Police raid on E. Pike: Gambling bust? - UPDATE

UPDATE - 1:27 PM: Not a lot of new information though the Slog has now caught wind of the story and added some unattributed information about a resident of the building being 'involved' in running a 'card room' in the past. Oh and they also have the time of the bust wrong. But we can't talk given we reversed the number of women vs. men busted in the original post.

More info about the building. It's owned and managed by Capitol Hill developer Anne Michelson. She is also developing the 1111 E. Pike project up the street. Businesses in the location include the Wild Rose, Houthouse Spa & Sauna and the apartment units above.

UPDATE - 8:57 AM: CHS spoke with SPD's head of media relations Sgt. Sean Whitcomb who said he could not clarify the nature of the search warrant or the arrests as the situation is part of an "ongoing investigation" and detectives are still processing evidence collected during the raid. If we don't learn more in the meantime, some light will be revealed when the affidavit required for the department to get the search warrant comes through the county court system in the next few days.

Original Report - 8:37 AM: Seattle Times seems to be hot on the tracks of vice squad raids as they happen these days. They've got the scoop on a big bust that went down on Pike last night:

The Seattle Police Department's vice unit raided a Capitol Hill establishment early Thursday, arresting more than a dozen people while executing a search warrant as part of an ongoing investigation.

A commanding officer on the scene declined to comment on the raid, referring questions to a department spokesman.

At 12:37 a.m., several police cars, including a SWAT vehicle, blocked a section of 11th Avenue just south of East Pike Street. Police entered a unit in a building on the southwest corner that also houses the Wildrose Bar and The Hot House, a spa. An officer announced over a loudspeaker that police were there to serve a search warrant.

Times report says two women and 13 men were escorted from the below-street level unit in zip-tie handcuffs and loaded onto a bus serving as a temporary holding cell.

One person at the scene said those arrested were playing poker.  Another eyewitness the Times quotes said, "I know this is no whore spot and I know it's no crack spot. This is a bit much," he told a reporter as he surveyed the scene. "People are going to jail -- good people with good jobs."

As of 8:44 AM, Seattle Police Department had not released a statement on the arrests on their SPDBlotter Blog.

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