Tag Archives: powhat

After years of Capitol Hill obituaries, the Redwood has fallen

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Surely a Capitol Hill dive bar that warranted annual obituaries but somehow managed to remain open deserves a post to mark its final demolition.

Work has begun to remove from the earth any traces that the Redwood ever stood on E Howell.

Thanks to a CHS reader for a picture of the demolition in progress. We might not have believed the news without it.

The neighborhood bar was notorious for inspiring nearly annual fits of sadness over its pending displacement. The owners and the Redwood’s patrons knew redevelopment was coming and made quiet plans for dealing with and moving on. Six years of inevitable doom came to a close this week.

Continue reading →

Carmelo’s Tacos a silver lining of taco goodness inside Capitol Hill’s Hillcrest Market

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Carmelo Gaspar is at the center of things on Summit Ave E

Tucked inside the Hillcrest Market is Capitol Hill’s newest culinary delight from south of the border. Serving up fresh salsas, homemade tortillas, tender meat, and succulent cactus leaves, Carmelo’s is bringing the flavors of Mexico City to Seattle, one taco at a time.

This family owned and operated business is staffed by four employees, including the owner Carmelo Gaspar, who was slicing asada when CHS went for a visit. Carmelo’s manager Miguel Cruz says they worked close by and knew the owner of the store. “We saw the teriyaki guy was out, so we started talking to the owner and we got an opportunity to start,” he said. Continue reading →

Deputy in 13-hour Capitol Hill standoff charged for pepper spraying cops

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The long standoff shut down several blocks around E Howell and Belmont

The off-duty King County Sheriff deputy who told police he had a shotgun and engaged in a 13-hour standoff with police inside his Capitol Hill apartment last week did, indeed, have a firearm in the unit.

Prosecutors say police found the weapon, ammunition, and a pepper spray canister inside the fourth-floor apartment of Berdon Parsons following the incident. The 30-year-old has been charged with three counts of third-degree assault for allegedly spraying pepper spray under a door as police officers attempted to contact him at the start of the Wednesday, May 30th standoff.

CHS reported last week on details from Seattle Police about the alleged domestic violence assault over a fight about groceries and sex that sparked the 13-hour standoff with the off-duty King County Sheriff’s deputy inside the Granada Apartments building. Continue reading →

Hold-up victim says made run for it, used Siri to call police in Capitol Hill knifepoint robbery

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Police are investigating after a man reportedly made a run for it and was able to call 911 with help from “Siri” after he was held-up at knifepoint and beaten on his way to a Capitol Hill parking garage early Monday morning.

According to the Seattle Police report on the incident, officers were dispatched just before 4 AM and found the victim near Howell and Harvard crying with blood on his shirt and his pants torn. The man told police he had been out at Neighbours and then went to a friend’s who lived nearby before making the walk back to his truck parked in the Seattle Central parking garage. Continue reading →

Police: Reported assault over groceries and sex led to 13-hour standoff with deputy at Capitol Hill apartment building

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Berdon Parsons via Linkedin

Police say the 13-hour standoff with a King County Sheriff’s deputy at a Capitol Hill apartment building started with an alleged domestic violence assault over a fight about groceries and sex, according to court documents released Thursday.

Berdon Parsons faces charges over assaulting officers as Wednesday’s long standoff on the fourth floor of the Granada Apartments escalated after police say the deputy sprayed officers with pepper spray as they attempted to contact the 30-year-old from outside his apartment door early Wednesday morning.

“While officers were in the hallway they attempted to talk through the door with Parsons,” the report reads. “Suddenly, O/C Spray (aka Pepper Spray) started being sprayed from inside Parsons apartment along the seals of the door, therefore being sprayed out into the hallway where the 5 on-scene officers were.” The officers were forced to retreat and the standoff would then last through the morning and into the afternoon. Continue reading →

SWAT standoff blocks off area around E Howell — UPDATE: Suspect taken into custody

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UPDATE 4:07 PM: A sniper took his position atop this E Howell building across from the suspect’s fourth floor window

UPDATE 3:35 PM: After a long, sometimes tense standoff with police, the suspect — identified as a King County deputy on administrative leave and a fourth floor resident of the building — was removed from Capitol Hill’s Granada Apartments, splayed in cuffs on a blanket on the street outside, and then attached to a gurney as he was taken into custody and removed from the scene.

UPDATE: Berdon Parsons, 30, was booked into King County Jail for investigation of assault. He has not been charged. Parsons has served as a deputy with the King County Sheriff’s Office since 2015.

The incident began after a report of domestic violence more than 12 hours earlier after police say a man came to the East Precinct to report the situation. Police arrived at the Belmont and E Howell building around 3 AM and the standoff ensued.

Through the early morning and into the day, police widened the closed corridor around the building as details of the situation emerged and it became clear the suspect was armed and had a rifle.

Loud booms from flash bangs used as a diversionary tactic and, police said, to keep the suspect alert and conscious as the long standoff dragged on, sporadically interrupted the otherwise mostly calm scene around the old apartment building as SWAT and SPD officers took their positions and entered the building. An Arson and Bomb Squad robot was used to breach the apartment door where cameras revealed the suspect had barricaded himself in the bathroom.

Police say Parsons was in communication with negotiators though the day and a department spokesperson said the situation was handled under standard procedure despite the involvement of a suspect familiar with law enforcement procedure.

A phone box is prepared for delivery

Some residents of the building were evacuated early in the standoff while others learned of what was unfolding from neighbors and the media. Neighbors trying to reach their buildings, cars, or work, were directed around the scene. Others with homes facing the suspect’s apartment window on E Howell were ordered to stay inside. Despite the orders, some gathered in nearby alleys and parking areas for a better view of the suspect’s window with glass busted out by the delivery of a special box containing a phone from SWAT as officers swung and worked above the window.

Full details on the day’s incident are below.

ORIGINAL REPORT 8:50 AM: Seattle Police and SWAT units blocked off an area around the Granada Apartments on E Howell at Belmont Wednesday morning in a standoff following a reported domestic violence incident.

The Seattle Police Department has not confirmed details of the situation but traffic is reportedly blocked off at several points in the are between E Olive St and E Denny Way. UPDATE: SPD has confirmed it is trying to contact a barricaded individual in a building at Howell and Belmont. People living in the building say the suspect is a resident on the 4th floor. Continue reading →

Fire in E Howell apartment and restaurant building investigated — UPDATE: Arson

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Thanks @flyguy84 for the pictures from the scene

The Seattle Fire Marshal was investigating Monday night after firefighters quickly extinguished a blaze inside a 1925-built E Howell apartment building home to 40 apartment units and the Kedai Makan restaurant.

Smoke and fire were first reported in the 400-block E Howell Burlingame Apartments building off E Olive Way around 7:35 PM. Seattle Fire units quickly brought the blaze on the mezzanine level in the building’s residential entrance under control. One early report indicated the fire may have involved a couch.

The building was evacuated during the response and SFD was checking smoke levels inside to make sure it was safe for residents and customers. Kedai Makan is not open for business on Monday nights.

The Fire Marshal was called to the scene to determine what caused the blaze.

Seattle Fire reports there were no injuries.

A person familiar with the situation, tells CHS that a bartender at Montana, on the other side of the block from the blaze, may have helped save the building when he noticed smoke coming through an emergency exit door, grabbed an extinguisher, and jumped into action. Continue reading →

Design review board has first look at Belmont Ave low-income and re-entry project

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(Images: SMR Architects)

Capitol Hill’s design review pipeline has slowed to a trickle but there are still a few important new projects on the board. Wednesday night, a development from Pioneer Human Services part of $101 million in funding for affordable housing projects across Seattle will take its first step in the process.

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/design-review-1717-belmont-ave/

Pioneer on Belmont will be a seven-story apartment building with 90 units designed for a mix of the lowest income tenants and housing for formerly incarcerated and homeless residents: Continue reading →

Police respond to Belmont Ave building for man reported stabbed in early morning robbery

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Seattle Fire and Seattle Police found a man stabbed in the back inside a Capitol Hill apartment building but not much information about what happened in a reported robbery early Friday morning.

Emergency units rushed to the area just before 5 AM after a 911 caller reported that the victim had been stabbed in a robbery or attempted robbery. Their arrival was delayed by more than five minutes due to confusion over the caller’s location, according to emergency radio dispatches.

Police were able to track down the incident in the 1700 block of Belmont at the Granada Apartment building where the victim was found with what appeared to be one knife wound to the upper back.

Seattle Fire rushed the victim to Harborview. We do not have information on his condition. UPDATE: SFD tells us a man in his 40s was taken to the hospital in stable condition in the reported stabbing.

Police were attempting to piece together what happened in the incident with limited information from the victim or the caller.

UPDATE 2/26/18: It took us a bit but we received the SPD report on the stabbing and it sounds like police don’t have much to work with in the case with very limited details from the victim or the woman who called 911:

 

Apartment dweller hit by drive-by bullet inside his Capitol Hill building

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Seattle Police have released new details in what appears to have been a freak drive-by shooting incident on Capitol Hill early Sunday in which a man was hit by a bullet after hearing gunfire outside his E Denny Way apartment building

CHS reported on the incident over the Presidents Day weekend but SPD has now released its report on the strange shooting and the apartment dweller’s unlucky brush with a bullet.

As we previously reported, the victim told police he heard gunfire in the street below his apartment just after 1 AM and went to the window to see what was happening. As he turned, a bullet smashed through the glass and grazed his body, leaving a four inch-long wound along his rib cage:

“The bullet slug was embedded above the inside of the front door, approximately 1 inch above the door trim, and approximately 4 inches from the right side of the door,” police report. Continue reading →