Wed., Oct. 31, 9:44 a.m., Second Ave., Sacred Heart Church Parking Lot. Officers responded to the parking lot of Sacred Heart Church to a report of a known transient sleeping in the parking lot. They arrived to find the subject, a transient Black female aged 50-64 years old, laying face down between two passenger vehicles. She was wrapped in blankets and a sleeping bag and was lying just west of the sidewalk leading to the west side of the church. Subject was lying on an incline with her head lower than her feet and her face against the pavement, and was in a pool of clear liquid that appeared to be her own saliva. The officer approached her, and was able to hear her snoring and saw her moisten her lips once or twice. He attempted to wake her by calling out, and then nudged her and applied pressure to the nail-beds of her right hand — there was no response. He could not see any injuries or contusions on the subject. Officer radioed for Seattle Fire Department (SFD), and they responded to the scene just minutes later. The subject was unresponsive to stimuli administered by SFD, and so they rolled her face-up and began to administer CPR. The officer was able to get some personal information on the subject from some of the parishioners of the church who were on the scene. He found out her name and age, and the subject was transported to Harborview Medical Center by SFD.
The witnesses reconstructed to the best of their knowledge what the victim had been doing for the last three or four days. She arrived at the church on Monday by cab, and had stayed there near the back of the church, only leaving to use the restroom at Seattle Center to clean up. On Tuesday she appeared to be having trouble functioning, and so witnesses called SFD. SFD responded to the scene, but the subject refused any help. On Tuesday evening a sleeping area was made up for her by some of the other transients who the church helps out and allows to sleep near the back door. This morning a parishioner arrived and found the victim in the face-down position observed by the police officer. At that time, the subject had raised her head and looked at the witness, then laid back down as if she wanted to stay there. At 9:40 a.m. the parishioner again attempted to rouse the woman and move her from the parking lot to a safer spot nearer the church, but received no response — he then called Seattle Police.
Wed., Oct. 31, 10:30 a.m., Pine St./Boren Ave. A transient Black male aged 28 was contacted by police in a non-public place under Pine St. at Boren Ave. A name check revealed that suspect was on active supervision with the Department of Corrections. Officers contacted the suspect’s DOC officer, who requested that the man be taken into custody. He was arrested and transported to the West Precinct — he was then booked into King County Jail for parole violations.
Compiled from incident reports of the Seattle Police Department by Emma Quinn. Got your own experience to relate? Call us at (206)441-3247 ext. 207 and we’ll get the scoop.