Part of the reason there is little progress on the shooting of Justing Ferrari is that there are few snitches, um... witnesses that have helped the police find the shooter.

i only read the weekly feature but is it common for stuff that ends up in the paper to be paragraph-by-paragraph copies of stuff that was previously posted on slog?

cause this exact writing sounds very very familiar and i haven't read the paper this week.

@3: When it's breaking local news, slog posts are often put together into rough drafts of longer features. That actually includes the Pulitzer-winner, if I remember correctly.

If memory serves, the police were still very unsure they were only looking for one suspect, even after they found the SUV. I remember one of the brass on tv saying "not connected" over and over. They had a totally different description for the downtown shooter. Half the force was scouring ravenna when they should've known the guy was in west seattle. I'm still curious where that bad description (crew cut blonde guy) came from. And they still haven't found the missing truck. Nor have I heard anything about where the killer was living.

@5 the only explanation to the crew cut description that I've heard is that he may have been wearing the hat that he stole from the cafe patron.

It's entirely possible to have a police department that is simultaneously enormously troubled and also sometimes effective at solving crime. It's a big department, there're lots of players, and we shouldn't ignore SPD's brokenness just because they did May 30th right, and nor should we ignore that success because there're big problems in the department. Any other position is reductive, annoyingly simple-minded, and not worthy of anyone's attention.

@7 Right on! Well done on May 30th SPD, but all is not golden.

@7 well said...

DO talk to police...

It seems appropriate here to acknowledge also the SPD officers who created and held space around Cafe Racer for people to be together in the hours and days following this tragedy. Officers were so kind and gracious and protective of the beautiful community surrounding this beautifully strange and wonderful cafe... SPD blocked off street lanes and directed traffic - not just the first night but night after night this week - to accommodate those of us who who poured into the streets to just be there. As we paid our respects to lost friends, officers on the scene were respectful and kind to us.

I've heard many people in the days since comment on how awesome the cops were that day and every day since, so I know I'm not alone here. Thank you, SPD, for holding the space and peace around a place that was always all about togetherness.