The Seattle PI reported yesterday that there is good news for 2009: “The number of homicides and gang-related killings dropped.”
2008 – 28 homicides, 9 gang related
2009 – 21 homicides, 1 “possibly” gang related
Through November, Seattle violent crimes were up 12 percent compared with the same period one year ago; and property crimes are up 6 percent.
Of the 21 homicides, here’s the breakdown of what neighborhoods they happened in:
| Jan 4th Joseph Ryan, shot | Capitol Hill |
| Jan 21st Chris Thompson, stabbed | Roanoke Park (N end of Capitol Hill) |
| Feb 2nd Steve Bushaw, shot: | West Seattle |
| Feb 13th Lavon Barrett, strangled, stabbed | West Seattle |
| Feb 16th, Tyrone Love, shot | Pioneer Square |
| April 3rd Troy Duncan, beaten | Downtown |
| May 28th Jose Arturo Guillen-Ramirez, stabbed | South Seattle |
| June 27th Bernardino Maceo-Toirac, shot: | "The Jungle" I-5 and I-90 (homeless camp) |
| June 19th Teresa Butz, stabbed | South Park |
| July 22nd Warren Bothwell, chest wound: | “The Jungle” I-5 and I-90 (homeless camp) |
| July 22nd Aaron Sullivan, shot | Leschi |
| July 26th Manish Melwani, shot | Ballard |
| Aug 9th Daniel Robert Bolof, shot | North Seattle |
| Aug 23rd Thomas Thong, shot | Beacon Hill |
| Aug 27th Melvin Charles Evans, shot | South Seattle |
| Oct 31st Timothy Brenton (police officer), shot | Tukwila |
| Nov 3rd Jeffrey Eike, blunt force trauma | South Seattle |
| Nov 27th Max Gasoi, shot | First Hill |
| Dec 18th Regina Calip-Elix, stabbed | Leschi |
| Dec 21st Jennifer Morgan & Emma Lyn Hicks (baby), shot | Beacon Hill |
So I hope this adds a little reality to the misconception that Pioneer Square is the shadiest, most violent area of Seattle. It seems to me like the violence is spread around just fine (well, at least for the major crimes…I’m waiting to hear back from the Police Dept on the other ones).
In the meantime, here is a snapshot from the West Precinct in response to First Quarter 2009 crimes in Pioneer Square:
Drug trafficking…still needs a lot of work. But at least they’re not shooting people, right? Just harmlessly spreading drugs to the homeless and the gangs.