Police release sketch of suspect in August 31 shooting

Today the Seattle Police Department released a sketch of the suspect in the August 31st shooting at 15th Ave NE and NE 75th St. Updated information on the car seen fleeing the scene was also released.

Sketch of the suspect sought in August 31st shooting at 15th Ave NE and NE 75th St / Seattle Police Department

The car type has been narrowed down to a silver 2002-2008 BMW Z4 convertible with a black interior:

2002-2008 BMW Z4 convertible with top up / Seattle Police Department

2002-2008 BMW Z4 convertible with top down / Seattle Police Department

The SPD Blotter post also included this description of the shooting:

Detectives are releasing an additional detail in this investigation: For reasons that are still unknown, the murder suspect was so enraged at Yancy Noll that he pulled up alongside him in the oncoming traffic lanes as Noll was stopped for a red light facing southbound on 15th Avenue NE where it intersects with NE 75th Street. The suspect then shot at Noll multiple times with a handgun and in the process shot out his own passenger window. The suspect was last seen speeding away down 15th Avenue NE.

Anyone with information about this incident (identity of the shooter and/or his vehicle) should call 911 or the Seattle Police Homicide Tip Line at (206) 233-5000. Anonymous tips are welcome.

Photos from Friday night’s prayer vigil for Yancy Noll

We stopped by Friday night’s prayer vigil for Yancy Noll, held on the corner of 15th Ave NE and NE 75th St.

The corner at the intersection where Noll lost his life, one week ago today, was packed with friends and neighbors. The close quarters next to the busy intersection made it hard to hear the message being given. So we share with you here some images from the event.

KIRO 7’s Deborah Horne and KING 5’s Jim Forman were there with camera crews. We will add their reports here when we have them.

Memorial events for Yancy Noll scheduled (UPDATE)

UPDATE (September 11): A public memorial service for Yancy Noll has been scheduled for Sunday, September 16, from 3-6 PM, at the Mountaineers Program Center at Magnuson Park (7700 Sand Point Way NE). RSVP at the Yancy Noll Memorial Facebook page.

From the Yancy Noll Memorial Page via Facebook

 

 

A number of gatherings related to Yancy Noll and the events of last Friday have been scheduled for the upcoming days, two of which are local to our area.

This Thursday, September 6, at Mutiny Hall (1205 NE 65th St) there will be a time for friends and neighbors of Yancy Noll to gather, and talk, and celebrate. Start time of 6 PM.

A prayer vigil will be held at the corner of 15th Ave NE and NE 75th St on Friday, September 7, at 8 PM.

Up on Capitol Hill on Saturday, September 8, there is an event being held in the backroom of the Deluxe Bar & Grill (625 Broadway Ave E). “Come down to meet and share condolences with the wonderful people of QFC and other coworkers of Yancy,” says the invitation on the Yancy Noll Memorial Facebook page. The event starts at 3 PM.

More remembrances from Noll’s friends, coworkers, and fans can be found on these two posts on Capitol Hill Seattle.

Friends and neighbors say goodbye to Yancy Noll near Roosevelt Reservoir

Word started getting around on Saturday that the victim of Friday night’s shooting at 15th Ave NE and NE 75th St was Yancy Noll.

Noll lived nearby, and worked as the wine steward at the Broadway Market QFC on Capitol Hill.

KIRO 7 was at the scene on Saturday night as people stopped by a growing memorial to pay their respects (segment starts after ad):







Folks who knew Yancy have been leaving remembrances on this Capitol Hill Seattle post.

I stopped by the memorial on Sunday night, and took the following pictures:

Peace to be to his memory.

Shooting at NE 75th St and 15th Ave NE on Friday night (UPDATES)

UPDATE (Monday, September 10): The Seattle Police Department has released a sketch of the suspect, as well as some other additional information.

Shortly after two local residents reported hearing “four ‘pops’ in rapid succession” and then a “[h]elicopter overhead, sirens everywhere,” came this post on the Seattle Police Department’s Blotter:

Tonight at approximately 7:26 p.m. officers responded to the 7500 block of 15th Avenue NE for the report of multiple shots fired. Officers arrived on scene and located a male victim in his 40′s who had sustained multiple gunshot wounds.

The victim, a man in his 40s, was taken to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.
View August 31 shooting in a larger map The circumstances just prior to the shooting (as well as description of the suspect and the vehicle) are not available at this time, says the Blotter post. However, a local scanner listener reports hearing talk of a “pos suspect driving a red BMW convertible.” We will update this post with any new information on the victim and/or suspect(s) as we get it.

UPDATE (9:14 PM): KING 5’s Jim Forman was at the scene at 7:55 PM and tweeted the following (click the links for photos of the scene):

UPDATE (11:46 PM): KING 5 reported in their 11 PM newscast that the shooting victim has died of his injuries. The Seattle Times has more details about the shooting here.

UPDATE (Saturday, September 1, 6:16 AM): The SPD Blotter post has been updated overnight with more information, including this description of the shooting:

Preliminary investigation indicates that the suspect pulled up next to the victim in his car and for reasons yet to be determined, fired multiple rounds at the victim, striking him several times. The suspect then fled the scene in his car and remains at large.

The suspect is described as a white male with dark hair, age 20 to 30, driving a smaller silver or grey BMW. Anyone with information about this incident (identity of the shooter and/or his vehicle) should call 911 or the Seattle Police Homicide Tip Line at (206) 233-5000. Anonymous tips are welcome.

UPDATE (Saturday, September 1, 5:56 PM): Ravenna resident Jake Z. has taken a few pictures of a growing memorial at the site of the shooting (click the links below if the images are not visible):

UPDATE (Sunday, September 2): The SPD Blotter has been updated with more information on the shooting, including a more detailed description of the suspect and his vehicle:

The suspect’s vehicle is described as a silver BMW Z4 convertible. The car may have recent body damage including a broken out passenger side window.
Several witnesses describe the suspect as a well-dressed White or Asian male in his late 20′s to 30′s with dark, slicked-back hair.

The car looks similar to this one (image from the SPD Blotter):

20120902-191012.jpg

Footage from a surveillance camera in the Roosevelt Reservoir shows the vehicle on 15th Ave NE around the time of the shooting:

It is now believed that the shooting “may have been directly related to a road rage type of traffic incident.

Everybody into the [wading] pool, before it closes!

It’s August, and Seattle summer is chugging right along: Lots of sun, temperatures consistently in the mid- to upper-70s…this time of year is why we live here.

So, naturally, the city’s wading pools are all preparing to close for the season.

Our region of the Seattle Parks and Recreation map (the Northeast) has two wading pools and two swimming beaches open during the summer. Here are their remaining days of use:

  • Dahl Playfield Wading Pool (7700 25th Ave NE): open August 14-16, noon – 7 PM
  • Magnuson Park Wading Pool (7400 Sand Point Way NE): open daily from noon – 6:30 PM through August 26
  • Magnuson Park Summer Beach (7400 Sand Point Way NE): open through August 26
  • Matthews Beach Park Summer Beach (9500 51st Ave NE): open through September 3

At this time, NE Seattle does not have any of the unstaffed sprayparks, which tend to stay open later in the season. However, Sarah (raintea on twitter) would like us to mention the brand new spraypark at Northacres Park (12718 1st Ave NE). It’s open daily from 11 AM – 8 PM through September 3. It is technically in Seattle Parks and Recreation’s NW geographic area, but when you and the kids are too hot, who cares.

You can find the full list of Seattle’s wading pools, sprayparks, summer beaches and pools and their schedules right here (280 KB PDF; comic sans).

Python loose in the park! But which park?

We got a voice mail from North Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator Terrie Johnston this afternoon at 2:50 PM, saying, “I hope you’re not at Cowen Park playfield…uh playground. A seven-foot yellow python got loose and he’s headed for the playground.”

Now, that’s an amusing story, but Cowen Park is not in Ravenna. So I just mention the missing snake on twitter, like this:

A few minutes later, the official Seattle Police Department twitter feed says this:

Oh no! Wrong neighborhood! And wrong park! Lower case “p” or not, people are going to get confused!

But I check with Terrie Johnston again, to make sure. “61st and Brooklyn Cowen Park” is the email reply.


View Snake on the loose! in a larger map

Decidedly NOT Ravenna Park.

But the damage has been done. The SPD tweet has now been REtweeted over 300 times (probably because of that “Snakes on a Plane” movie reference being clever and all).

And, of course, someone has started a new twitter feed…FOR THE SNAKE:

Thankfully, the SPD just updated the story on their blog, and you can read it here (“Officers On Python Patrol After Snake Escapes In Ravenna Neighborhood“).

An excerpt for you:

As police officers and officials from Seattle parks department and Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife search the neighborhood and Cowen/Ravenna Park for the snake, you and your small pets should keep to the trails, and stay away from drainage ditches, thick foliage, and hollow logs, according to Seattle’s resident snake expert, Peter Miller.

Miller, reptile keeper at Woodland Park Zoo, estimates the snake is around 15-20 pounds and says it “has the potential” to be dangerous. ”These guys are ambush predators,” he says. “They find a well protected covered area and they sit and they wait.”

KING 5 news Reporter John Langeler got the location right, though:

And it looks like Seattle Parks and Recreation has put up signage.

John Langeler / KING 5

If Timid the Albino Python is found (yeah, his name is Timid), we’ll let you know here.

Mini-craft fair at Boulevard Grocery

The reincarnated Boulevard Grocery (2007 NE Ravenna Blvd) is holding their second mini-craft fair this afternoon, Sunday, August 12, from noon-3 PM, in front of the store.

A selection of vegetable portrait postcards by Chavas Garden.

Some of the vendors and their wares include:

There will also be face painting for the young (and young-at-heart).

Another great opportunity to check out the little store, too, if you haven’t already!

Four? Score! Happy birthday to us.

In August 2008, after six months of strolling an infant through the neighborhood, we decided to start the Ravenna Blog.

Four years later, and with the addition of one more staff member last October, we’re still here!

Since we started keeping track in June 2010, the Ravenna Blog has reached 61,226 unique visitors and served up 137,680 pageviews. (And that YouTube video of President Obama’s motorcade driving down NE 75th St in October 2010 has now been watched a mind-boggling 347,419 times).

And this post, this very post right here, is the 444th post.*

But this year on our birthday, instead of looking back at the biggest stories of the last year, we’d like to share with you our dreams for next year. They are three-fold:

  1. We’ll turn FIVE next year, and that deserves some kind of PARTY, don’t you think? You’re all invited, of course.
  2. Have you noticed, the Ravenna neighborhood doesn’t have a fair/art walk/bite of/festival? We need to change that. How about a family walk/run/ramble through the neighborhood? We’ve just begun to plot about it, here.
  3. We’re also thinking of putting together some kind of Ravenna Blog Pledge Drive Week, for neighbors who might like to contribute to the costs of running the site. (Tote bags would be involved, OF COURSE.)

More on all of that in the near future. STAY TUNED.

To close out this here birthday post, we’d just like to say: thank you for reading, thank you for commenting, thank you for sharing our site with your neighbors, and thank you sharing your stories with us.

See you around the neighborhood!

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* Kind of a cool coincidence, all the fours. Unless you’re Chinese. *gulp*


Roosevelt Moves: Sound Transit townhouse relocation (PHOTOS)

Sound Transit’s Andrew Schmid takes a picture of Nickels Bros. and other workers in front of the first townhouse, before it gets underway.

Schmid again, taking a picture of Sound Transit Project Manager Kristin Hoffman while she is interviewed on camera.

Another shot of the first townhouse prior to moving.

Hoffman again, mid-interview. Schmid said that she has worked on the townhouse portion of the Roosevelt Station project for a year and a half, culminating in the moves.

Peaks Custard supplied coffee and assorted accoutrements at the site.

A marked “oversize load” truck waits to lead the convoy to 15th Ave NE.

A scrum of utility workers, Sound Transit staff, and Nickels Bros. movers huddles around a woman leading the pre-move safety meeting.

A Seattle City Light worker adjusts an overhead line adjacent to the moving site.

Part of the crowd gathered across the street from the townhouses on 12th Ave NE, waiting for the move to begin.

A shot of the full scene along 12th Ave NE taken from up by the Roosevelt High School track.

The first townhouse now partially IN 12th Ave NE.

A Nickels Bros. worker attending the “rear” of the first townhouse as it slowly makes its way down 12th Ave NE.

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11:45 PM – Seattle City Light here now, working on the overhead wires. The truck supporting the first townhouse to be moved has crept forward a bit, testing the load.

11:04 PM – The action really starts happening at 12:01, in case you at home would like to come down.

10:50 PMstrong> – On site now. Lots of folks on hand, neighbors and Sound Transit.

8:52 PM – Setting up the live coverage post here, and adding the street closures due to the relocating townhouses (per Sound Transit):

Streets will be closed as the convoy moves through the area and reopened after the convoy has passed. Street closures include:

  • 12th Avenue Northeast—closed at the intersection of Northeast 65th Street and 12th Avenue Northeast
  • Northeast 66th Street—closed from Roosevelt Way Northeast to 15th Avenue Northeast
  • 15th Avenue Northeast—closed from Cowen Bridge to Northeast 68th Street

The route will be “east down Northeast 66th Street to final destinations on 15th Avenue Northeast just south of Northeast 65th Street.”

Our next update will be around 10:45 PM, when Sound Transit will be available to the media at the current townhouse site (NE 66th St and 12th Ave NE).