After a woman was assaulted outside her Lower Queen Anne apartment back in February, many neighbors got together to organize a Lower QA/Uptown Block Watch group to promote public safety in the community. The first meeting was held last Thursday, April 8, and organizer J.P. Flores says it was a huge success.

For those who couldn’t make it to the meeting, J.P. has put together a few notes on the topics covered and what the group plans to do next to bolster public safety and deter crime in the neighborhood, including weekly walks, building-specific Block Captains and mobilizing communication via social media. Take a look:

We had about 27 people show up for the meeting which I think was a great turn out! As Melanie said, there was a good energy and A lot of Great Ideas were presented as far as personal safety as well as improvements to the neighborhood. Just a few points were:

• A weekly walk is a fun constructive way to 1) keep a community presence on the street and 2) get to know your neighbors!
• 911 should be called if you want an officer to come out. Don’t be afraid to call, as this is a good way for the police to track crime trends in the area (this includes reckless driving, screaming people and so on).
• Neighborhood Block watch signs would be a great way to discourage criminal behavior in the area (Terrie suggested asking the businesses in the area if they would contribute in part or full for the cost of the signs as it is for their benefit as well).

Block Captains
Terrie spoke of block captains that would relay news or events to the people on their block, since we live in a neighborhood of condo and apartment complexes, we should have building captains like Terrie suggested. This person would relay any news about events we would be planning (weekly walks, or maybe even a yearly bbq for National Night Out) and address any issues relative to LQA safety. If you are interested in being a block captain please email me and we can discuss it one on one.

Social Media?
For anyone who uses Facebook or Has a Twitter account, I think a Facebook page for the LQA watch should be created that would post to your news feed as just another way to stay connected in our neighborhood and provide a more open forum for discussion. If everyone likes the Idea I will set one up.

The group has proposed weekly community walks, which would take place at 7 p.m. every Thursday. J.P. would like to hear feedback and suggestions on these proposals from neighbors and those interested in getting involved. You can contact J.P. at jflor84@gmail.com.

Seattle restaurateur Michael McConnel, who owns two local chains–Caffe Vita and Via Tribunali (both of which have locations in Queen Anne) and has a hand in a number of other Seattle enterprises–has been charged with assault, hit and run, and DUI by city prosecutors this week after he allegedly crashed into another motorist and proceeded to attack him on the evening of Wednesday, March 31.

QueenAnneView obtained the police report and charging documents detailing the strange series of events that night, first reported by SeattleCrime. According to the SPD report, a car driven by McConnell rear-ended another vehicle at the intersection of Broadway and James Street near Seattle University, while the victim was waiting at a red light at around 6 p.m. on the 31st. According to the report, McConnell refused to exchange information with the victim, who reported smelling alcohol on his breath. The police report also states that McConnell’s lawyer, who arrived at the scene moments later in a separate vehicle, allegedly attempted to cut a deal with the victim, offering him $1,500 for the damages to his car if he agreed not to call the police. McConnell reportedly refused to pay and then walked off, returning a few moments later when he allegedly punched the victim in the chest with both fists. According to the report, McConnell then left on foot, leaving his car behind.

Police caught up with McConnell later that evening at one of his restaurants, arrested him and took him to the East Precinct, where he reportedly refused to take a breathalyzer test. SeattleCrime reports that McConnell has pleaded not guilty on all charges.

Both Caffe Vita and Via Tribunali serve beer and alcohol at several locations. Back in December Caffe Vita applied for a liquor license at its Queen Anne location, at 813 5th Ave N. And last month the Washington State Liquor Control Board approved licenses for both the Queen Anne and Capitol Hill coffee outposts.

However, WSLCB spokeswoman Anne Radford told SeattleCrime that the board may seek cancellation of these licenses should the McConnell receive criminal convictions. McConnell is scheduled to appear in court on Monday, May 3.

(Photo taken from McConnell’s Facebook page).

Last month Camille parked on the street outside her Lower Queen Anne apartment, near W Roy St. and 3rd Ave W., and began to walk towards her building when she was suddenly attacked, kicked to the ground and mugged. Although she was not seriously injured and later recovered her belongings, Camille was shaken up and worried for the safety of herself and other women living in the neighborhood.

Though she didn’t know it at the time, but several neighbors heard her screams and run outside to assist her. By that time Camille had already made her way into her building, but her story has lead several community members to urge the creation of new Block Watch group in Lower Queen Anne.

J.P. Flores, who is spearheading the effort, says that many in the community have responded and he expects a large attendance at the first meeting, set for Thursday, April 8 at 5:30 p.m. at the Courtyard at Queen Anne Square, located at 275 W. Roy.

SPD Crime Prevention Officer Terrie Johnston will be attending the meeting to help Queen Anne residents learn about working together to tackle public safety issues. The event will be a great opportunity to meet your neighbors face-to-face, one of the first steps in creating an effective Block Watch.

For more information see the event flier (.pdf), and feel free to pass the information along to other neighbors who may be interested.

One Lower Queen Anne woman, Camille, was assaulted outside her apartment late last Tuesday night, having her bag snatched only after she was repeatedly kicked in the face and chest by the assailant.

Many neighbors who heard her screaming during the ordeal, and many more who live in the area, were so moved by Camille’s story and concerned with the growing prevalence of violent crime in Uptown as of late–especially in the area between the Counterbalance and the entrance to Lower Kinnear Park on Roy that is very poorly lit–that they’ve decided to organize a new Block Watch program to connect neighbors and hopefully prevent future assaults like this one.

Reader J.P. Flores, who is spearheading the effort, wrote in the comments,

I am fairly new to the area (10 months or so) But I love my Neighborhood. I haven’t seen anything about a Neighborhood Watch in this (Specifically from Counterbalance Park to Kinnear Park along Roy where most of the recent disturbances have been happening) And I would like to propose one. I am married and I don’t like that I have to worry about my wife walking to the store or even from the car to our apartment. I know there are a lot of other young couples in our community who I am sure feel the same way. I would also urge the businesses in this area (On The Boards, The Sitting Room etc..) to participate as it is their community as well. Shall we do something about it? Let’s make this neighborhood safe for our kids and all those who live in this beautiful part of town.

J.P. has agreed to organize the Block Watch if he can find enough interested parties, and hopefully local businesses, to participate. If you’d like to take park in the Counterbalance to Kinnear Block Watch, contact J.P. at jflor84@gmail.com or comment below.

For more information on Block Watches or to find one in your area, contact SPD Crime Prevention officer Contact Terrie Johnston at (206) 684-4741 or terrie.johnston@seattle.gov. If businesses in the area would like more information on what they can do to encourage public safety, they can contactFran Tello at (206) 684-4730 or francisco.tello@seattle.gov. Read up on ways to get involved with community crime prevention here and here.

Update 2/26/2010: Camille wrote in our comments,

I wanted to give you all an update. I found out two important things last night. The first, chivalry is not as dead as we thought. Apparently a man ran out of his building holding an axe to come and help me but he didn’t arrive until the attacker ran off and I was already inside. The second, a gardener found my bag. It was in Gerard Schwarz’s (the man who runs the Seattle Symphony) yard over on Highland. That’s a mile and a half away, which clearly indicates that they had a car. This makes me certain that the car I saw before the attack (black celica or ford probe with rust around he windows) was involved. Thank you to everyone for your concern, please be careful.

At 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday, February 23 Camille parked on the block of her Lower Queen Anne apartment, near W Roy St. and 3rd Ave W. As she was walking home, a man walking the opposite direction grabbed her, pushed her down, and kicked her in the face and chest repeatedly, before running off with her purse.

She wrote to us wanting to share her story and help warn other people in the area, particularly young women, of similar attacks. Camille wrote,

I got out of my car onto the sidewalk less than a block from my building. I immediately saw a man walking slowly towards me. He was probably 5′7″, relatively thin, a light-skinned black man or a Hispanic man, was wearing a fitted tan or brown hoodie and had a beanie with a hood on. He wasn’t disheveled or homeless looking but he was very creepy. I didn’t want to be judgmental and like a lot of white people felt that being scared of him in some way made me racist. So, instead of trusting my instincts and getting back into my car and locking the doors, or even simply crossing the street I walked towards him.

We passed one another under the awning to the Iris Apartments which are surrounded by bushes and have no street lights. Right as I passed him he turned and grabbed me. I instinctually tried to get away, he grabbed harder, I started screaming. Eventually he knocked me onto the ground and kicked me in my face down by my mouth and in my chest. I don’t really remember what happened next but eventually he ripped my bag off of me and ran off. I’m pretty certain I was screaming the entire time. I kept thinking someone would come outside or start yelling but no one did. How can no one hear me right now I thought. I was surrounded by hundreds of people all hidden in their apartments. As he ran off I was still standing there screaming and crying help but no one did.

Despite the fact that the stretch from Roy and 3rd Ave W to the entrance of Kinnear Park is always “very very very dark,” Camille said she’s never felt unsafe walking there before midnight, until Tuesday.

Camille happened to have had her keys in her hand during the attack, and was able to get into the building and use Skype on her computer to call her boyfriend. She sat in the lobby of her apartment and spotted a police officer walk by outside. He had her cellphone, which had fallen out of her bag during the attack. The officer told her that they had received several calls about her screaming, though no one came outside to help. Camille wrote,

I filed the report but don’t feel like that will do anything. Since the incident I’ve instead been warning as many people as possible. Last night when I got home from dinner at 10:30pm I didn’t see any police patrolling.

Other than having a sore back and neck, Camille says she is doing pretty well. Luckily there was nothing too valuable in her bag and she was able to cancel all her credit cards before they were used. Still, she says the attack was a frightening and emotional experience, so much so that she wrote to her anonymous attacker in a “missed connections” ad on Craigslist.

Camille doesn’t have any clues as to who the assailant might be. While she was parking her car that night she remembered seeing a black car “with oxidation and rust around the tinted windows” stop when she appeared.

It seemed weird. I’m not sure if they stopped simply because they were being cautious with a car coming around the corner, but it did seem odd.

If anyone has any further information about the incident, please comment below. Although Camille would like to retrieve her items, she’s more concerned with the safety of other women who could be thrust into similar situations. She wrote,

I have numerous friends living in Queen Anne who are young women that live alone. I’m worried for them. I’m worried for anyone who ever thought they could simply walk 50 feet to their door without being kicked in the face.

It may not come as much of a surprise that the Seattle Police Department’s year-end crime stats, released this week, show a slight rise in crime in 2009 when compared to 2008; back in December the FBI released national crime stats that uncovered the same upswing trend here in Seattle.

Based on SPD data, violent crimes went up 12 percent in 2009 from 2008, while property crimes rose 7 percent. Although this may seem like a significant increase, the FBI report comparing violent crimes in the first halves of both 2008 and 2009 in Seattle, indicated a much larger increase of 22 percent (I don’t know about you,  but 12 percent seems like a relief compared!)

Though these numbers may be startling, to give some perspective, SPD also compared the 2009 stats to all of the final major crime numbers over the last decade. SPD wrote on their website,

One final note on the 2009 Major Crime trends is apparent when they are viewed not only in comparison with 2008, but also in light of the trends over a period of years.  The table below presents a ten-year picture of Major Crimes in Seattle.  In the last two rows, the ten-year average for each crime category is shown as well as the comparison of the 2009 figures to this average.

As the table demonstrates, the Major Crime totals for 2009 are below the ten-year averages in all crimes, except robbery.

So there you have it. Though the stats show assaults, larceny and burglary are also up compared to 2008, robbery is the only crime that has risen above average over the last ten years. Read more on recent and past SPD crime statistics here and here.

SeattleCrime.com is reporting a strange incident last month, just released in an SPD report. Apparently a woman told police she was attacked by a man inside his Interbay apartment, in the 3800 block of 14th Ave W, on January 27 after she refused to sleep with him. According to SeattleCrime.com, the police report noted that the woman had been recently arrested for prostitution and is currently homeless. The records state that the woman went with the man to a party at his apartment that evening, later sleeping on his couch. She told police that the man, described as a white male wearing an eye patch, woke her in the during the night and put “his thing in [her] face”, kicking and punching her when she “wouldn’t put out.” Police took the woman’s report and attempted to contact the man at his apartment, but were unable to find him.

According to Seattle Police Department Detective Jeff Kappel, a man was injured in a “robbery/assault with a knife” at approximately 2:35 p.m. in Lower Queen Anne this afternoon, Monday, January 18. The only details the investigation has provided the SPD media relations office thus far are as follows:

An adult male entered a grocery store located on the corner of 1st Ave W and W Republican St (the Lower Queen Anne Safeway, though SPD did not mention the store by name) “bleeding and saying he’d been stabbed,” according to Kappel. Officers responded and concluded that he had in fact not been stabbed, but had “sustained several cuts to his face.”

The victim was interviewed, provided a suspect description to officers, and was then transported to Harborview Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. With the suspect description, officers were able to locate the suspect in the area within 15 minutes. He too was an adult made who “had also sustained cutting wounds,” according to Kappel, though he could not verify where the suspect had been cut. The suspect was also transported to Harborview for treatment for non-life-threatening injuries. According to Kappel, officers plan on booking the suspect into King County Jail under suspicion of robbery.

Update 1/18 11:35 p.m.: The SPD Blotter has just published the incident report, confirming that the suspect, who was taken to Harborview with non-life-threatening injuries, also sustained cuts to the face.

At approximately 12:30 this morning, January 1, 2010, a traffic officer working his post at 4th Ave N and Mercer St after the Seattle Center New Year’s Eve fireworks display, was assaulted by two men. According to an SPD report, the “father and son team” were first seen assaulting a Metro bus driver when the officer contacted them and they then turned their attention to him. Both suspects reportedly assaulted the traffic officer, during which time he was knocked to the ground, injuring his right knee and shoulder. At this time the suspects fled on foot. The traffic officer broadcast a detailed description of both suspects and their direction of travel, and both were apprehended (one at Mercer and Westlake, and the other at 5th Ave N and Mercer St.) Both suspects were positively identified by an independent witness and booked into King County Jail for felony assault, according to the report. The officer was transported to Harborview Medical Center.

Our friends over at SeattleCrime.com, who diligently wade through and report on all the city’s police reports every day, dug up this story of an assault at the Interbay QFC early in the early morning on Monday, November 23.

According to the report, an off-the-clock employee described as a tall, muscular, heavy white man, came into the store noticeably intoxicated and began causing problems, being “verbally abusive to one of the checkers and throwing food items around the store.” Another employee reportedly confronted the man while we was spraying the words “I Quit” on the store’s front window in canned cheese. The report makes note that the man had “an odor of intoxicant on his breath.” When asked what he was doing by the employee present, he reported responded, “None of your Fucking business Nigger!”. The employee then attempted to escort the man out of the store, after a brief exchange. The man, who was also carrying a cup of beer it says, then threw the cup in the employee’s face and challenged him to a fight.

According to the report, there was no altercation and the man then left the store and drove off. The employee then went home, changed his clothes and called the police, it says.

The police are currently investigating the incident. No arrests have been made. Read the full SeattleCrime.com story here.

SeattleCrime.com reports that two men were seriously injured in a brawl on the south side of Queen Anne two weeks ago, on Saturday, November 14. Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, who runs the citywide crime blog, found the incident while sifting through police reports earlier today.

According to the report, the two men were driving down W. Highland Dr. when they stopped behind a yellow Porsche and a group of eight Asian men who were blocking the road. When the victims told the group to move the car, they reported that another group joined the eight men, who together attacked them. The victims told police that they saw a knife and heard one of the attackers yell, “Go get my 9!” The two men ran away, though they were seriously injured, and went to the hospital later. Jonah wrote on his site,

According to the police report, the men were stabbed – leaving one with a 6-inch cut on his left arm – and one man’s tops lip was “sliced and barely connected.” He also lost two teeth in the fight, the report says.

The victims told officers that the yellow Porsche looked relatively new. They remember that there was some slight damage to the driver side of the car and that the front headlight on that side was out.

According to the PI’s 911 blog, police are currently investigating the assault.

At approximately 1:50 a.m. this morning, Sunday, November 22, officers were called to the scene of a reported assault and robbery outside a motel in the 2200 block of Aurora Ave N. According to the police report, the victim said he had been sitting in his motel room with his girlfriend and his friend, a man who later called the police, and had gone outside to have a cigarette when he was confronted by at least two men, one of which reportedly had a handgun.

According to the victim, when he walked down the stairs he heard someone say, “There’s one of them,” before he was grabbed by the man with the gun and struck several times with it. He also said he believed he was pepper sprayed. The suspects then reportedly robbed him of his personal items, including his wallet, cell phone, keys, his own gun (a CCW) and two magazines. The victim said he then went back to his friend’s room, where he heard a knock on the door followed by the suspects attempting to gain entry, though they were not successful.

When the police arrived there were no signs of the suspects. The victims could not provide descriptions for either suspects, who are still at large.

A 45-year-old man was assaulted while walking in Rodgers Park (1 Av W. and W. Raye St.) at around 8:10 p.m. last night according to a report by the Seattle Police Department. The victim said he was walking his two dogs through the park when he noticed a group of 5-6 “loud and obnoxious” males he estimated to be between the ages 19 and 21. As he neared the group, the victim explained that he told them, in some capacity, that they could not “party” there and should leave.

The main suspect, who had a Pitbull with him, then verbally attacked the victim, grabbed him, wrestled him into a headlock and pushed him to the ground. According to the victim, the other members of the group then struck him while the main suspect continued to hold him to the ground, before leaving (most in a vehicle).

SPD officers checked the area, but did not find anyone fitting the description. The victim suffered a small cut to his nose, but was otherwise OK, declining medical attention.

Magnolia Voice has reported that a man was in his car on the 2200 block of Thorndyke Avenue West last night when another man approached him and asked for a cigarette. According to the police report, when the victim and witnesses responded that they didn’t have one, the suspect struck the victim in the head with a pipe. The victim and witnesses then drove away and called 911. Officers searched the area, but did not find the suspect.