Several south valley neighbors called 911 at 10:45pm Thursday after hearing at least nine shots fired near Rainier Avenue South and South Cloverdale Street in lower Rainier Beach.
It’s been less than a week since many of the same neighbors reported hearing at least 13 shots and waiting up to two minutes on hold before dispatchers answered their 911 calls.
Scanner traffic indicates that tonight’s gunman ran towards Pritchard Beach and that bullet holes have been discovered in either a home or a vehicle in the 8300 block of Wolcott Avenue South near Cloverdale.
Seattle Police are currently searching the area. It is unclear if any victims have been reported since Seattle Fire Department’s Real Time 911 web site is currently down.
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Holy Moses. My friends live right there, and I have band practice there on Wednesday nights. If I had been smoking on the front porch last night I might have seen an actual fleeing suspect with my own eyes.
All other neighborhoods in Seattle must be boring beyond comprehension.
whatevernick: I was thinking the same thing – I live only blocks away and it’s amazing how short the distance can seem when nine shots are fired.
I live only doors from there. We heard the shots but no ensuing response from authorities. I assumed it was fire crackers since I often can’t tell the difference. There used to be a drug house on that corner – but not the one that got shot. I’m growing weary of these people and losing whatever sympathy I ever had for the reasons they do these things.
We are the only criminally active precinct that doesn’t have dedicated dispatcher…no wonder people have to wait on hold when making 9-1-1 calls. We share a dispatcher with West Seattle – which gets next to no calls. Who else is sick and tired of SE Seattle getting the short end of just about everything?
I agree that SE Seattle is getting marginalized. I’m going to go to the dept of Neighborhoods meeting and let them know that I expect they invest real economic development in our community. Why is it that other hoods like Ballard, Fremont & SLU get attractive employers, amenities??
I also live two doors down from
the house that was shot at. And though it was scary, the police arrived within 10 minutes which is pretty good in my book.
@whatevernick
I dunno man, I think as far as neighbors for entertainment goes, I’d rather have some that like to have sex with their curtains drawn or something…firing guns…not so much.
@Pat
Does dispatch get routed calls based on our prefix? IOW, when you call 911 do you get the strapped dispatcher juggling WSeattle and crime south-central because you’re calling from 725? I just wonder if you called from a cell, would you get randomized and maybe luck out with a bored Mercer Island dispatcher…
I’m not sure I agree that a 10 minute response is pretty good when bullets are flying and people are at risk.
I live a few blocks West of there, and heard what i thought was 10 shots. We thought they were much closer, but it’s surprising how sound travels in the valley. 10 minutes is totally unacceptable. The police station is right up the hill on Othello, I could walk that distance in 10 minutes.
Theses kids are being trained that if you fire a gun in the city, you can easily get away with it. I’m starting to think that some of these shots fired calls, are kids shooting for target practice. It must be a thrill for them to pop off 6-10 shots over in Othello Park, and then walk or drive away.
I’m afraid that residents and cops are being desensitized to gunfire, and response time will only get slower. Since most of the shooting victims have been young minority males, it doesn’t really get the cops motivated. This attitude has set the stage for non-gang related crime to occur, and not be noticed.
At this point, I’d imagine someone could break into my house, and we could have a small gunfight, and they’d be gone long before the cops arrived. Rainier Valley residents need to start taking care of things themselves, by installing video cameras pointing to the streets and parks, forming a visible block watch, and finally being prepared to fully defend yourself.
Dan’s comments above are very good. It is not acceptable for any shots to be fired and for a delayed SPD response. If the mayor has a clue, they will double up the SPD in South Precinct and drive the animals away. Or maybe, the mayors plan is to keep marginalizing this area and buy votes with low-income housing projects! Hopefully, these people go to another part of the world.
I don’t think it has anything to do with people moving to another part of the world. Also, I’m guessing that these are stupid kids who are doing the shooting. The truth is that the police are allowing this behavior w/o making a major showing or public investigation. They are underfunded, and understaffed and the problem is very complex I’m sure.
The anonymous statements above incite racism, and dehumanize the shooters, who are our neighbors. That fact is true, regardless of how much you may wish it wasn’t.
These aren’t BAD people, they’re people making bad choices in an environment where the consequences cannot be fully enforced.
Just heard at least 6 shots about 5 minutes ago at 11:30pm. Sounded like 2 people firing at eachother. Lets see if there are any arrests.
Thanks, Dan. Did you call 911? Can you give us cross streets?
It sounded like Henderson and Rainier area. I did not call 911 as I didn’t feel i could give any specific location. The shooting on cloverdale sounded like it was a few houses down, but when I read the report I was surprised it was about 6 blocks away from me.
How loud or close should the shots be before we call 911? I don’t want to jam up the operators if I don’t have any specific info. I sure wish that SPD had the same real-time 911 as SFD. Then we could tell if an event had already been reported.
Report,Report,Report. Even if you call 911 and tell them you want to remain anonymous, if it doesn’t get reported it didn’t happen and we continue to be short staffed in our precinct.
ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH Mark B. SPD has made it clear they staff neighborhoods based on 911 incident calls. Not enough people down here call 911 and we therefore don’t have the statistics that matter to the Mayor’s Office. In simple terms; the more calls to 911, the more officers assigned to the South Precinct.
Not only that, what if eveyone had that attitude? A lot of people could be getting away with Murder – literally!!!
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