A memorial to mark the life of D’Vonne Pickett, Jr. will be held Thursday morning at Climate Pledge Arena.
The public memorial service honoring Pickett’s life is slated to begin at 11 AM.
Pickett was gunned down last month outside The Postman, the mailing services shop he opened with his wife KeAnna Pickett in 2018 at MLK and Union. The father, business owner, and youth football coach was 31. Continue reading
KeAnna Pickett and D’Vonne Pickett, Jr. at the 2018 opening of The Postman (Image: CHS)
The Seattle Fire Department has confirmed that a mistake in the dispatch of medic units personnel to the scene where D’Vonne Pickett, Jr. was gunned down at MLK and Union last month cost valuable minutes in the efforts to save the life of the 31-year-old father, business owner, and youth football coach.
UPDATE: SFD has clarified that the delay was for Seattle Fire personnel to reach the scene and that it is still reviewing “whether there was an actual delay of a medic unit due to address change.”
The acknowledgement comes as the city prepares to mourn Pickett at a November 10th memorial at Climate Pledge Arena. Meanwhile, the man charged in Pickett’s murder amid a “psychotic” string of shootings leading up to the MLK and Union killing is also slated to enter his plea in the case next week.
A spokesperson for the department says Pickett was transported within two minutes to Harborview Medical Center where he succumbed to his injuries but that a mistake in the initial dispatch delayed the arrival of Seattle Fire personnel. Continue reading
Repaired and restored (Image: Fat’s Chicken & Waffles)
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell will come to the site of widely condemned act of vandalism to a Central District mural Thursday to make the case for spending on new resources including a dedicated clean-up team to address what the mayor says is a “surge in graffiti in Seattle.”
Harrell Thursday is scheduled to appear outside MLK and Cherry’s Fat’s Chicken & Waffles where CHS reported in February on artist James Crespinel’s work to restore his mural of Martin Luther King Jr. The large mural on the side of the building had been targeted during the city’s MLK Day celebrations with spray painted vandalism critical of the civil rights leader’s role as a centrist.
The mayor’s appearance is part of his push for new funding to combat graffiti and vandalism as the Seattle City Council works to finalize his 2023 budget proposal with bids to step back on reforms including spending to create a larger SPD and a controversial plan to redirect funding from the city’s big business tax from COVID-19 recovery, housing, and the Green New Deal to patch up the city’s general fund. Continue reading
Messages left at The Postman as the community mourns the killing of D’Vonne Pickett, Jr.
Court and police documents have provided new details in what led up to last week’s killing of a Central District man outside his MLK and Union business.
D’Vonne Pickett, Jr. was gunned down Wednesday night outside The Postman, the mailing services shop he opened with his wife KeAnna Pickett in 2018. The father, business owner, and youth football coach was 31.
Ashton Lefall remains held without bail for investigation of murder, assault, and unlawful gun possession. after police and SWAT arrested him in Seattle Thursday.
Police say Pickett’s wife witnessed the shooting after the two drove to The Postman Wednesday night and D’Vonne was approaching the front of the store. According to detectives, Pickett said she heard gunshots and turned to see “an adult male with a husky build, wearing a mask and a royal blue hoodie, standing behind some bushes with his arms outstretched in front of him.” Continue reading
A memorial has been formed outside The Postman
Pickett
A man was shot and killed near MLK and E Union Wednesday night in the Central District.
Police were sent to the area after multiple 911 callers reported gunfire just before 6:30 PM.
Seattle Fire was called to the scene to a report of a man down with a gunshot wound to the abdomen at the address of The Valley Apartments and multiple businesses including Joyce’s Market and The Postman “mail and business” shop.
SPD said the victim was transported to Harborview where he died. Continue reading
Somebody is throwing bags of suspected human poop into City Councilmember Kshama Sawant’s Central District yard. The District 3 representative is calling on Mayor Bruce Harrell to direct the Seattle Police Department to do more to investigate what Sawant is calling “a series of disturbing incidents at my home.”
She also says she has photos and video of the man Sawant says was caught in the act that police aren’t using to pursue the case.
UPDATE 10/20/2022 4:45 PM: SPD has posted pictures of a suspect and is asking the public for help identify the masked man.
Can you help identify man suspected of throwing feces at city council member’s home? https://t.co/gXFEjumMmE pic.twitter.com/xqvj4WzjgR
— Seattle Police Department (@SeattlePD) October 20, 2022
In a press release sent by the Socialist Alternative political group Sawant heads and not from her City Hall office, the veteran councilmember shares a letter sent to Harrell documenting six attacks involving excrement and what Sawant says has been SPD’s apathy in investigating the fecal matter.
“As a socialist City Councilmember who has participated in Black Lives Matter protests, I am being told that my case of six threatening incidents involving human excrement doesn’t merit even a serious investigation, let alone protection,” Sawant writes.
Sawant also criticizes the SPD leak of information from the case to “right-wing media” that she says has encouraged “further attacks” on her and her family.
Sawant’s full letter is below.
The neighborhood turned E Columbia into a giant hopscotch route in 2020
SDOT says these purple-dashed CD’s Stay Healthy Streets are “under review”
Created during the pandemic to give more people safer options for walking, running, and biking but implemented with movable barriers and frequently ignored signs, the city’s “Stay Healthy Streets” routes across the Central District are either under review or already marked to revert to simpler “neighborhood greenway” setups, the Seattle Department of Transportation has announced.
In its update on the program laying out plans for the existing routes in the city and a few new additions being planned, SDOT says some Central District streets in the program including the key route on 22nd Ave connecting to neighborhood greenways on Capitol Hill and giving bikers and walkers an alternative to the 23rd Ave traffic artery are set to have the Stay Health barriers and signage removed.
Other streets in the CD, SDOT says, including stretches of E Columbia and 25th Ave are now “under review.”
“Over the next few weeks, we plan to visit all existing Healthy Street locations to check on the condition of signs and repair or replace them as needed,” the SDOT update reads. “We’ll also remove signs on Healthy Streets that will become neighborhood greenways like they were before the pandemic.” Continue reading
(Image: Push x Pull)
(Image: Push x Pull)
Push x Pull, a Portland “natural-process” coffee roaster, has expanded to Seattle with a friendly takeover of a Central District cafe.
Willamette Week reports that Push x Pull is now open on E Union in the former Union Coffee space:
The other big Push x Pull news is its acquisition of a Seattle shop, the former Union Coffee and Wine in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Prior to buying the business, Push x Pull had been supplying beans to Union. When the owner there decided to return to Atlanta to be with family, a sale to Push x Pull made the most sense.
In addition to the existing coffee bean relationship, WW reports that founder Christopher Hall has already been splitting his time between Portland and Seattle where his wife works.
CHS reported here in September 2020 on new ownership at Union as coffee connoisseur and former Boon Boona Coffee wholesale manager Geetu Vailoor took over the Union cafe and wine shop in the middle of the pandemic.
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Southbound 23rd Ave was briefly closed during the response (Image: SDOT)
Seattle Police were investigating and collecting evidence after a drive-by shooting incident locked down the area around the AMPM service station at 23rd and Cherry Wednesday night.
There were no reported injuries.
Multiple 911 callers reported gunfire just after 9 PM in the area of the gas station near the Garfield Community Center and high school. A witness described a scene involving a shooter firing into the gas station lot from a black sedan that sped from the scene. Continue reading
The Forbidden crew in Lacey (Image: Forbidden Cannabis)
A family of Washington pot shops now spans from the banks of the Columbia to the Central District. Forbidden Cannabis Club opens Friday on E Union.
Meanwhile, Seattle has a new set of policies hoped to improve equity in the city’s cannabis industry.
CHS reported in July on the deal to purchase Central District pot shop Ponder and its E Union property coveted both for the value of its land and its cannabis license just down the street from the headquarters of one of the city’s leading pot retailers, Uncle Ike’s.
With the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board approving the transfer, the transaction is now a done deal and Forbidden has announced its September 23rd grand opening with promotions and sale prices. Continue reading
