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SPD just sent out an update on this morning's big police response in the Central District:

On September 2, shortly before 8:30 AM, East Precinct officers responded to a report of shots fired from an apartment balcony in the 2000 Block of East Yesler Way.  Officers nearby heard the multiple shots.  911 received numerous calls on the shots fired. 

The initial report stated that...

Seattle police are are looking for an armed man who fired off several shots outside of his Central District apartment this morning.

Police received a call about a man firing... (more)

SPD Blotter:

Robbery Detectives developed information during the course of the investigation that led them to the identity of one of the suspects involved in last week’s home invasion robbery in Highland Park. On September 1,  detectives with the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force located and arrested a 37 year old suspect at 260th and Pacific Highway South in Des Moines.  Robbery Detectives were following up on additional leads at a motel in Federal Way when another suspect wanted...

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg says he will seek the death penalty for Christopher Monfort, who allegedly waged a one-man war against Seattle police last year.

Monfort is accused of firebombing several SPD patrol cars at a city repair facility in the International District on October 22nd, nine days before he allegedly ambushed and fatally shot Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton—also wounding Officer Britt Sweeney—as they sat in their patrol car in the Central District last Halloween.... (more)

From the Post Globe:

To effectively fight the prostitution of children, it helps to look at the chronic problem in terms of supply and demand.

“You will never bring down this business on the victim’s side. The driver is on the clients’ side,” said Kaffie McCullough, campaign director of the Atlanta non-profit organization A Future. Not a Past, dedicated to stopping...

An employee at a Capitol Hill shop told police he believes he was attacked by a shoplifting suspect earlier this week because he is gay, a police report says.

Around 2:00pm on August 29th, employees at a store on Broadway and Harrison spotted five black females, all around 20 years old, carrying bags and trying to leave the store with merchandise they hadn't paid for.

When one of the women set off... (more)

As we reported yesterday, there are some flaws in The Stranger's recent report on why pot arrest levels are "worse than ever" in Seattle.

Today, just as we said they would, Mayor Mike McGinn's staff issued a lengthy FAQ, correcting the record on the Stranger's pot hit piece.

We've already pointed out some of the inaccuracies we discovered in The Stranger's reporting, but here's another big one, by News Editor Dominic Holden:

This year, 147 people have been referred to prosecutors with pot as the only charge, according to records from the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and the city attorney's office. That is a fivefold increase in the number of pot-only cases (last year, only 28 of the 120 arrests were referred for prosecution with pot as the only charge). In other words, pot-only arrests rose from 23 percent to 85 percent.

This is a drastic shift toward busting people solely for pot.

Uh, not so much, says the mayor's office:

In the first four months of last year about 6,500 incident reports were filed with the City Attorney’s Office. In only six of those incidents was marijuana the reason for the contact. Only .09% of incident reports during this time period cite marijuana as the primary reason for a contact.

Although it may appear that marijuana was the “sole charge” in a lot of incident reports, it often looks that way because the reason for the stop was either a traffic citation (which isn’t a criminal charge), or to execute a warrant.

Most police contacts involving marijuana occur because of an unrelated offense. For example, of the incident reports filed between January 1st and April 30th of this year (the time period covered by the Stranger’s public disclosure request), there were only eighty that cited possession of marijuana.

Only 21 of those 80 incidents were not related to 911 calls, traffic stops, or on-street drug dealing, says the mayor's office. And of those 21:

[A]ll but six were incidents in which the officer stopped the suspect for a reason other than marijuana, and discovered marijuana incident to the arrest.

Those six remaining incidents all involved individuals openly smoking marijuana in front of a police officer.

Now that Mayor McGinn's office has corrected the record on The Stranger's piece, let's see if The Stranger does the same.

The full release can be found after the jump.... (more)

The King County Prosecutor's office has declined to file charges against SPD Detective Shandy Cobane for his involvement in a racially charged incident near a Lake Union nightclub earlier this year.

"After reviewing a thorough investigation by the Seattle Police Department, we have determined that Detective Shandy Cobane did not commit the crime of felony malicious harassment, the state's "Hate Crime" law, during an incident that took place in April of this year," the prosecutor's office said in a prepared statement.... (more)

A Seattle man previously convicted of setting fires and attempting to derail trains has been charged with kidnapping, impersonating a police officer, and attempted extortion after he allegedly called an escort to his apartment, told her he was a cop, and tried to coerce her into having sex with him.

Julian Tarver, 25, allegedly contacted an escort on August 21st through an ad on Craigslist and asked her to come to his apartment in the 700 block of N 95th in North Seattle.... (more)

A man sustained several broken bones in his face after he was jumped in the University District earlier this week, according to a police report.

The man told police he was walking along 47th and University around 1:00, when he turned to walk up towards 15th Ave NE.

Four men jumped the man from behind, punching him in the head, and knocking him to the ground.... (more)

We've got another report of a violent incident at one of Seattle's bestest intersections: 12th and Jefferson.

On August 27th, police were called to the intersection around 9:30pm, and found a man at a bus stop, with a wound on his hand.

The man told officers that an "unknown person" stabbed him in the left hand, between his thumb and index finger.

The man didn't see what the suspect used to stab him, and did not see where direction the suspect fled.

Less than sixty seconds after Officer Ian Birk spotted John Trouble Williams crossing a downtown intersection Monday evening, Williams lay in the street, bleeding to death.

(more)

The Seattle Times has spoken with a woman who says yesterday's officer-involved shooting didn't go down quite the way SPD says it did.

Seattle Times:

...

Seattlecrime.com has learned that this week—possibly later today—Mayor Mike McGinn's office will release a statement refuting a recent story by The Stranger that asserts that Seattle police are aggressively going after marijuana users, making more pot arrests than ever.

The Stranger's piece, Pot Paradox—published the week of Hempfest—claims that between January and June of this year, pot arrests doubled when compared to the same period last year:... (more)

Armed robberies seemed to be popular this week. Here are a few reports we came across today.

West Seattle:

Related date/time: Aug-25-2010 2219
On 08-25-10 I was working a two Officer marked patrol car with my partner,
Officer J. Ross #7578. At approximately 2118 hours, we were dispatched to...

We missed a few items from SPD's blotter yesterday:

SPD's new online reporting system kinda led to an arrest:

North Precinct detectives recently investigated a case where a citizen utilized the new Community Online Reporting Program to report her bicycle stolen from her front yard on July 27th. The bicycle was actually taken on July 22nd.   The key to this case was the fact...

In what might be the best burglary report we've seen in awhile, a Phinney Ridge man came home to find a burglar in his house, reduced her to tears, and sent her home without any shoes:

Aug-25-2010 1843

The victim stated that he arrived home at approximately 1400 hours and entered through the garage.

...

A Seattle police officer fatally shot a man armed with a knife at Boren and Howell this afternoon. Updates after the jump.

Photo by MacGoogly. (more)

Find out after the jump.... (more)

A fairly routine warrant arrest in Lake City Thursday morning has turned into a major police investigation after officers stumbled upon "hundreds of thousands" of dollars worth of stolen goods in a home rented by a man with ties to the Animal Liberation Front, police sources tell Seattlecrime.com.

The case, which initially drew the attention of SPD's intelligence unit and the FBI, began when Seattle police and Department of Corrections officers stopped by a home in the 13700 block of 35th Ave NE  around 9:00am on August 26th, looking for a man wanted on a domestic violence warrant.... (more)

A Seattle man is facing malicious harassment charges—Washington's hate crime statute—for an alleged assault at a 7-11 near Seattle Center.

Prosecutors say Brock Stainbrook walked into the 7-11 on 3rd and Denny around 12:30am on August 24th, approached a man standing near a coffee machine, and punched him in the head.

"You're not even American, you're Al-Qaeda. Go back to your country,... (more)

Were you one of the many folks wondering what brought that noisy cop chopper to the edge of Capitol Hill early Sunday morning?

We got an email or two about the chopper—as... (more)

Violent crime is down 13% according to SPD's two-month old statistics.

Here's what that apparently looks like:... (more)

Three of those wacky, problem Aurora Ave motels are up for sale, says the PI.com:

Among those being sold are the Fremont Inn at 4251 Aurora Avenue North, and the Isabella and Italia motels, at 4129 and 4217 Aurora Avenue North, respectively, all owned by Dean Inman.

Last summer, the City Attorney's office filed 180 criminal charges for various tax violations against Dean and Jill Inman, then...

It's Monday burglary report time!

As we mentioned last week, we've heard from several sources that SPD's burglary numbers are down overall as of late.... (more)