"Just a bunch of innocent kids out looking for some fun. At heart, they're actually pretty decent kids."
from Kiro-TV News Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013:
13-year-old kept in juvenile detention for two violent robberies
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By Natasha Chen
SEATTLE, Wash —
A 13-year-old boy has been ordered to stay in juvenile detention after he pleaded not guilty to being involved in two violent robberies.
In the first case, he is accused of being part of a group that robbed and brutally beat a security guard in Westlake Park in mid-July.
He is also accused of theft and assault in a similar case in mid-August, not far from the location of the first incident.
Joey Crudo is the security guard attacked in the first incident. He said he remembers trying to stop a theft in progress. But the group of people stealing turned on him.
He said 13-year-old Dajohntae Richard reached for his wallet in his back pocket.
“I was shocked to see, when I turned around that someone was grabbing my wallet, how young he was. And again, I felt the same way today in the courtroom,” Crudo said.
Crudo said that the boy looked at him in the courtroom.
“I felt kind of strange when he looked at me. He didn't look at me like I was the victim of a crime. He looked at me like I was the one victimizing him. And that made me feel really bad. It was a 'you did this to me' kind of look. And I know I didn't,” Crudo said.
The charging document stated that Richard and another suspect had laughed at the victims when one of them fell of his skateboard. Police said that the suspects then beat and robbed the group of victims.
The document states: “[Victim] said he observed Richard kicking [victim] several times in the head before he turned his attention to [second victim] and started kicking [second victim].”
The judge said that she would detain “this young man as a danger to the community,” keeping him in juvenile detention until his pre-trial appearance Oct. 17.
and from KiroTV.com June 26, 2013
Police: "We need to find the attackers," and Westlake Park victim
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By Gary Horcher
SEATTLE —
Her face is bloodied, bruised, and swollen, but the woman seen staggering away from a vicious public beating in broad daylight is still a mystery to police.
"We don't know where to find her, and we need to," Seattle Police Detective Renee Witt said.
Even veteran SPD officers were astonished when they saw the cellphone video, which shows a defenseless woman being punched, kicked and stomped relentlessly by three other women for almost 60 seconds. The attack happened in the middle of crowded Westlake Park, and no one there seemed interested in stopping it.
Police hadn't seen the video until being contacted by KIRO 7.
"It's unbelievably violent and shocking. We need to find the attackers, they need to be arrested," Witt said. A link to the video was sent to KIRO 7 on Monday.
SPD detectives said that even if the beating suspects are identified they cannot arrest anyone until they find the victim first.
"Without her cooperation, her willingness to testify, to say these are the people who assaulted me, our detectives don't have a case," Witt said.
The beating led to several 911 calls and when officers arrived they spoke briefly to the victim while she was being taken to Harborview by paramedics. She suffered head injuries in the attack, but it was not life-threatening. She was released hours after the attack.
"They got what they believe to be her name, but she didn't have a good address," Witt told KIRO 7. "She might be a transient, but she deserves justice.
Officers detained three suspects in a nearby alley, but eyewitnesses would not identify them as the assailants, so officers had no choice but to let them go.
"We know who those suspects are and where they live," Witt said. "If someone can lead us to the victim, we would be able to go and arrest them."
People who hang out at Westlake Park understand the unwillingness of eyewitnesses to come forward. Anyone with information is asked to call police.
"If they'll do that to her, what's to stop them from doing the same to me," Seattle resident Katie Bradbury asked. "It's just sad and frightening."
Note: Neither of the above incidents was reported by The Stranger (nor were the ones below).
from kirotv.com October 11, 2013
Note: Neither of the above incidents was reported by The Stranger (nor were the ones below).
Four women plead not guilty to vicious Belltown beating
KOMO STAFF
Published 4:00 pm, Thursday, October 17, 2013
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Four women stood before a King County judge Thursday morning to deny allegations they beat a woman so badly her eyes were swollen shut, leaving her bleeding and half naked.
The judge released all the women from jail except for Adrienne Lynn Devorce, who is the alleged aggressor.
Kristen Marie Devorce, Charquella Dutchess Gardner and Cassiana Jean Halloway were ordered to stay away from the victim and are banned from entering Belltown.
Halloway's mother, Sharon Neal, claims the victim was intoxicated and said something to instigate the attack. She emphatically touts her daughter's innocence.
Asked how her daughter wound up at the scene of the attack and under suspicion for taking part in it, Neal said, "I don't believe it. She's trying to rescue her friends - just trying to tell them to come on, and they're not listening."
Gardner's mother also attended the arraignment and said her daughter did not participate in the fighting.
Officers working a violence-prevention emphasis patrol in Belltown shortly after 2 a.m. on Oct. 6 were called to a fight in the 2300 block of Second Avenue.
They arrived to find the victim covering herself on the ground while she was attacked by four women, according to the police report for the incident.
The victim's face was completely swollen and bleeding and both her eyes were swollen shut. She was having difficulty standing and talking and was missing her pants and shoes.
Before being transported to Swedish Hospital for treatment, the victim told officers she and a male friend were walking home when a group of women started yelling at them.
According to the report, one of the women punched the victim in the face, knocking her to the ground, and the other three started punching and kicking her.
The victim's male friend told officers he tried to protect the victim by lying on top of her while she was being attacked, and he was punched and kicked, as well.
The four women were arrested at the scene for investigation of aggravated assault, but none of them would say why they attacked the victim, according to the report.
from kirotv.com October 11, 2013
Shooting suspect wanted, police ask for help
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Robbery detectives are asking the public for help finding this man who they say shot and wounded another man Oct. 8 in a First Hill apartment complex.
By KIRO 7 STAFF
"What did I tell you? Here we have no problems."
Comments:
The "look" on the face of Dajohntae Richard that he gave to Crudo in the courtroom is similar to the looks I receive when I board the Metro bus my eyes, dart-like, have a split second to take in who is on the bus: There is no mistaking the laser-intense beam of hostility and barely contained rage: a look of sullen, deep reproach directed at me, a person of color.
I get the message. And my face paralyzed with fear replies, "Hey, I won't make any waves. I know that you can blow my a-- right off the bus." Like a mouse transfixed by the eyes of a python.
These kinds of things happen often but go unreported or under-reported by the media. You see fierce,
unruly young people like this all the time downtown-- at Westlake Plaza and at 3rd & Pike/Pine. This
youth was doing what others do and have done.
Twelve years ago while walking through Westlake Plaza. I was harassed by a group of young African-
American women, one of whom grabbed my collar, laughing, prancing, and screaming, not letting go
No, I didn't report it. My word against theirs. Who would believe me? And the hassle of finding a cop. I was also too shaken up inside. And I just wanted to get away.
If I had tried to pull or push the hands off me, I thought to myself, "she'll yell at me, 'Hey, what ya think ya doin pushin' me?' and start to shove and/or slug me really hard. Or worse, a lot worse. God, I just want to get away."
Since then I rarely ever go past or through Westlake Plaza. If I have to, I am extremely vigilant.
American women, one of whom grabbed my collar, laughing, prancing, and screaming, not letting go
No, I didn't report it. My word against theirs. Who would believe me? And the hassle of finding a cop. I was also too shaken up inside. And I just wanted to get away.
If I had tried to pull or push the hands off me, I thought to myself, "she'll yell at me, 'Hey, what ya think ya doin pushin' me?' and start to shove and/or slug me really hard. Or worse, a lot worse. God, I just want to get away."
Since then I rarely ever go past or through Westlake Plaza. If I have to, I am extremely vigilant.
There IS racial fear and tension in Seattle. And the Seattle Police Department and local media do not help matters by refusing to release a breakdown of types of violent crime by race of victim and race of aggressor. That said, I to believe most people are to a lesser or greater degree aware--that is, if they have any eyes or ears and have ever walked around downtown Seattle--of the wide racial disparities, even if they are in denial.
It is the right of the public in a democracy to have access to information, especially that which directly affects their health, well-being, and safety.
To defuse racial tension and decrease suspicion, greater openness and honesty on the admittedly sensitive subject of crime and race would help, even if it lead to a sense of the necessity of greater effort and responsibility on the part of parents with children who are "out of control" and in trouble at school and on the streets to inculcate moral values in and employ much stricter discipline on those they have brought into this world as well as to cooperate more with social and law enforcement agencies.
Pretending that violent crime is equally distributed across the racial/ethnic/national origin/religious/income spectrum is as meretricious as pretending that diabetes, coronary disease, poverty, or educational levels have an identical (equal) distribution across the aforementioned measures.
To say that the cause of violent crime is racism and that its solution is to solve the problem of racism is empty, hollow, and false..
The belief that one belongs to a group that has been and is always a victim cannot be the guiding principle or core tenet of that same group. (Obviously, it can be the primary political program).
I can imagine liberal white Seattle now saying to me:
"He [Crudo] was asking for it."
"He happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was bad luck (Tuba Man, listen carefully)."
"Hey, man, you're cherry-picking. There was a white guy recently who beat up a..."*
"Hey, look, this is what poverty and institutional racism do. You know, rates of unemployment among blacks are double those of white people."
"The attackers could have been white, Asian, or Hispanic.* Don't bring up race, it makes you look like a racist."
"The solution is to not show pictures of the attackers and to avoid any mention of their race. Crime has nothing to do with race."
and
"If that's the way you feel about African-Americans, maybe you should move to another city."
With this in mind, certain demographic segments and groups should be targeted, not blamed, for study and concrete measures (e.g., anti-violence, anti-bullying, parental education) and held at least partially responsible for dangerous behaviors.
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