Crime

The man found shot in Seward Park yesterday apparently shot himself and lied about it to police to avoid being arrested for illegal gun possession, police said.

He was sitting in his car in a parking lot in the 5800 block of Lake Washington Blvd. S. at 12:52 p.m. when he flagged down a passerby, police said. The man said he had been shot in the leg and asked the other person to call for help.

Medics treated the man at the scene and took him to Harborview Medical Center, where he was expected to recover.

After examining the scene, officers suspected that the man actually shot himself. But the man claimed that a black man had shot him after an argument and ran off. Police found the gun hidden in the bushes near the subject’s car.

Later at Harborview, the man admitted to shooting himself. Police said the man made up the story to avoid being arrested for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Last night police caught a man while he was robbing a gas station store.

Just a few minutes past midnight, police say a burglary alarm was sounded at a gas station in the 2800 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way South. The alarm monitoring company reported that they could hear glass breaking and movement inside the business. Officers arrived quickly and saw a man inside the business moving around in the back of the store carrying a large white bag. The front window was broken with a ladder leaning through the opening.  

When police searched the building they found him, a 45-year- old man, hiding in the crawlspace.

The man had bagged approximately $1,000 worth of cigarettes and food inside his bag.  He was taken into custody and then booked into King County Jail for Investigation of Burglary.

One person was injured in a drive-by shooting at Sound Transit's Mount Baker Station on Monday night.

A man in his 30s was shot in the arm while standing at the bottom level of the station at 3019 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way at approximately 7:10 p.m. The unidentified man was taken to Harborview Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.

Officers have detained four people for questioning. They are not suspects in the case, police said.

Several witnesses said they heard the gunshots.

"Like bang, bang, bang. They were pretty loud," said witness Deamber Davis, who ran out the back door of her restaurant and saw someone on the ground.

"And there's a guy with no shirt on screaming, 'I'm shot! I'm shot!'" Davis said.

A woman was beaten and robbed by a man asking about her jailed boyfriend while she was at the National Pride Car Wash on Rainier Avenue South and Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

According to Seattle Police, on Sunday, Feb. 21, the woman was vacuuming out her car at the car wash when a man tapped on her window and asked where her boyfriend was. She told the man he was in jail and, when he responded with "inflammatory statements," she tried to push him away with the nozzle of the vacuum.

The man then poured beer on her head and punched her repeatedly in the face, knocking her to the ground.

The woman says the man then riffled through her car and ran off.   

Police responded to the scene but were unable to find the attacker.