Officers arrest three suspects after drive-by shooting

Three 17-year-old male suspects were arrested on Wed., Oct. 18, following a drive-by shooting in West Seattle after they crashed the car they were driving. Officers responded to reports of shots fired at a residence in the 6300 block of 21st Avenue S.W. around 9:30 p.m. Witnesses described the suspect vehicle—and officers located a possible match nearby. When they approached the car, the suspects sped away and then crashed. Two of the three occupants were taken into custody at the vehicle, but the third suspect fled on foot. Officers used a K-9 unit to track the man and found him with a handgun in his possession. While investigating the case, officers learned from the victim that the three suspects were known to her and had been in a long-standing disagreement with her boyfriend. She also said that 10 minutes prior to the drive-by, the same suspects shot out the back window of a car she and her boyfriend were driving on Delridge. They had not reported the shooting of the car. Her boyfriend left the scene prior to the police arrival. Officers examined the victim’s vehicle and discovered several bullet holes and a damaged rear window. They processed the scene, and the victim’s car was impounded. There were no reported injuries. The three suspects were later booked into the Youth Services Center.

Southwest Precinct officers follow trail of auto thefts 

For nearly a week, officers in the Southwest Precinct had been following the trail of a suspected car and identify thief. They finally caught him driving away from his mother’s house. The search for the 46-year-old man began on Tues., Oct.10 when a member of the precinct’s Anti-Crime Team spotted him driving a red Honda near 5th Avenue S. and S. Cloverdale in South Park. Officers recognized the man, knowing that he had been associated with several auto theft cases in the area. They ran the Honda’s plates and found it was registered to someone else but was not reported stolen. When the officer saw the vehicle again a short time later, the driver sped away. The next day, the red Honda was reported stolen from a Renton gas station. Officers learned that it had been stolen only a few hours before they spotted it in South Park—and was found in the garage of a vacant home in the 3100 block of S.W. Roxbury Street, missing numerous parts, including its hood, bumper and front-end panel. On Mon., Oct. 16, officers found the man driving away from his mother’s house and made an arrest. The car he was driving had suspiciously been stripped of its Vehicle Identification Number plates. Police seized the vehicle and booked the man into the King County Jail for the theft of the red Honda.