Police tracked suspects in a downtown shooting to a Capitol Hill parking garage and then Boren Ave according to the Seattle Time report on the incident:

Two people were  shot at around 8:40 p.m. near Eighth Avenue and Pine Street downtown, and Seattle police tracked suspects to a parking garage on Capitol Hill.

About five minutes later, Seattle police dispatchers reported that three suspects in the shooting were spotted by officers near Boren Avenue.

An off-duty police officer from Lacey reportedly witnessed the shooting.

According to police radio at least one suspect is in custody and requires medical attention. Two victims were being transported to Harborview.

Medic crews were first called to 724 Pine at 8:48p for an assault with weapons incident. That is the address of the Paramount Theatre. According to the Paramount’s site, there was no NYE event scheduled for the facility.

Police remain fanned out across an area near 8th and Pike searching for the gun used in the shooting. According to police radio, they are not looking for any additional suspects though there are signs that two different weapons were used in the incident.

Police responded to a reported street robbery Friday night/early Saturday morning on E Pike. According to food truck operator @fusionontherun, two people were mugged in front of the Wildrose the night of their 27th anniversary party:

watched 2 women get robbed for their phones in front of the rose tonight. 4 men involved . Let pep know 2 be cafeful 2night

We have not yet confirmed details with police but the SPD incident response site indicates officers did respond to a strong-arm robbery at the location. The Fusion on the Run Twitter account also said there may have been arrests associated with the mugging.

UPDATE: Here’s an account from another witness at the scene. Again, we have not confirmed details with SPD. The information about the suspects being seen at Big Mario’s has been posted via social media elsewhere online this morning so we are not redacting the information here. But, again, we have no official word on the circumstances surrounding the robbery report. Here’s the account:

We got to the rose around 10:15 pm. I met my friends to celebrate XXXX and her going away for a new job we got a seat right next to the window. By the time we got our second round of drinks around 11 I saw a large group of men dressed in big jackets and obviously dressed like thugs.

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One of the guys was in a large white Jacket one in a red hat and one other in a dark jacket wearing pants around his mid thigh no one knows what the other guy looks like. The rose was packed for its anniversary I believe. There was a group of women outside and a lot of people inside. The guys kind of hung around outside for a min and then all of a sudden I see them hunched over a girl who is now on the ground and the group of men split and go running. 2 ran up the hill and 2 from what I was told just kind of walked to Marios. The 2 that ran up the hill grabbed a girls I phone in commotion. Our immediate reaction was to bolt out the door and chase the guys we ran for about 4 blocks but couldn’t find them anywhere. One girl found 2 of them at Marios hanging out I walked down and to see for my self and pointed them to police. The owner of the Rose followed the men after police talked to them and let them go. She contacted police for a second time after she found them with the other 2 men that got away. The girl that they jumped was too intoxicated to be cooperative with police and the rest of the witnesses didn’t get a good enough look at them. I was told that they swapped cloths before the line up so it threw off  the witness. I was also told the suspects hang out on the hill often and frequent Marios. After the lineup instead of running off and thanking their lucky stars they aren’t in jail they came back to the bar to try and intimidate the owner and patrons by walking by staring at us all several times. I have no idea if this was a drug deal gone back with the girl they jumped and the phone was just chance or if they just saw a large group of women and decided to rob them. One of the witnesses was scared to get involved because she sees them out at bars often. I know crime happens often on the hill I have just never seen such a blatant act of it out in the open like this.

Hope this helps I just want women to know to be safe this weekend and if your on the hill there are people attacking others for phones so be careful. 

UPDATE x2: And another account posted to our Facebook page from a woman who says she was one of the victims:

I was one of the women. Group of black males walked past the rose a couple of times then grabbed my phone right out of my hand and took off running. This was around 11:30pm. The other girl’s phone was taken as well but she was too drunk to cooperate. Police searched for the one that took the phones and never found him, but did identify the rest of the group. Be careful out there ladies!

Full disclosure: Big Mario’s is a CHS advertiser.

Crime stats for the entirety of 2011 won’t be available until early 2012 but we recently looked at trends through the first nine months of the year here.

UPDATE x3: SPD confirmed the robbery investigation but the preliminary information available at this time is pretty slim. According to police, a woman was robbed outside an E Pike tavern around 11:16p Friday night by two assailants. No injuries were reported. SPD said the two suspects involved in the case were described as black males in their 20s. One was 5′ 6″ with a thin build and wearing a black jacket with a white hoodie at the time of the robbery. The other was described as 6’1″ with a thin build and wearing a white jacket with dark, baggy jeans. SPD had no additional information at this time.

Given what an incredible year it’s been in Capitol Hill food and drink, we understand the urge to be part of the excitement. New Capitol Hill steakhouse Manhattan Drugs will just make it:

[Saturday] will be a New Years Eve sneak peak party of Manhattan Drugs for the public from 9pm-2am, we will have the entire bar open but will also be serving hors d’oeuvres. 

Tuesday and Wednesday we will be doing friends and family full plated dinner service.

The latest project from power duo Laura Olson and Chris Pardo, Manhattan (or will it be Drugs?) is helmed by general manager and partner Corey St. John. We told you about the project back in September after Izilla Toys left the space at 1429 12th Ave.

We’re told the CHS advertiser will be a good place to have a burger or enjoy a steak. Medium rare, please. You can learn more on Facebook.

Meanwhile on New Year’s Day, Lucky 8’s China House will debut on 14th Ave.

New Years 2012: Space Needle Fireworks in Seattle,
originally uploaded by Michael Holden.

We’re here and ready to work when news pops up but there’s a lot to read, look at, absorb and comment on in the posts below. Enjoy. Or, if you’ve already consumed our crafted content, take a break. Look out the window. Click on another site. You can also leave a comment on this open thread. We’ll take your resolutions. We’ll take your New Year’s good wishes. We’ll take your intel on what’s open and what’s not (see below re: our new holiday tradition). We’ll take videos of you singing Auld Lang Syne.UPDATE: Video of the 2012 fireworks view from Capitol Hill added below.

See something others need to know about? Mail us or call/txt (206) 399-5959.

We also celebrate a new CHS tradition: The Great New Year’s Day What’s Open Punt. CHS will always be there for you for the Christmas version. But New Year’s Day is a good day for bleary eyed wanderings. There are a few New Year’s Day 2012 brunch notes at the bottom of our Capitol Hill party post but you’ll be on your own for the rest. There are also quite a few clues buried in our Christmas Day post. Good luck. Share what you know here. Or don’t. Enjoy the wander.

As for the resolutions, CHS has some plans for 2012. You’ll hear from more voices in the New Year — good news for those tired of “jseattle.” We also resolve to change our look and feel — yes, 2012 will bring a redesign. We plan to grow as a business to help make sure we can continue to spend our days reporting on Capitol Hill. And we resolve to get back in touch with you — there will be more CHS happy hours in 2012, if nothing else. Cheers.

And the squiggly lines? That’s you guys. Thanks to the 100,000 of you who stopped by this month. We hope you found what you are looking for.

As the final minutes of the year tick away, here’s a look at 2011 through the lens of CHS. Our pictures are a function of grind it out, hold down the trigger tenacity and help from a great community of photography contributors. We’ve selected some of the most viewed and (we think) most compelling imagery featured on CHS in the past year. Un-represented are all the great images shared via the CHS Flickr pool and systems like Twitter and Facebook. By the way, here’s a look at the top CHS images from 2010. You can also check out more of our 2011 Year in Review: Most important Capitol Hill stories of 2011 | The year Capitol Hill Food+Drink broke | 2011’s 30 most-commented posts | Hill Style Top 10 | The year in development (next week!). All images below are linked to their associated posts and image credits. Thanks to all the photographers who shared their work with CHS in 2011!



(Image: Brant P)

It’s likely to be cold and drizzly Saturday night but consider stepping outside to be part of Seattle Center’s center of the civic celebration of 2012 from a vantage point on Capitol Hill.

As CHS contributor Brant P said as he and friends rang in 2009 by watching Space Needle fireworks from a Capitol Hill vantage point, “The rain was cold, but the booze kept me warm inside.” This post has some images — and video — of the view from Capitol Hill during Space Needle NYE fireworks past.

As for where to watch from, Melrose above I-5 and Volunteer Park afford some great views of the Needle. Unfortunately, Volunteer Park is supposed to be closed to the public starting at 10p. By the way, with terrorism fears shutting down the party near the Space Needle for the 2000 New Year’s celebration, Seattle Parks kept Volunteer Park open to view the show — that would be a swell tradition to continue without the terrorism part, please. Regardless, plan on walking to your viewpoint. It will take you until next New Year’s to find a place to park. UPDATE: The Lookout promises “Seattle’s best view of the Space Needle and fireworks.” It gets to be a zoo so get there early, we’re told. $10 cover after 7p.

Let us know if you have tips or advice — or friendly neighborly requests — for watching the fireworks from the Hill.

New Year’s Fireworks, originally uploaded by bkraai2003.

New Years 2010 – Fireworks at the Space Needle from David Albright on Vimeo.

The view from Melrose

Space Needle fireworks NYE 2010, originally uploaded by Lookin4TallGuys.

It was probably too late for Santa but a report of “three orange orbs or fireballs” flying above the Capitol Hill and Madison Valley area of Seattle early on December 26th is circulating in online extraterrestrial enthusiast communities after being posted to a UFO tracking site:

Last night, as I was walking the dog, I noticed a single orange light coming towards me from the southwest and traveling overhead to the northeastern part of the sky. At first I thought it was some kind of low flying plane or helicopter, but it was fuzzy in appearance and flaring outward in all directions. It moved slowly. Soon afterwards it flew directly over me, and behind the cloud deck off to the northeast.

Next about 20 seconds later, I saw two more orange lights traveling in formation, heading on the same course as the first object. The two objects appeared from the same direction, same course, same speed, and same altitude, flying in a single file pattern. As I tried to get a closer look at them, I noticed that each was a fuzzy, glowing, light orange ball or orb. They did not appear to have any solid noticeable center, and their outlines were faint and semitransparent (almost halo-like). These objects made no sound at all, had no beacons or flashing lights on them, and just seemed to float along. Their speed would be equivalent to a small plane or helicopter. They were not moving very fast. But these lights were definitely not aircraft. I have no idea how large they may have been or how far away they actually were. What is interesting is that when the objects were directly overhead, I noticed a slight wobble and floating movement (unconventional propulsion), in which one of objects moved slightly away from the other one, slowing down for a moment and then speeding up again to meet back in formation with the other object. After a few seconds they continued to travel at the same speed towards the northeast. My thoughts were that these two strange orange orbs were following, or catching up with the first orange orb.

Were you involved with any luminaria ceremonies that night? Flying lanterns seem to be behind most of the sightings reported in the area over the years. The truth is out there.