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Teen suspects tracked down hours after Cal Anderson knifepoint robbery

Increased Cal Anderson foot patrols didn’t stop a knifepoint robbery but alert officers who had been on the beat inside the park earlier recognized the suspect descriptions from the crime and tracked down a group of teens believed to have been responsible for the Friday night attack.

Two teenage suspects were arrested.

According to the SPD report on the incident, the victim and two friends were walking through Cal Anderson around 8:30 PM when they were approached by a group who asked to use the victim’s phone. When the victim refused, he was struck in the head by an unknown object. According to police, one suspect continued to attack the victim while the others held the victim’s friends at knifepoint near the park’s fountain. The attacker grabbed the victim’s phone and then fled the park with his accomplices.

The immediate search for the suspects was not successful. Seattle Fire was called to the scene to treat the male victim for a large laceration to his forehead.

SPD reports that two officers recognized the description of the group from their beat patrol earlier in the evening:

East precinct officers Anthony Ducre and Brian Sunderland had been walking through the park earlier and recognized the descriptions of the suspects given by the victims.  They searched the area and found two of the suspects six hours later just blocks from the scene of the robbery.  Officers searched the teens and discovered one of them still had the victim’s phone in his pocket.

According to the report, the victim was able to come to the scene of the arrest to identify his assailants after being discharged after treatment at Harborview.

The teenage suspects were booked into the Youth Services Center for investigation of robbery.

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26 Comments
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Reality Broker
Reality Broker
8 years ago

Now that sounds like some boys who deserve 20 lashes with a whip to their butts.

bb
bb
8 years ago

And the city wants to stop putting kids like this in the slammer.

Max
Max
8 years ago
Reply to  bb

That’s a broad generalization. My understanding is that the city wants to invest in programs which reduce crimes committed by juveniles. Incarceration happens after a crime so the goal is to increase the prevention of crime. It’s a systemic issue with many factors. Crime is not stopped as a whole by temporarily locking up these two teenage suspects.

bb
bb
8 years ago
Reply to  Max

I’m still for locking them up. I believe there are and have been attempts at crime prevention programs and crime has continued.
I’m still awaiting the details of these “new and improved” approaches but will continue as a skeptic for now.
“Systemic” implies that criminality was thrust upon these youth by outside forces. Personally, the argument that it’s our fault has grown tiresome in my view.

Max
Max
8 years ago
Reply to  bb

Your reply is a mix of misinformation, false logic, and plain old putting words in my mouth. Note to self: don’t feed the trolls.

Prost Seattle
Prost Seattle
8 years ago

Serious question that bb brings up, is how do you deal with these assailants? Return them to their families so they can be in the park tonight as well?

Max
Max
8 years ago
Reply to  Prost Seattle

LIfe in prison then? For these two robbery and assault suspects?

Prost Seattle
Prost Seattle
8 years ago
Reply to  Max

No, life imprisonment isn’t the answer, but something needs to be done. I think a lot of us want to know what is being offered up instead of imprisonment. Our government has a history of half-assed measures that are ineffective at best. Short term, I think the neighborhood should be concerned that we have people roaming around willing to cause harm for our phones.

Max
Max
8 years ago
Reply to  Prost Seattle

I think comments on blog posts are the answer.

RWK
RWK
8 years ago
Reply to  Max

I would suggest a punishment somewhere between a slap-on-the-wrist and life imprisonment. This was a serious crime which could have resulted in death for the victim from a blunt head injury. The perp deserves prosecution and some jail time.

By the way, nice work SPD!

David Holmes
David Holmes
8 years ago
Reply to  Max

For property crime, absolutely not. Inanimate things aren’t worth destroying a life (or any extended incarceration). However, the moment you “bash someone in the head with an unknown object” or in anyway physically abuse another human being, then yes, life in prison is not unreasonable. You should forfeit your freedom for a long, long time at the point of shooting, stabbing, bashing, or otherwise terrorizing another person. It’s pretty much the only really important rule.

Optimum
Optimum
8 years ago

There is a world of difference between violent and non violent criminal acts. Not having anywhere to detain youth who commit violent acts (as some in this city strongly advocate) is absurd. The majority of youth are not out there committing crimes at all. Diversion programs have my full support as do youth services, but to insinuate that the small number of youth who are doing violent crime should have no accountability remains ridiculous. if they can be diverted successfully out of “the system” with a reasonable effort over some time I am all for that. But to say there should be no youth detention is unacceptable even within communities of color here in Seattle no matter how much political radicals would try to deny that.

poncho
poncho
8 years ago

I wouldn’t mind redeveloping Cal Anderson Park with affordable housing. We need the housing, it’s well located, and the park sucks anyway.

Really?
Really?
8 years ago
Reply to  poncho

The park is lovely and incredibly well located. There is little open space on Capitol Hill. The park has playfields that we are well used, play areas, neat water feature and open space. Seriously? You want to tear it down and put in housing? And what does your comment have to do with crime and criminals?

genevieve
genevieve
8 years ago
Reply to  poncho

Cal Anderson Park is one of the best things about Capitol Hill. It’s well laid out, actively used by really diverse groups within the neighborhood, and centrally located.

Agreed
Agreed
8 years ago
Reply to  poncho

I agree with Poncho. Cal Anderson Park is simply in the wrong place and a worsening mess. People can go to Volunteer Park if they really want a pleasant outdoor experience and one in which they don’t have to fear for their safety.

RWK
RWK
8 years ago
Reply to  poncho

The park itself does not suck, but some of the people who hang out there surely do.

Tough challenges
Tough challenges
8 years ago

We should rethink the anonymity afforded 16 year old offenders. What if we named and shamed them and their families. What if victims picketed their homes? What if their parents were sued for the actions of their criminal minor kids (not that their families likely have the resources to pay).

I don’t know the color or background of these offenders but if past is prologue, they probably had no daddies to reign them in, which is something that adolescent boys (and girls) tend to require.

We as a society can try to be preventive and helpful in the schools and communities, but we are often caught short and wholly unable to fix broken families and incompetent, overwhelmed single parents.

White guilt and racism prevents real discussion
White guilt and racism prevents real discussion
8 years ago

Certainly their families should be prevented from staying in taxpayer-subsidized housing from this point forward. And if any of them are “refugees,” perhaps whichever organization made bank (in the form of federal subsidies – look up Lutheran Family Services) bringing them over and dumping them on us should reimburse the criminal justice system (taxpayer) and the victims.

jane
jane
8 years ago

Why is it every time these incidents happen there is a call for more services for the offenders and their “community”? Why isn’t the compassion and services being directed towards the victims and their “community”? Why is there an assumption the perps are acting out of duress rather than entitlement to abuse and victimize others? If poverty and injustice were the root causes we would see more women, older people, gays and trans perpetrating them. These excuses are weak and the shakedown deplorable.

bb
bb
8 years ago
Reply to  jane

Great points.

Privilege
Privilege
8 years ago
Reply to  jane

Because incarcerating for lower-level crimes at record rates clearly hasn’t had any positive societal effect, outside of lining the pockets of the prison industry, increasing some retail profits for slave labor, and for creating a permanent criminal class with no job prospects and no way to earn money but commit more crimes?

So here’s the real answer: Because programs and support are better than the alternative. Oh, and because they do some good. Investing in communities and your own city and trying to reach kids before they get into a cycle of crime and violence is a better solution than just throwing more tinder on the fire by cutting programs designed to help these families that, by the way, we’re currently throwing in jail at record rates. We break up families then wonder why they can’t keep families together.

Hope is powerful. Hopelessness is destructive. In most poor communities, and that includes white communities too, crime is high because there’s literally nothing else. If no one cares about you, why are you going to care about anyone else?

You’re may be thinking, “why golly, those darn ‘others’ just shouldn’t commit crimes,” which sure. They shouldn’t. It’s an easier way out. God knows no one in whitey town ever looks for an easier way to circumvent the system. Kids were prowling my neighborhood, which is in the richer part of Capitol Hill; it was a bunch of local kids doing it for kicks. Do you think they got throw in jail? Where was the outrage?

pragmatic
pragmatic
8 years ago
Reply to  Privilege

Exactly.

Balance
Balance
8 years ago
Reply to  Privilege

I think social programs are a great idea for the low-level and non-violent crimes committed by minors and may be successful in turning kids around before we have to write them off, but robbing someone at gun or knifepoint is long past that stage.

The moment a minor is convicted of robbing someone violently here they should be tried as an adult and sentenced to many, many years behind bars. The remainder of their childhood can be spent in juvie and upon their 18th birthday they get shipped off to a real prison for the remainder. Sticking a gun in someone’s face should never be a slap-on-the-wrist situation and by treating it as such, Seattle is putting it’s citizens lives at risk.

jack
jack
8 years ago
Reply to  Privilege

It might have something and everything to with culture.

David Holmes
David Holmes
8 years ago
Reply to  Privilege

Crimes against property deserve 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chances. I don’t even think any incarceration is warranted for an offense against inanimate things. However, the second you bash someone in the head, or whatever, that should be immediate and long term forfeiture of your freedom. It’s basically the only important rule in this society, and the penalties should be very high for breaking it.