Local News

A 48-year-old man who was beaten with his shotgun last summer in Seattle’s Capitol Hill died at a long-term care center this morning.

Seattle police say the man got into a confrontation with three men on the night of  July 22 near Summit Avenue and East Olive Street. The man walked away from the confrontation and allegedly came back with a shotgun to threaten them with.

The men then disarmed him and struck him with the gun, police said. According to the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, the man had been struck in the head and there were pools of blood next to him when medics arrived.

Police released two of the men and booked a third for narcotics possession.

The 48-year-old man was taken to Harborview after the confrontation, then transferred to a long-term care facility where he died earlier today.

Homicide detectives are still investigating the case,but are in contact with everyone involved and do not believe the fight was random.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office is waiting to identify the man until family members are notified.

Witnesses Witnesses of an attempted robbery in Seattle’s Capitol Hill say the suspect had orange skin. (Photo courtesy of Seattle Police Police Department)

Orange skin — it’s an odd description for any suspect, but Seattle police say it applies to a man who tried to rob a Chase Bank in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Wednesday night.

The man entered the bank around 6 p.m. in the 300 block of Broadway Avenue East wearing a jacket, blue jeans and knit hat with a stripe on it as orange as his skin. He has stringy red or auburn hair that may or may not have been a wig, looks like he is 20-30 years old and is about 6 feet tall. Witnesses said his skin may have been orange from spray-tan.

He pushed a note demanding money to a teller and brandished a gun, but the teller did not comply. The suspect then ran off.

Police ask anyone with information about this incident or suspect  to call the Seattle Police Robbery Unit at (206) 684-5535.  Anonymous tips are welcome.

UPDATE 11:00 P.M.| The Stewart Street off-ramp opened back up just before 11 p.m., according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.

UPDATE 8:00 P.M.| The Seattle Police Department has cited the driver of the semi-truck that struck the pole for misdemeanor hit-and-run and property damage offenses.

The driver of the 2002 Peterbilt semi-truck was driving westbound on Stewart Street and trying to make a northbound turn onto Yale Avenue North when it struck the pole, according to the Seattle Police Department. Part of the pole was sheared off and caused three transformers mounted on top of it to crash to the ground. Live power lines were also downed across Yale Avenue North and Stewart Street.

The driver continued on until officers stopped him at Dexter Avenue and Mercer Street.

Seattle police are still investigating the accident with assistance from Washington State Patrol Commercial Vehicle Enforcement.

EARLIER POST

A truck that crashed into a light pole in Seattle this morning created daylong problems for drivers and Seattle City Light customers.

At about 8:45 a.m., the truck crashed into a pole near the intersection of Denny Way and Yale Avenue. No one was seriously injured either in the accident or after the pole toppled bringing down powerlines and three transformers.

Seattle City Light says about 3,600 customers in the Capitol Hill, First Hill and South Lake Union lost power. For all but about 30 customers power was restored by 10 a.m.. The rest should have it back by 6:45 p.m.

Mineral oil leaked from the transformers but crews were able to contain it and clean it up.

The southbound Interstate 5 off-ramp to Stewart Street was still closed as of 5 p.m. as repair work continues. The Seattle Department of Transportation reported backups on Eastlake Avenue East because of the closure.

With a video camera and a mission to spread a message of love, a trio of sophomores at Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences in Seattle recently took the streets of Capitol Hill and downtown Seattle to ask folks about, well, about loving more.

While plenty of people shied away from the quick on-camera interviews, videographers Audrey Thomas, Lillian Hubbell and Maddie Alden were able to coax a number of people to participate in their social commentary project, folks who offered tender words, sweet kisses and tight hugs to those they were with.

Thomas, who hopes to attend New York University and major in film making, said participants were asked how they felt about the companions by their sides. They got a wide variety and often creative number of responses.

When the camera work was done, the girls joined classmates Abi Gibson, Nate Lee and Raven Guenneguez to create a two minute video,  ”the Love More project,” that even some of the most jaded of our kind might just find touching.

“Truthfully, we just wanted to spread love,” said Thomas. “We wanted people to love more. It’s about optimism. At the end of the day, do you hug them [the people you love] enough, do you kiss them enough?’

Thomas admits they were approached by a few drunk people on Broadway on the Capitol Hill, “but then we got a lot of sweet families.”

The school project is due on Monday. While Thomas is confident they’ll get an A, she hopes that people who watch the video will remind people to love the people around them.

A man’s  search for his stolen iPad helped lead Seattle police to a home in Seattle’s Capitol Hill filled with stolen technology devices and bicycles.

Using a cellphone app, the burglary victim tracked his stolen iPad to a home doubling as a computer repair workshop near 12th Avenue East and East Mercer Street on Friday, according to Seattle police.

The man called police to accompany him when he knocked on the residence’s door. Once they made contact, the man activated the app on his phone and his iPad made a sound that could be heard inside the home.

Officers arrested a 41-year-old suspect and booked in him into King County Jail for investigation of possession of stolen property. After getting a search warrant to go through the rest of the home, detectives found computers, computer parts and high-end bicycles in the basement, shed and garage, according to the department’s online blotter.

“There appears to be quite a number of items from recent area burglaries at this location,” the department’s blotter said. “This remains an active and on-going investigation, and detectives have quite a bit of evidence to sift through.”

Seattle police have arrested a 27-year-old man in connection after shots were fired outside a Capitol Hill nightclub early this morning.

Officers were called to the 1700 block of East Olive Way around 1 a.m. on a report of gunfire, according to police. They were told that several people got into a fight on the club’s dance floor and the brawl continued after security staff escorted them outside.

Witnesses said one of the men kicked out of the club walked away to get a gun.

When he returned, he fired one shot into the air, police said. He then pointed the gun at one person and fired, but no one was struck by the gunfire. The front door to the club was shattered, however. The gunman then got into a gold SUV and drove away, police said.

Police stopped a gold 2001 GMC Yukon near the club a short time later, said police spokesman Mark Jamieson.

The driver was detained and brought back to the club, where witnesses identified him as the gunman, Jamieson said. The man was taken to the East Precinct and then to Harborview Medical Center, for an unknown medical condition. Once the man is released from the hospital he will be booked into the King County Jail.

The gang unit is investigating.

Here we go again, Seattle lovers and list lovers. One day after BloombergBusinessWeek released its  Top 50 Best Cities that ranked Seattle as No. 2 in the nation, just behind San Francisco, Forbes listed Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood as the No. 8 “Best Hipster Neighborhood” in America, while Ballard also got mentioned. The Silver Lake neighborhood in Los Angeles claimed the No. 1 spot.

Here is what Forbes has to say about our Capitol Hill.

Seattle, oft times credited as the West Coast birthplace of the hipster craze, has several cool kid neighborhoods. Capitol Hill landed on our list, but it was in close competition with the up-and-coming Ballard neighborhood (walkability tipped the scales). Known for both its hipster and gay communities, a good cup of coffee is a given in Capitol Hill — the area had the highest coffee shop per capita ranking on our list — and gourmands have access to fresh finds at the local farmer’s market. Bars, fringe theaters and impromptu street parties make the area a nightlife destination.

And all this hipster talk reminds us of an old joke that some of us just heard for the first time: Q: Why did the hipster burn his tongue? A: He drank coffee before it was cool.

A car hit a bicyclist near 11th Avenue and East Pine Street on Capitol Hill around 6:30 p.m.

The collision bloodied the bicyclist’s head, but he was able to walk into an ambulance according to a Velo Bike Shop employee.

A construction worker on Capitol Hill who accidentally set himself on fire while using a blow-torch is in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center, according to the Seattle Fire Department.

Bystanders saw the male in his 40s on fire near Broadway East and East Thomas Street after his torch lit a bottle of flammable liquids and then himself on fire, said the SFD’s Fireline blog. He has first-, second- and third-degree burns on his hands, legs, and torso, but was conscious and alert when taken to the hospital.

Bicycle rider Nap Cantwell collided with a van at Pike Street and Boren Avenue on May . He died from his injuries eight days later. Two ghost bikes are displayed in his memory at the intersection where the crash occurred. (Seattle Times photo)

Two “ghost bikes” were hung at the intersection where 18-year-old Nap Cantwell was fatally injured in a bicycle accident in late May.

Cantwell was running late for work May 29, when he took off down Capitol Hill on his dad’s bike.