An Exciting Afternoon in Kenmore

By Victoria Rhoades ND

My clinic in Lake Forest Park was quiet the afternoon of July 18th, so I went home to Kenmore for a late lunch, around 3 pm, perhaps a bit earlier. As I ate, I heard helicopters overhead, so I stepped outside to look and saw the KING5 and KIRO helicopters hovering around, practically overhead.  Curious, I thought, so I checked their websites, and there was nothing amiss there - well, no more than the usual mayhem.

I ate lunch, and went to go collect my mail outside. I saw a neighbor walking his dog and commented on the helicopters, and he told me that he'd heard that there were a lot of police out in other neighborhoods.

That's when I noticed the two cruisers down the street - but I had no idea of why they were there.  Maybe my neighbors had some trouble? As I looked up again at the helicopters (still cruising overhead), one of the cruisers came our direction and used their megaphones to instruct us to "go inside and stay there."

Well!  OKAY. I make it a rule to follow police direction, because I am sensible.  It was a good thing that I didn't have anyone in the schedule that afternoon, and I didn't need to go back to work.

Back inside, I could still hear the helicopters, and a third police car (Shoreline PD) came and parked at the intersection in front of our house, and its flashing lights were lit up. At this point, I am bursting with curiosity (and no small amount of anxiety).  So I called two news stations: KING5 and KIRO (since they clearly had helicopters up there: KING5 didn't know what was going on (they checked) and KIRO knew what it was, and then hung up on me. "Burglary in Brier with two out of three in custody, and a third one made a run into Kenmore". Well that's something. I also checked the TV: KING5, KIRO, and KOMO (no changes in regular programming were observed). It was distressing that there was still nothing on any of their websites, either.

By now it was well after 4. The police cruiser is still out front, the helicopters are still overhead, and apparently there's no additional information to glean off the internet. I turned to Facebook, and there were some minor rumors afoot there, but mostly just confirmation that the police and helicopters were being seen by other people, over a fairly wide area.

I did manage to get some paperwork done during all this.

Suddenly, around 4:30, the police car drove away, and the helicopters disappeared. My neighbors and I cautiously came out of our houses and we all asked each other, "what was THAT all about?"

It was 5:15 pm before the KIRO website posted an article online; they were searching an area not far from my house, and the remaining perpetrator was still on the loose.

I appreciate the job of the police - don't get me wrong! They have a frequently thankless job.  However, I'm very disappointed in the news agencies for not apprising the public sooner of police activity, with the purpose of improving public safety. With all the various resources I had at my disposal (internet, tv, radio, and phone), I had a difficult time obtaining information. Clearly, money is not the issue - money was available to spend on aviation fuel for the helicopters, which is not cheap. I would hope that in the event of a larger emergency, that our local news would act as a resource and not wait till 5 pm to report news that is immediately relevant. Perhaps my city (Kenmore) is too small to warrant real-time reporting on events happening here.  I don't know.

Insofar as I know, that remaining robber is still out there. I don't know much about that person, but gee, it would be nice if I did.  Hint hint!

(Fortunately for Vicki's curiosity, the MLTNews has the story)
And so does The Seattle Times