Well, That Was Alarming

So, Wednesday morning when Janice left for work she noticed that the posts blocking cars from using the fire exit to our complex next to our townhouse were down. Curious about this, she poked around a bit online once she had a break at work, and discovered that this was because of the police shooting near the main entrance earlier that morning, with the result that the west entrance was blocked off with crime-scene police tape, &c.

Shooting? Here?

Thanks to the link to the local news story she sent me, we were able to puzzle out a little more, but not much. To make the story short, late the night before (about ten pm), police responded to reports that someone heard shooting in the area. They arrived but weren't able to pinpoint where and what was going on. After a while they located a man with a rifle, who pointed it at them, so they shot him. He was rushed to HarborView (the Seattle hospital where all the really dire cases, flight-for-life stuff, go), where he was listed in critical condition. The two police are on administrative leave (standard procedure after a shooting), while the investigation of the incident has been turned over to the Renton Police, who apparently have a reciprocal agreement with the Kent Police to avoid conflicts of interest in people investigation their fellow officers.

And, three days, later, that's still about all we know, other than that the guy who got shot (variously reported as 61 or 63) is expected to live. We still don't know if he was a resident of Bayview like ourselves, or someone who wandered over from a neighboring complex, or simply passing through. I assume there'll be something in the local papers when he's eventually charged, but it's surprising how easy it is to find out what's going on in Libya (thanks to al-jazeera) and how hard it is to find out what just happened two blocks away at a spot I pass everyday.

--John R.

P.S.: And, as long as I'm covering very local events, I shd report that the creek beaver has taken down a smallish tree only a few paces from our front door, as I noticed yesterday morning. I suppose it makes sense, given that his terrain is long and narrow, that he'll be foraging up and down the creek for suitable trees to eat bark from and to expand or re-inforce his. Hope he sticks to the creek and avoids all the traffic on 64th street (a boulevard, two lanes each way) or the parking lots for the complexes and warehouses on the other side. Also hope he's able to survive and thrive without taking too many of the trees -- there are many, many little alder shoots but I'd hate for some of the taller and older trees, like the beeches or willows, to go, even in a good cause. I guess we'll see.

--John R.