Jaded in Emerald City

Adventurous romps in Seattle city experienced by yours truly

Caffeine and Justice

Thursday, June 17, 2010


Woke up late this morning…..which means I could not go to Tully’s for coffee which is the exact opposite of good. I literally felt like I was going to fall asleep even in the live truck! We were out doing things and I was sitting in the back seat about to fall asleep, for crying out loud. It was so weird, I went to sleep in time to get about 8 hours but this freaking street that I live on is so loud, and the stupid sun comes up at 5:30!! I thought I could escape the haunting burning sun when I left the sub-tropics and now here it is biting me in the butt in the Pacific Northwest…oh well.

At work, I went out with a reporter to do a follow up story of a 12 year old boy who was shot and killed in April. The area we went to is called Skyway. Skyway….ehh…not great. There is a lot of gang activity in the neighborhood so it’s not a super safe place. Anyway, back in April the aforementioned boy was walking home from Wal-Mart, with his football cleats that he had saved up money for by mowing grass. At the same time and about two blocks from his home, there was a shooting between some gang members and one of them was shot (not fatally). A friend of the injured gangster drove away from the scene. Originally, police thought that the 12 year old boy had just been hit by a stray bullet from the gunfight. However, we now know that the man leaving the scene continued down the street, saw the boy, and for some reason shot him in the back. Alajawon (the 12 year old boy) dropped his cleats and struggled to get to a seven-eleven around the corner where he collapsed and died.

Police now have the man in custody and he will appear in court in July on charges of first degree murder. The story is so weird, though and very interesting. After shooting Alajawon, the man drove through a red light intersection hitting 3 cars, and then kept going. A concerned citizen followed him to a remote industrial park in Renton, where he drove down to a cul-de-sac and dropped something in a field. This eyewitness combined with a surveillance camera at the scene, led officers to the gun that killed the boy and the DNA on that gun, which matched this man. But, as we found out upon arriving today, the police know it was this man that dropped the guns because he dropped them………………………….outside of an armory. I’m serious! As in, he dropped them where the Brinks trucks get their money from. There were not 1, not 2, or even 3, but FIFTEEN visible cameras from where we stood in the field today. Ha….thank God for stupid criminals.

The live trucks are fun. They are literally mobile newsrooms like the vans say, which is really cool. Except, it is easy to lose crap in there! There is so much going on that I’m always looking for my cell phone or my pen or my reporter’s notebook, something! It’s crazy! But, I like it.:) I also like being a part of a job where you don’t sit in an office all day. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I sort of wish I was sitting in a cubicle because I’m exhausted and I want to chill/work……but it’s so much more adventurous this way. I will say that about being a reporter-this is a career for curious people. You get to meet so many people that you would otherwise never meet in your life., and experience so many quirky and amazing things with people and hear their stories. It’s sort of great.:)

Until next time……

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MY BUS STOP AT WESTLAKE :)