News

Police Beat

by Charles Mudede

Legal or Illegal/Rainer Valley/Tues July 22/11:48 pm: Officer Strozier writes: "I was patrolling a [mini mart on MLK Way] that has a chronic drug and gang problem when I saw a [black male] suspect drive into the [mini mart's] parking lot and walk out of his car. He had body armor over his outer garment (nothing was covering the body armor) and a BGD tattoo on his shoulder. I contacted the suspect and immediately he said he was tired of being harassed by the police. I pointed out the body armor, and he said that it was legal to wear body armor, and that he would contact his lawyer. I told him it was illegal to possess body armor, but that I would verify it... [I asked for his ID], and the suspect agreed to let me see his ID. I ran his name via MDC, and it showed that he had a valid [license] but he was also a convicted felon. I contacted an attorney and was informed Chapter 44--Firearms 18 USCA 931 stated that it was unlawful for a convicted felon to possess body armor. The attorney, however, was not sure if I could enforce this law, [and so] I completed a FIR #146470 and left the area."

The Odyssey/all over town/July 21, 2000/10 pm: I recount this crime solely from the perspective of the victim, an 18-year-old woman who is on very poor terms with her exasperated mother: "I was coming from N 103rd St and Aurora Ave N, where I had been hanging out with some older boys whom my mother had forbidden me to be with. At my stop, I got off the number 7 Metro bus and proceeded to my house. While walking past Mt. Baker Park, a silver Volvo appeared beside me and stopped. A man exited the vehicle wearing a black ski mask and grabbed me by the right arm and spun me around so that I was facing away from him. The man then bound my arms behind my back with an unknown material, tied a two-inch-wide blindfold over my eyes, forced me into the vehicle, and left in an unknown direction.

"While in the moving car, I was able to free my arms, and when the vehicle stopped at approximately NE 97th and Lake City Way NE, I felt for, found, and pulled the door handle. The door opened. I stumbled out of the Volvo and ran blindly across Lake City Way, towards what turned out to be a spaghetti restaurant. An unknown woman with an Italian accent let me into the spaghetti place and removed my blindfold. She wanted to help me, to know what was going on, but I was scared and confused, and so ran out of the restaurant and down to a friend's house at 30th Ave NE where, after I came to my senses, I called 911 for assistance. When the reporting officer, Officer K. C., arrived at my friend's house, I told him that I would be able to identify the suspect's vehicle, but not the suspect. He never said a word during the whole ordeal."

Officer K. C. Jones provided the victim's doubtful mother (who had arrived to pick up her determined daughter) with a business card and case number. And that, ladies and gentlemen, ends this week's police beat.