First degree attempted robbery charges have been filed against Ian Strawn in the blundered October 2nd street hold-up that left a Capitol Hill man shot in the stomach.
Strawn was arrested last week after a stand-off with police. According to the charging documents, Strawn was found hiding in the attic of his girlfriend’s Beacon Hill apartment building. In addition to being a suspect in the October 2nd robbery attempt, Strawn was wanted for escaping his community custody sentence for a 2007 vehicular homicide conviction.
The 29-year-old will appear in court next week to enter his plea. Prosecutors have requested a sizable $250,000 bail citing the random and violent nature of the alleged crime. Police say that Strawn denies any knowledge of the incident or even knowing the people who told detectives they were with him the night of the alleged robbery attempt.
The charging documents in the case corroborate what the victim in the incident — CHS commenter Busbetch — told us about the shooting and robbery attempt against him and a companion. According to the documents, police believe Strawn fired a pistol into the victim’s abdomen within seconds of approaching him and his companion in the 1700 block of Boylston Ave and demanding their wallet and purse. Police say the bullet passed through the Busbetch’s abdomen and was recovered at the scene.
According to police, Strawn immediately fled the scene without taking anything from the victims and jumped in a silver Jaguar driven by the man who eventually fingered the suspect for detectives. Weeks following the shooting, as the Jaguar man was being booked into jail on an unrelated matter, he told a guard that he had information about a shooting on Capitol Hill that had been featured on America’s Most Wanted.
The Jaguar man told police that Strawn asked him for a ride to Capitol Hill the night of the robbery attempt and, since he was going to Dick’s anyway, the man told police he drove Strawn to the Hill. The man said he and his girlfriend dropped Strawn off near the Olive Way exit from I-5 and went to eat. On the way back, the man told police, the Jaguar guy heard a “loud boom” and saw Strawn running. The man picked him up and learned about what had just happend on Boylston Ave and offered to get rid of the gun for Strawn by leaving the .38 caliber snub nose revolver with the man’s Yakima brother-in-law. The man told police that Strawn had said he was going to Puerto Vallarta to get out of town.
SPD had issued a bulletin in the days following the shooting asking for witnesses who may have seen the silver Jaguar.
Police eventually gathered enough evidence to put out a wanted bulletin on Strawn and he was tracked down last week in south Seattle and finally arrested after a brief SWAT standoff.
In addition to the robbery charges, Strawn also faces charges of assault and unlawful possession of a firearm. According to prosecutors, Strawn has a lengthy arrest record including the 2007 conviction for vehicular homicide.
“since he was going to Dicks anyway” —
Greetings and thank you Neighbors for all the love shared. Thank you for expressing your thoughts your experiences with each other, and with me, and about how this has effected you It seems to have inspired the community to be more safe walking home, to encouraged each other to be honest and more observant while having fun on capitol hill. I am grateful to be here and will refrain from making too many remarks as we will still have to convict this criminal with a violent murderous streak, for the communities sake and for his own health and wellbeing. I mean who knows? If convicted he may find a path to recovery from the hurts and abuses and reactions that started him down such a dark alleyway. Recovery from perhaps the drugs he looked like he was on… He may have an opportunity to make amends or he may become even more hardened in prison… .. . However; he ain’t there yet.
As for me… I will be much happier after due process has occurred and I hear the sound of a gavel fall. While I understand some of the generic forces that push individuals into crime, and I pity the fool, nevertheless I will sure be happy if the city can win and keep him off the streets.. Before he escalates to murder. I feel he will need lot’s of time to make these changes, if he is to find a peace filled fertile place in his heart… I feel he could seek and till that deep soulful earth for many years and still find no golden treasure, or box of jewels, but he might end up with rich dark humus.. And that my friends is what you grow your future in….
I look forward to the day in court when you all are invited down to show solidarity in the neighborhood by filling the benches with me. There we can exercise our right to listen in on the work the detectives have done and we can have the details of how the case unfolded and just what led up to his capture… We may even get to hear him speak? Anyhow It is late and I look forward to welcoming you all aboard my coach sometime or seeing you at Cal Anderson Park or Out and About.
Be Well.
-BB
As much as people seem to love the place, Dicks really does bring the worst people to our neighborhood.
You can’t really blame it on Dick’s per se….the problem is there are not that many places open to get food late. When Jack-in-the-Box was open at Denny, it got its share of trash too.
VUCSA = Violation of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act
MIP = Minor in Possession of alcohol
Ha. Thanks AbstractMonkeys. I’m sure 90% of the readers were, like myself, unaware what those acronyms meant.
I just saw this, the cops really f**ed up cuz this is not the guy. ON the streets we know the shooter as Gotto’s brother. Gotto is a freaky banger and His girl said he got arrested in December so to save himself he offered up someone but not his brother. The dude in jail was not even in the county then so Gotto didn’t think he’d get charged. Dumb ass cops cut a deal with Gotto, they stick this sucker in the tank and the shooter runs free. Seattle PD for ya.
you need to reveal all you know so that you do not go to prison for criminal conspiracy. if you have babies how can you care for those babies if you are in prison? this sounds like an assassination of a gay person.