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Overnight police, helicopter pursuit: Woman attacked with knife in robbery – UPDATE

KOMO reports a woman was robbed at knife point and cut on the wrist:

A woman sustained cuts to her wrist when she was robbed at knifepoint in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood early Wednesday morning.

Police said a 20-year-old woman was robbed at 10th Avenue East and East Highland Drive just after 2 a.m.

UPDATE 8:07 AM:
CHS found this eyewitness account posted to Facebook:


… after getting halfway down the stairs, then running back inside for my cell phone, I made it outside and saw a woman bent over at the corner, holding her arm out and crying. I ran down the block and got there just as a few other guys came up. One dude had almost witnessed the attack and had ran inside to grab something to put over the gash in the woman’s wrist. He ended up grabbing a grey pair of underwear. At least they came from a freshly laundered pile of clothes. I used it to hold the bloody cell phone she handed me, so I could call her friends. One after another, her friends weren’t there.

She wasn’t going to die from that cut, but there was blood spattered all over, a knife laying a few feet away and the cut wasn’t helping her keep her composure any. Overall I think she was handling herself pretty damn well.

The police pulled up almost right after I got there. Nice dude. Calm. Not the hyped up, yelling type.

Poor girl had almost made it home when the guy following her had attacked. She held onto her purse as long as possible, because it had her green card and other necessary documents. She was from Britain and was supposed to fly back on Monday for a wedding.

UPDATE 8:17 AM:
Here’s the report from the Seattle Police Department. We’ll talk with them to see if we can get any more information and updates later this morning.

On 7/8/09, at approximately 2:18 a.m., an officer was driving northbound on 10 Av E., when he was flagged down by the victim. The victim was screaming and pointing at the suspect who was running east on E. Highland Dr. The officer followed the suspect and engaged in a foot pursuit. According to the victim, the suspect confronted her and demanded her property at 10 Av E. and E. Hightland Dr. The suspect pulled a knife and cut the victim’s purse straps. A struggle ensued and the victim fell to the ground at which point the suspect cut her once on the wrist. When the suspect saw the police car, he fled on foot. A K-9 unit attempted a track but did not locate the suspect. All of the victim’s property was located and returned to her. The victim sustained a minor cut to her right wrist and slight bruising to her head. She was treated on scene by Seattle Fire Personnel and transported to an area hospital as a precaution. The suspect is described as a black male, 6′ tall, short hair, wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants.

Two accounts on CHS of a police chase near 10th Ave early this morning.

First, from Dejilg Ko:

My neighbor was awaked by helicopters overhead for 1/2 hour, police cruising down our street (10th Ave E, near Brix) multiple times (no siren), and she’s sure she saw a cop with a police dog walk down the street. She was scared and called the police, they would only tell her that they were chasing a robber. Anyone else have any info?

The other from aurorafix:

Hia, So I woke up at 3am this morning(July 8th) to some helicopter/large planes practically dive bombing my apartment for like 20 minutes. It got to the point where I thought they might be trying to land on Broadway or Volunteer park…. I’m on Broadway & Aloha. I looked on the news and couldn’t find any escaped convicts/ crazy traffic reports or similar explanations for the wierdness.

Does anyone know what the deal was? Or did they hear it too?

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EsmeH.
EsmeH.
14 years ago

The helicopter noise was awful last night (on Broadway and Highland)and seemed to go on forever. So they were using the helicopter to look for the stabbber-mugger? That seems a bit excessive- Is it typical to use helicopters in this way? Glad the woman is mostly ok of course.

jonathan
jonathan
14 years ago

Great job by the police… the screaming woke me up and right when I looked out the window, a police car pulled up and a cop chased the suspect through my front yard. Within minutes I saw them running through the park with the K-9 dog.

I was listening to KOMO police scanner… sounds like the helicopter was doing an infrared scan for someone hiding in the bushes. Too bad they didn’t catch the guy.

Mike with curls
Mike with curls
14 years ago

Three cheers for the cops.

They are not paid to monitor lap dances and hang out at the precinct.

Aggressive policing might help keep crime stats down as well.

e
e
14 years ago

They even checked the hammock. Wee, lazy sleepy robber.

gk
gk
14 years ago

I was also awakened at 2:45 this morning to what sounded like a large chopper or plane dive bombing North Capitol Hill (I am at Broadway and Roy). Looking out the window I could see the chopper making a large loop around the north part of the hill but couldn’t make out a floodlight so began to wonder if it was a manhunt or simply a plane in trouble. The circling was loud and close and lasted until 3:15 a.m. Thanks for the report on this!

Stephanie
Stephanie
14 years ago

June 29, 2009

Police seek teen in Volunteer Park gun hold-up – UPDATE
By jseattle Views (637) | Comments (0) | ( 0 votes)

A woman was robbed at gunpoint near Volunteer Park this afternoon by a suspect described as a black teenager wearing a white shirt, dark pants, and carrying a purple shirt. The Central District News first reported the crime in their daily scanner report at 3:21 PM.

The woman was injured in the attack but her condition is unknown at this time.

UPDATE:
Seattle Police Department has confirmed that they are looking for an armed suspect and are continuing to investigate the robbery.

The 28-year-old woman was treated at the scene by paramedics for minor injuries suffered in the attack, according to Seattle Fire Department spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen.

UPDATE:
The Slog has details from the victim:

Ashley Wolff, a 24-year-old Capitol Hill resident, says she was walking on 15th Ave between E Prospect Street and E Ward at about 3pm when an African-American man in his late teens or early twenties approached her, tapped her on the shoulder and asked her for change for a dollar.

When Wolff said she didn’t have change,…

(more)
Permalink | Posted June 29, 2009 | mo

jseattle
jseattle
14 years ago

Unlikely unless the description is wrong. The suspect in the gun holdup was described as being short (around 5’1″ I believe) and very young.

l
l
14 years ago

I agree with you, excessive for sure. They kept us all up with a helicopter and rummaged through my garbage carrying rifles for a purse snatching? Where else would this happen, a NOT at all dangerous or aggressive youth with a knife does not warrant that sort of response. Nutso cops carrying guns through a the yards of sleeping families makes for a very dangerous situation especially considering all of the trigger happy cops we seem to have in the area.

some dude
some dude
14 years ago

I’ll bet you 100 dollars that the helicopter was already in the air, and responded to this call becase 1) it was a stabbing, not just a simple purse snatching and 2) the more calls you respond to when the helicopter is in the air, the more you’re getting for the money they spend every time the rotors are spinning. So if cost is your hang-up, then you should applaud them using the helicopter, because you pay for the helicopter whether they’re using it or not.

As for the insinuation that this was a police overreaction by searching for a man who just stabbed a woman, i bet if you listened to the scanner traffic from last night and the scanner traffic from the night shannon harps was murdered, I bet to the police on the ground, the calls sounded the same. Woman stabbed, suspect on foot. That about sums it up.

I congratulate the police for having enough police on patrol to have an officer there literally within seconds who was able to pursue the individual, and for using all available resources to try to find him. Had they not been there, who is to say that the guy would have stopped with a single stab to the arm?

Paul T.
Paul T.
14 years ago

The loud helicopter woke me up and I tried to look outside to see what was going on, but was afraid to open my door. I peeked outside and saw a man with a dog (in the morning upon hearing the news, I figured out it was the K9 cop). The copter was circling my area of 10th and Aloha in around Volunteer Park. I turned on the news and nothing. I assumed they were searching for a suspect of some sort. Eventually, the copter was gone. It was loud and seemed to go on for a half hour. I went back to bed.

The fear stems from the fact that there has been a rash of criminal confrontations in this neighborhood. The criminal activity seems to be moving north to my darkly lit neighborhood. I am still going about business as usual, but will a bit more caution and awareness.