A man tells police his assailants were armed with a shotgun that they beat him with in an early Sunday robbery near 22nd Ave and E Olive St. The preliminary SPD report on the incident is below.
According to the report, the man was walking home around 2:30 AM when he was suddenly struck in the back of the head and knocked to the ground. The shotgun-armed muggers made off with the man’s cell phone and wallet. SPD’s search for the suspects was not successful.
The robbery joins a string of gun-related hold-ups around Capitol Hill in early 2013. In late January, SPD said its arrest of Hezekiah Greene, 20, was related to armed robberies in the area of Sunday’s shotgun beating. Meanwhile, incidents such as this reported hold-up involving a pistol and males in ski masks near Volunteer Park have also been keeping East Precinct detectives busy.
Here’s the full report on Sunday’s robbery from SPD:
A man was struck in the head and robbed. This morning at approximately 2:30 a.m., the victim had his headphones in listening to music. He was walking back to his house in the 2200 block of E. Olive St when he was suddenly struck in the back of his head by a blunt object causing him to be knocked to the ground.
When he turned around, the two suspects were standing over him. One of the suspects was pointing a shotgun at the victim’s face. The suspect then struck the victim in the face with the shotgun several times. The suspects forcibly took the victim’s cell phone and wallet and fled the scene. The victim called 911 from his house. The victim sustained lacerations requiring stitches to the back of his head and under his left eye
Containment was quickly set up and a K-9 track was attempted without success.
Anyone with information about the suspects’ whereabouts is asked to call 911. Anonymous tips are welcome.
UPDATE: SPD added description information to the post following our publish time:
The suspects are described as black males in their late teens to early 20s, 5’9 to 6’0 feet tall, average build. One suspect was wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt and the second suspect wore a dark hooded sweatshirt. Both had the hoods over their heads during the incident.
Why is it that a great many people get robbed with earphones in after midnight. Awareness, any?
I’m curious why you didn’t include a description of the suspects, given that it was contained in the police report?
Do you believe this victim could have defended himself against 2 men with a gun just because he heard them when they were 5 steps behind him? I doubt it. These guys were determined and violent.
I saw someone at an ER last night (not the same guy) who was jumped and robbed shortly after that by at least 2 guys right near the 7-11 a couple of blocks away. I would not be surprised if it was the same group. Be careful out there!
The description paragraph was added to the SPD post after we had already published. They marked it in italics but didn’t note that it was posted later. We posted all info available at the time. Update has been added above.
the point is, using earphones at night in an urban area helps label you as an easy target. seems to me, awareness of surroundings=less easy robbery victim. earbuds at night= distracted potential robbery victim. The thugs that assaulted this guy partly because he was distracted.
Anon Helper, no other reports of robberies in the area this weekend, per SPD http://web6.seattle.gov/mnm/incidentresponse.aspx
He has a point. Especially nowadays where so many people have bright white earbuds or fashion earphones like the Beats by Dre, you’re best to not draw attention to the fact that you’re not paying attention.
So if no one wore earphones no one would be targeted?
Being unaware of what’s going on around you because you can’t hear it lowers your odds. It’s just that simple. And if you were cruising around looking for a target, and you saw someone w/ earphones on, you’d absolutely pick them over someone who’s paying more attention to their surroundings.
Obviously people would still get targeted if nobody wore earphones– but do we need to make it easier for them? How obvious does that have to be?
Saying that the earphones made him a target is just as bad as saying that girls who are scantily clad make themselves targets for rapists. There are plenty of things that make people targets, but saying that the victim should have been more aware is victim blaming.
If you look at the crime reports, plenty of people have been mugged in this area, most of them weren’t listening to headphones. These two obviously had a motive and didn’t necessarily need to find someone who was “distracted”. Even the most vigilant person would have been great prey for them.
How about we start blaming the perpetrators, hmm?
a couple things not mentioned:
1) Obviously those headphones are connected to something most likely of value, say an ipod or smartphone.
2)It’s against the law to drive while wearing headphones. Why? Because headphones impair your ability to know your surroundings. Driver’s are expected to be aware of their surroundings.
I really love music. Do I love it enough to walk around at night advertising that I’m carrying something of value? Probably not. Do I love it enough to impair my ability to fully know my surroundings at say, 2:00am walking alone in the city? Absolutely not! Again, I really LOVE MUSIC and support everyone’s right to listen to music by way of headphones. Stay safe suckas!