This week crime in the West Seattle area became a trending topic after three separate incidents occurred involving teenagers on the morning of Feb. 11.

The first incident involved a Sealth High School student who was nearly robbed and assaulted while walking to school. The second involved a Denny Middle School student who was nearly abducted by a Caucasian male in his 50’s at the corner of Thistle and 25 Ave. S.W. The third incident involved another Sealth High School student who was accosted in an appropriate way by an older man while riding on a metro bus.

The school district immediately sent out a letter to parents detailing the incidents and offering tips for students and their families in dealing with dangerous situations.

“We are bringing in quite a few additional officers to patrol the areas of the robberies as well as the incidents involving the 3 young women, and will keep this in place to give the respective detective units time to work on the cases and identify suspect(s). We are also in close contact with Seattle Schools to continue to push out safety tips as well as working with SDOT and other city agencies to try to eliminate some of the risk factors associated with a pair of stairwells where a couple of these incidents have occurred,” answered S.W. Precinct Captain Steve Wilske over email when asked to comment.

This week’s incidents while unrelated are still part of a larger uptick in dangerous and violent crimes that are targeting young teenagers in the West Seattle area.

In the last few weeks a string of armed robberies have occurred on the Delridge stairs between S.W. Holden St. and Delridge WY S.W. where teenagers have been approached by men with guns. Because of these incidents plans are currently in place to remove bushes and shrubs that create hiding places in order to make the pathway more visible.
Wilske had emphasized the plan for extra patrol officers and morning patrols near the schools whose sole responsibilities would be to monitor student safety at the W.S. Block Watch Captain’s meeting with Chief O’Toole on Feb. 3. Plans were also announced in conjunction with City Light to add more lights near bus stops in the Delridge and High Point area to increase visibility.
In response to the incidents this week Wilske offered up this email update to community representatives on Feb.11:

We have had 3 incidents involving middle school to high school age victims today, from the descriptions these are not related to the earlier robberies, the last of which occurred a week ago today. We are going to continue the early morning emphasis patrol where we are bringing in additional officers that are assigned to this problem, and CPT Officers will be the lead on working on the stairwell at 26th and Trenton SW, where one of today’s incidents occurred.

I have discussed this with Seattle Public school security, and have already contacted the follow up unit that will work on today’s incidents, and offered any assistance they may need from the precinct to identify the suspect(s) from 2 of the three incidents today, one has already been identified by patrol officers who contacted him near the scene.

I will update you as things progress; this is a different series with a different suspect or suspect(s). In this series young female students are the victims, so whenever possible please have them walk together with friends so that they are less vulnerable, and if they have a cell phone have them call 9-1-1 immediately if they feel they are being followed or see someone they are worried about.

One arrest was recently made of a 15-year-old suspect believed to be involved in a Jan. 20 robbery near California Ave. S.W. It has been reported that the suspect who accosted the Sealth student on the Metro bus has been interviewed by police but ultimately released since it was found that he had not broken the law.