WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: About Wednesday’s early-morning pursuit

Several readers asked about a police pursuit in West Seattle around 3:30 am Wednesday. We couldn’t find evidence of a pursuit-level incident starting or ending here. Now we know why – it didn’t start or end here, but had a high-speed detour through here. A detail in this SPD summary solved the mystery, and gave us a springboard for research to fill in the West Seattle specifics:

At about 3:08 a.m. (Wednesday), dispatchers received reports that occupants of (a) vehicle pointed firearms at the caller. Officers arrived in the 2900 block of 1st Avenue and contacted the 20-year-old victim.

The victim said he was driving on the ramp to Dexter Avenue while attempting to access Denny Way when a white minivan, possibly a Dodge, occupied by four individuals, pulled alongside him. The driver began to drive erratically before stopping next to his car at a stoplight. Two occupants then pointed guns at him.

The victim drove away and ran a red light to escape. The vehicle followed and then continued westbound on Denny Way.

Officer later located the suspect vehicle and initiated a pursuit in the West Precinct area. Officers lost sight of the vehicle in the North Precinct area. A short time later, officers spotted the vehicle in the Southwest Precinct and reinitiated the pursuit. Police successfully ended the pursuit and took five suspects into custody.

Officers arrested four juveniles, three boys and one girl, ages 14, 15, and two 17-year-olds, for investigation assault and unlawful possession of a firearm. They were booked into The Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center.

Officers also arrested an 18-year-old man and booked him into King County Jail for investigation assault.

The vehicle was impounded and transported to be processed.

We went back into the police-radio archives to see where in “the Southwest Precinct” part of the chase took place. The vehicle headed west on the West Seattle Bridge, according to officers’ updates for dispatch, and then was pursued around West Seattle streets including California and Alaska in The Junction, Avalon Way, and 35th SW to Roxbury, then onto 99 and back north. Speeds noted by a pursuing officer via radio were up to 112 mph. The end of the pursuit isn’t clear in the radio archives but it appeared to be in or near the Highway 99 tunnel, in which the suspects were reported at one point to be going the wrong way. We don’t know the suspects’ current status but will be pursuing with prosecutors.

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