 2300 Block of East Cherry Street.  Witnesses reported seeing a female yelling out of a white car at a group of people standing in the parking lot area.  One suspect in the group fired approximately six rounds at the vehicle.  The vehicle and the suspects both fled the area.  East Precinct officers immediately responded and checked the immediate area.  The crime scene was located and five spent shell casings were recovered from the parking lot.  A red jacket matching the suspect’s description was located a short distance away at 26th Avenue and East Jefferson Street.  No victims were ever located.  Gang detectives also responded to assist with the investigation.

As the investigation was concluding, detectives saw what appeared to be the victim vehicle returning the area.  As the detectives attempted to contact the occupants, one of the passengers took off running.  As the detectives pursued, the suspect dropped a handgun on the ground.  The suspect was eventually caught and taken into custody.  A total of three people were taken into custody out of the car.

The original suspect description (shooter) is a black male with dreadlocks, wearing a red jacket (later recovered) and black pants.  That suspect ran off with a group of black males.  At the time of this post, this remains an ongoing investigation.

Reader Jeremy sent us this message:

Not sure what happened, but I noticed yesterday the big mural on the side of Thompson’s Point of View in the old cheesesteak place parking lot has been painted over. It’s just a brown wall now. I’d be interested to find out what happened; seems like that mural’s been there forever and I can’t imagine why they would paint over it.

The mural on the wall of the building housing Thompson’s Point of View has, indeed, been painted over with brown. We reported last summer that the fate of the mural has been up in the air after people started tagging it with graffiti. Each time the mural was tagged, a little more of it had to be covered up.

Painted by two Garfield students in the 90s, the mural honored African American leaders Madame CJ Walker, Malcolm X and Edwin Pratt. We will update when we learn more about plans for the wall.

UPDATE: There is a plan for a new mural, according to Ian Eisenberg, who owns the Old Philly Cheesesteak property. The brown paint went up to prepare for the mural.

Before:

Today: