South Woods sees criminal activity

Published 4:24 pm Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The South Woods area next to Shorecrest High School has seen criminal activity in recent weeks, including a fight and a robbery at gunpoint. There is also a homeless registered sex offender living in or near the woods, though the crimes are not associated with him.

All this has left some locals nervous about walking through the woods.

Fight

Weeks later, it still isn’t clear whether the fight between young people in the South Woods Friday, Sept. 26 was gang related. One person in the fight claimed to be in a gang, but the Shoreline Police Department isn’t investigating that further.

Police officers arrived in the woods just after noon Sept. 26 to stop a fight in progress. They found young people, some breathing heavily, with blood on their knuckles. Others were on the ground.

Five males and two females were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Two were Shorecrest students. Others included a 17-year-old Shoreline Community College student and other young adults between the age of 19 and 22 who live in Shoreline, Seattle and Redmond.

According to the police report, fists, a skateboard and a stick were used in the fight, but those involved don’t agree on who started it.

Michael Raines, a 19-year old white male from Lynnwood who was arrested, claimed during the fight he was a member of the Bloods gang and flashed gang signs. He is not a student. The other names in the report were redacted.

None of those arrested are on file with the Shoreline Police as having a gang affiliation, said Sgt. Katie Larson.

“(Just) because someone is saying they are something doesn’t necessarily mean they are,” she said.

School resource officer Rob Bardsley said there is not gang activity at Shorecrest that he knows of.

“We have some kids who go here who claim to be in a gang, but they are not really active,” he said.

Shorecrest students were not the ones who started the fight, he said.

“The students were standing in South Woods just kind of hanging out and the others walked up and started causing problems,” he said.

Robbery

A male Shorecrest student was robbed at gun point in the woods during lunch recess Wednesday, Sept. 24.

But it was not a random robbery, police say. The case was turned over to a King County Sheriff major crimes detective, who discovered the victim was not completely honest about the details of the incident, according to a police update Larson sent out Oct. 10.

“This was not a random robbery and in fact drugs or the sale of drugs did play a role,” she wrote.

She declined to say more to the Enterprise as the robbery is still being investigated, she said.

The 17-year-old victim told police that a black man had pulled a gun on him when he asked him and another black male for “cigarettes” in the woods.

The men stole a digital camera, cash, a cell phone and his wallet, the student reported.

After the incident, the victim found a 9-millimeter round of ammunition in the street, which he turned over to police. The round was a block away from the crime scene. The victim told police it might belong to the robbers.

The woods aren’t known as a place where drug dealers and users dominate, said Bardsley, the school resource officer.

“I’m sure kids do buy drugs in (the woods), but they are not a haven for people selling drugs, no,” he said.

Sex offender

Louis Crawford, a homeless sex offender, is registered with the King County Sheriff’s office as living in the area of NE 146th Street and 15 Avenue Northeast in Shoreline. That’s about three blocks from South Woods and several blocks from the school.

People have seen him in the woods and nearby, said Sgt. Paul Mahlum with the county sheriff’s Registered Offender unit. Police sent locals a notice in September about Crawford, a level 3 offender.

If Crawford were to move away from the area, he’d have to register that with police. Because he hasn’t done that, he is likely still in the area, Mahlum said.

Level 3 denotes the highest potential to reoffend and the highest risk to the community.

At age 13, Crawford was convicted of molesting a 6-year-old female family member. At age 18, in 1998, he was convicted of raping a 14-year-old female he was not related to.

Crawford is required to sign in weekly at the King County Courthouse, but other than that he receives no supervision or counseling, Mahlum said.

Homeless sex offenders are often considered more of a threat, which is why if they are a level 1 offender, they are bumped up to level 2 or 3 if they become homeless, he said.

“If you’re homeless, sometimes it becomes more of a problem because of the instability and lack of support structure,” Mahlum said.

Crawford is level 3 because of his crime and not because of being homeless, Mahlum said.

“We are doing everything and more that’s allowable under the law to monitor these people,” he said. “We say, ‘Be aware.’”

The Shoreline police know Crawford is there, he added.

More patrols

There have been no more crimes in the woods since the fight and robbery, Larson said.

Nonetheless, police have stepped up patrols there. The city put up “City Park” signs at the entrance, which lets police charge for criminal trespass if needed, Larson said.

The woods are officially a city park.

Larson will meet quarterly with Brian Schultz, Shoreline School District administrator, to discuss any concerns about school safety.

The recent activity in the woods is unusual, police said.

“Normally it’s fine,” Bardsley said.

“That’s the first two incidents we’ve had in the South Woods as long as I’ve been an SRO (school resource officer). This is my fifth year.”