Here’s what we’ve found out regarding two incidents readers have asked about:
EARLY MORNING RIVERVIEW SEARCH: Here’s what led to a police search in Riverview around 3 am today: A car turned up in the playfield lot that was linked to a crash-and-grab burglary that the South Precinct police had been investigating a short time earlier. Here’s the narrative for that:
At 2:07 a.m., officers received reports of a vehicle backing into a store in the 5900 block of Corson Avenue South. Police arrived and found severe damage to the front door of the store and tire tracks leading up to the building from the parking lot. A building search was conducted, and no suspects were found inside. The employee of the store arrived and stated thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise was stolen from the establishment.
The police investigation revealed that a silver-colored sedan backed into the store and damaged the front entry. Two suspects entered the store wearing dark clothing and masks. The suspects exited the store with stolen items and fled the scene in the vehicle. There may have been a third suspect driver.
There was no narrative for the Riverview search itself but archived audio shows a K9 search – which is why neighbors heard “short bursts of sirens” – followed the discovery of the car, a silver Hyundai sedan stolen from Burien, and that police reported seeing a gun magazine in it. The burglary suspects however, were not found, at last report.
JUNCTION RESPONSE ON MONDAY: Several readers asked about a big police response at 41st/Alaska early Monday afternoon. This turned out to have been the arrest of the suspect in an assault a short time earlier at Admiral Safeway; the 22-year-old man remains in jail today. According to the police narrative, it started just before noon with reports of a man “throwing merchandise at staff and punch(ing) a customer” inside the store, then leaving southbound on California. Police circulated photos of the man – described as a “chronic shoplifter” who had allegedly stolen a six-pack of beer from the store three hours earlier and was back for a repeat of that. When a store employee called 911, police say, the suspect threw “a 6-pack of full glass bottles” at the employee “from about 10 feet away,” then threw a “four-pound bag of oranges” at someone else. The employee escaped being hit by the bottles but the other person was hit by the oranges; three other customers were assaulted before the suspect left, according to the narrative, including a 76-year-old disabled woman who thought she was hit by a pumpkin. A short time later, police found the suspect in The Junction (the report says 42nd/Alaska though readers reported it was the Bank of America parking lot at 41st/Alaska), at which time officers say he threw “a glass jar of salsa” at an one of them, and missed, though it broke and splashed both the officer and their patrol car. The narrative continues:
(The suspect) was escorted to the ground where he continued not listening to officers’ commands to put his hands behind his back and continuously tried biting officers. (He) was eventually handcuffed and transported to KCJ without incident.
The jail roster shows the suspect is facing misdemeanor theft and assault charges for starters, with bail set at $2,000.
