A Burien Police sergeant responded to a call at the Burien Library late Thursday afternoon after a confrontation involving a large group of young males threatened to escalate in the lobby.

According to Sgt. Henry McLauchlan, the group of young males entered the lobby looking for another kid they knew.

After finding him there, words were exchanged, the one youth was harassed and then, apparently fearing that he would be attacked by the others, allegedly threw a punch at a young male in front of him.

The sergeant who responded to the call observed a young male running from the scene and onlookers pointed him out as being involved in the confrontation. When ordered by the sergeant to stop, the kid then ran and additional police assistance was summoned.

The situation was quickly defused and the running youth was quickly detained. No arrests have been made as of yet but the investigation continues.

One librarian estimated the crowd in the lobby before the police arrived at about 60.

McLauchlan said it is unknown if the incident involved gang members or was influenced by gang activity. That also remains under investigation.

He added that Burien police, who reduced disruptive behavior around the building last summer, will again increase their presence there.

PREVIOUSLY: A mob of about 60 young people reportedly got into a fight in the lobby of the Burien Library/City Hall Building at Town Square late Thursday afternoon.

Several Burien Police officers and King County Sheriff’s deputies responded to incident.

There was no immediate report of arrests or injuries.

More to come.

Got drugs? As in leftover prescription drugs? The DEA and Burien Police want them on Saturday, April 30th.

In response to rising rates of prescription drug abuse and the need for safe drug disposal programs, the DEA and law enforcement agencies, including Burien Police, are coordinating a nationwide drug “take back” day on Saturday, April 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This one-day event will provide residents with free anonymous collection of unwanted or expired medicines.

Collection sites in Burien include:

• Burien Police Precinct, 14905 6th Ave. S.W.
• Bartell Drug, 14901 4th Ave. S.W.
• Group Health Cooperative, 140 S.W. 146th St.

Burien Mayor Joan McGilton urges residents to take part in the one-day event to rid their households of old medicines. McGilton said, “Unused or expired prescription medications are a public safety issue, leading to accidental poisoning, overdose and abuse. Take-back programs such as this are the best way to dispose of old drugs.”

What is the purpose of the drug take-back programs?

• Unused medicines are a danger to our children, families and the environment.
• Washington State has one of the highest teen prescription drug abuse rates in the nation.
• Medicine poisoning of children and seniors is skyrocketing.
• Medicines flushed or put in the trash can end up in our surface waters, groundwater and drinking water exposing our families and hurting our environment.

Medicine take-back programs are collecting large amounts of medicines. On a similar take-back day in September 2010, almost 9,000 pounds of medicine were collected across Washington state.

Take-Back-Your-Meds organizations support creation of a statewide take-back program funded by pharmaceutical companies. State senators failed by a single vote this year to approve legislation to launch a statewide medicine take-back program funded by the pharmaceutical companies. A broad coalition of law enforcement agencies, local governments, health care professionals, environmental groups and substance abuse prevention networks have vowed to continue their work to refine and promote legislation that would provide safe disposal of unused drugs, estimated at 10 to 30 percent of all drugs prescribed or sold over the counter.

For more information, visit TakeBackYourMeds.org/dea-events or call 1-888-869-4233.

On Sunday morning, July 11th, at 2:20AM 6 gunshots were fired in the area of Gregory Heights elementary. They were heard by myself and my neighbors who called police. The next day I found a bullet on my back deck. My neighbor verified it was a 9mm bullet/gun and must have been shot into the air to land without lodging into anything.

I took the bullet to the Burien police dept (KC Sherriff Office) and reported it.

We hear shots in this area late at night every few months or so. Now that a bullet has been found a few feet from our door it is quite disconcerting as it means someone is firing actual bullets at or around random houses.

The police will not be doing anything about it, so I wanted to report it through media.

We live within 2 blocks of Gregory Heights elementary but wish to remain unidentified for safety reasons. We have a small child.

Maybe you can pass the info along or report it in the crime section.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Have something you'd like to say? Then email a "Letter to the Editor" by clicking here. Be sure to include your real name and a way to contact you, and, pending our review, we'll most likely post it. Otherwise, feel free to leave a Comment below...]

Story and Photos by Scott Schaefer

Tuesday afternoon (Mar. 2nd) around 2pm, a potential domestic disturbance 9-1-1 call in Burien turned into the shooting death of a Pit Bull at an apartment near the intersection of 4th Ave SW and SW 155th.

According to a King County Sheriff’s officer on the scene, the Pit Bull escaped from its apartment when its owner, who was unrelated to the original disturbance call, heard some commotion. The dog then allegedly “charged” a cop, who shot it in self-defense. The officer (or possibly another officer) then had to “euthanize” the injured dog by shooting it again, possibly numerous times, according to witness accounts.

The dog’s body was covered in a yellow tarp when we arrived, as Animal Control officers and police continued to investigate the scene.

A neighbor who witnessed the attack told us that he felt the Pit Bull had endangered and scared other residents and children before.

UPDATE 3/3/10 Noon: We just received a response from Burien Police Chief Scott Kimerer, who said:

There is an ongoing investigation of this case so I will need to be somewhat brief in my response.

I can tell you the officer was not bitten.

Dog attacks happen occasionally and like any life/safety issue, the Officers are trained to respond to the level of danger using necessary force.

Some of the other questions may be answered in the course of the investigation.

- Chief K

Here are photos we took on the scene shortly after it happened (WARNING: one pic includes visible dog blood):

The deceased Pit Bull's body lies under a yellow tarp.

At least four Burien Police cars and two Animal Control units were on the scene.

Blood from the shot Pit Bull was still visible in the apartment driveway.

As if wondering what had happened, this dog stuck its head out the window of a car as it passed the scene.

Together with the King County Sheriff’s Office, Burien and SeaTac Police are continuing their twice-yearly “Citizen’s Police Academy” program with an orientation on

Here are the details:

WHAT: Citizen’s Police Academy Training

WHEN: Starts Thursday, March 11th and continues through April 24th. Classes are held on Wednesday nights from 6pm to 9pm at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center in Burien.

Classes will run for 13 weeks, plus a graduation ceremony including a certificate of completion and pictures with police staff. A light meal will be provided for students. There are presentations by many of the Sheriff’s Office Units and several opportunities for hands-on experiences, plus a field trip to the King County Communications Center.

The training sessions are held twice a year in the spring and fall. The sessions require approximately 20 hours to complete. There is a minimal fee for tools supplied to students, enabling them to build their own emergency response kit.

WHERE: Initial meeting is at the Burien/Normandy Park Fire Station, which is located at 15100 8th Ave SW in Burien; subsequent classes will be at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center in Burien.

COST: FREE!

INFO: From a press release:

Graduates of the Citizen’s Police Academy will have a better understanding of the law enforcement role in the criminal justice system and an appreciation for the many challenges facing law enforcement in today’s complex society. They will also be better able to assist offices in improving their neighborhoods and communities.

The goal is for emergency personnel to train members of neighborhoods, community organizations or workplaces in basic preparation and response skills. CERT members are then integrated into the emergency response capability for their area.

SeaTac and Burien Fire and Police Departments partner in offering this eight-week training held on weekday evenings, with a Practical Fianl Exercise held on a Saturday. Sessions require approximately 20 ours to complete.  There is a minimal fee for tools supplied to students, enabling them to build their own emergency response kit.

Training is designed to cover the following:

• Disaster Preparedness
• Fire Safety
• Disaster Medical Operations (Triage, Treating Life Threatening Injuries, and Assessment, Treatment and Hygiene.)
• Light Search and Rescue
• Team Organization
• Disaster Psychology
• Terrorism

Graduates will also be eligible for the Ride-Along program, in which you can spend up to an entire shift riding with an officer.

This course is an unforgettable experience and it’s completely free for anyone who lives or works in the cities of SeaTac or Burien!

There are two sessions each year and they fill up fast, so register early with your local Community Service Officer.

If you are interested in attending the next session and would like an application sent to you by mail, please contact CSO Mechee Burnett at mechee.burnett@kingcounty.gov or 206.973.4917 (you can also download a PDF application here).

• SEATAC: If you are from the SeaTac area, please contact: CSO Eloise Kruger: 206-973-4915 or ekruger@ci.seatac.wa.us
• BURIEN: If you are from the Burien area, please contact: CSO Nicki Maraulja: 206-296-3333 or nicki.maraulja@kingcounty.gov

The City of Burien, along with the Burien Police and King County Sheriff’s Department, are seeking donations of gift cards for area kids and families in need this holiday season.

Gift Cards in $20 increments are preferred, specifically from the local Fred Meyer and Safeway stores.

The deadline is Monday, Dec. 21st, and donated cards can be dropped off at City Hall during regular business hours.

There’s also a great opportunity for a local business or resident to “adopt” a needy family, and there are at least 35 in need this year.

Here’s more info from Nicki Maraulja, Community Service Officer:

It’s that time of year again to help out our kids and families in need for Christmas.

We have some 40 families that could use an extra hand this year.

We’re now collecting any gift cards for either Fred Meyer or Safeway.

These gift cards can be dropped off at Burien City Hall during City hours, until Dec. 21st.

Cards should be in $20.00 increments.

We would also be interested in any business or community member that would be interested in adopting a family. I have at least 35 families as of right now.

If anyone has any questions, I can be reached at the precinct. in Burien, at 206-296-3333.

According to King County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart, a bar fight at closing time at Burien’s Goodtime Ernie’s Sports Bar & Grill Thursday morning (Nov. 12th) led to the stabbing death of one man, age 25, while his brother (24) was seriously injured.

The victim died at the scene, and the brother was taken to Harborview with stab wounds. He is expected to survive.

The incident occurred about 1:40am at Good Time Ernie’s, which is located at 15747 Ambaum Blvd in Burien, behind Wizards Casino.

According to Urquhart, a fight inside the bar involving several people spilled out into the parking lot where the stabbings occurred.

A Burien man, age 25, died at the scene, despite CPR efforts from Sheriff’s deputies (Burien Police) and then from fire personnel. A second stabbing victim, age 24, and also from Burien, was taken to Harborview.

The two victims, who are brothers, have not yet been identified.

Sheriff’s detectives interviewed bar patrons and witnesses, but no one was arrested.

What prompted the fight is unknown, and the suspect is still at large.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at (206) 296-3311 (24 hours) or 9-1-1.

Publisher/Editor Scott Schaefer was on the scene this morning around 8:45am, where he spoke with investigators and saw a silver Lincoln Aviator SUV get impounded; he also took these photos (EDITOR’S NOTE: slideshow has been altered & all bloodstain photos have been removed out of respect for the bereaved):

Click to View Scott Schaefer’s Photo Slideshow

RELATED:

• PHOTOS: Scenes From The Memorial Outside Goodtime Ernie’s

Here’s a video courtesy Burien Parks, with our fave moments at :25 (kid yells “pull over!!” into the microphone) and at 1:35 (same kid yells “I like fishing!”):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Burien will be one of ten areas in King County targeted by law enforcement for seatbelt violators starting Thursday night May 21st and continuing through June 7th.

The operation will be a cooperation between Burien Police and the Washington State Patrol, with assistance from the King County Traffic Safety Coalition.

According to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, though the number of people killed at night is about the same as the number of people killed during the day, the death rate at night is four times higher because traffic volumes are much lower at night. Research shows that at least 80% of Washington traffic occurs during the day and between 12 and 20% of all vehicle travel takes place at night. The traffic death rate is a calculation of deaths per 100 million vehicle-miles traveled.

Research shows that over three-fourths of all traffic deaths involving drinking drivers occur at night. The drinking driver-involved death rate is about 13 times higher at night than during the day.

Drivers who are more likely to not wear seatbelts tend to be male, have less education, have prior traffic violations, and have no health insurance, according to a University of North Carolina study the commission cited.

The fine for a “Click-it or Ticket” violation is $124.

Here’s a video explaining this special patrol:

Click here to view the embedded video.

by Jack Mayne

Major crimes in Burien are way down, but lesser crimes are way up, according to Burien Chief of Police Scott Kimerer’s report to the City Council on Monday night (May 11th).

Crime in general is going down in the metropolitan area and in Burien, Kimerer said. In the year 2000, he said the crime rate in Burien was 92 per one thousand residents, “a high rate.” In 2008, it was 53 crimes per one thousand Burien residents, nearly half the rate of eight years ago.

Calls to City Manager Mike Martin and Mayor Joan McGilton for comment were not returned.

“It has been a gradual decrease over the past six years,” Kimerer said. “We had one year where it was flat, (not an increase or decrease).”

“The rate for this year (2008) was down 12 percent,” he said. “That is fairly sizeable.”

Crimes are organized by severity, with major crimes, or Part 1 offenses, including homicides, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, vehicle theft and larceny over $250. That is the area that has been decreasing year after year, the chief said.

But so-called Part 2 offenses, like theft, weapons violations, juvenile and family crimes, drunk driving and the like have been increasing over the years and did again during 2008. Those offenses were up 14 percent.

The question is, why is major crime in Burien going down even as concern for gang activity is increasing.

“It is more diversified enforcement (now),” Kimerer says. “I have units that target high profile offenders and I have units that target gangs. We have a lot more dissemination of information amongst all the jurisdictions around than we ever had before. We are able to get more information on who is doing what and we are able to focus in on those types of crimes.”

In effect, the police know who the bad guys are and are doing better about rounding them up and putting them in jail. Another way to look at it is that the 20 percent who do the evil deeds to the 80 percent of us who are law abiding are being targeted more efficiently.

Kimerer says he is able to “work better as a regional force and we partner up with regional forces to concentrate on developing problems.
Burien, like many other cities in the county, contracts with the King County Sheriff’s Department to provide its policing. While the officers that work at Burien Police are hired and trained as county deputies, their entire cost is borne by the taxpayers of the city.

In addition, he is able to tap resources in the King County Sheriff’s office and even independent departments, such as Seattle or Federal Way, if needed to concentrate on a specific problem.

Kimerer is the current chairman of the King County Police Chief’s Association, a group from the entire county who meet once a month to discuss problems and to identify certain expertise to help Burien or other areas.

“We don’t need to just use the resources of the King County Sheriff’s Department, although that is a great resource.”

Kimerer says he has one of the more “well known” gang experts working in Burien.

Gangs are created by other cultures, he says, for a sense of belonging as well as problems in the economy in general.

“All gang activity centers around respect and money,” he says.

The problems facing Burien as a city are about the same as other cities in the area, with such crimes as residential or commercial burglaries affecting people directly.

“It is disconcerting to people to have their house broken into,” he says. But there are traffic problems that bother people, too.”

The biggest crime rates in the city are, as is usual in most cities, in the downtown area and in pockets around the city, he said, such as the Ambaum corridor and the Park and Ride area. In areas such as the Maplewild area or Three Tree Point, the crime rate is very low.

By way of comparison though, Burien has fewer officers per shift than West Seattle to answer calls from 911. The standard in West Seattle is six officers per shift for the area, but Kimerer said he has three officers on patrol in the entire city for each shift.

Of course, there are detectives and specialists that work either daytime hours (such as crime detectives) or weekend hours (common for gang specialists).

Key crime stats:

• In the major crimes area (Part 1), the big increase in 2008 was in forcible rapes and rape attempts. In 2008 there were 28 versus 16 the previous year, a 75 percent increase, said the annual police report. Five of those cases were closed during the year.
  
• Residential burglaries, the bane of police everywhere, was up in Burien over 16 percent, with 271 during 2008, compared with 233 in 2007. 14 cases were closed.
• The biggest decrease in major crime was 35 percent in vehicle theft. In 2007 there were 392 compared with 253 last year, a major incursion into a crime that plagues suburban cities. Likewise, commercial burglary was way down in 2008 with 108 last year versus 142 the year previous.

Crime rate is a major indicator that often affects insurance rates and even property values. There are 31,540 people living in the city now. The major crimes rate was 53.20 per 1,000 people living in Burien. The minor crime rate, which Kimerer says is way up, was 79.01 per 1,000 residents last year.

Police were dispatched for service 10,191 times in 2007, 11 percent fewer calls from the previous year. There were fewer adult arrests last year, 1,131 compared with the previous year with 1,453.

Total gang related incidents were up, as expected, from 275 in 2007 to 309 last year.

Domestic violence was down over 14 percent last year from the previous year, with 355 last year versus 414 the previous year.

For south King County, Burien has the lowest number of officers per 1,000 people but says the “City of Burien funds us the best they can.”

He said there is not a police chief in the world that doesn’t wish for more officers or equipment.

“You are never going to hear me say we could not use more officers, because my people work awfully, awfully hard.”

Burien has an average of 1.22 commissioned police officers for each 1,000 residents of the city. This compares with an average of 1.33 officers in Federal Way and 2.21 per thousand in Seattle.

Burien pays $188 for each resident of the city per year for police protection. That is considerably less than the $253 paid per resident in SeaTac or an average of $322 per resident per year in Seattle.

The major crime rate is down, but the less serious crimes, called Part 2 crimes in police jargon, are “up quite a bit,” says the chief. Much of this type of crime is from family crimes and disturbances.

“We are looking very good in maintaining our crime rate decrease,” he said. “That would be (because of) the hard work of the people in the Burien Police Department, we are effective at what we do and what we focus in on, and we hope to continue that trend.”

Jack Mayne may be reached at jgmayne@gmail.com.