Today in Fuzz: South end shooting, Beacon Hill robber arrested, and the art of distraction.
1) Two police officers stopped into a grocery store at Rainier Ave S. and S. McClellan just after midnight on January 23 to “grab a snack,” according to a report, when a store employee approached them.
The employee said they’d had a man and a woman come in earlier that night, and the woman had slashed open a jug of water on a shelf, distracting the staff.
While employees were dealing with the Great Flood, the woman’s companion went to the health and beauty aisle in the store, and raked a bunch of items into a backpack.
When store security noticed what the man was doing, he ran. When Store security chased after him, and he threw a stick of deoderent at them.
2) A 15-year-old boy and a 29-year-old man were both wounded in a shooting in south Seattle Thursday night.
Around 5pm, someone opened fire near a gas station parking lot on Rainier Ave. and Fisher Pl.
The 15-year-old was hit in the ribs and arm, and taken to Harborview. The gunman fled.
Police later learned a 29-year-old man had shown up at Harborview with a gunshot wound to his back, and police believe both victims were injured in the same incident.
Gang detectives were called out to the scene and are involved in the investigation. A law enforcement source tells us the 15-year-old wounded in the shooting was recently released from a juvenile detention facility, and court records appear to indicate he’s previously been charged in several burglaries, as well as a robbery about a block away from where he was shot last night.
3) Robbery detectives have arrested a 17-year-old suspected in a string of muggings on Beacon Hill over the last three months.
Police say that beginning in November, the 17-year-old and two other men began robbing people in the street, sometimes armed with a handgun. The men also pepper sprayed some of their victims.
Detectives are now trying to track down the other two men.
