Good Guy with a Gun #261: Seattle, WA
The Great Equalizer kept a businessman and his shop safe from a much younger invader. | Original incident: July 19, 2024
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is significantly updated from the calendar version.
A 71-year-old businessman was asleep inside his shop when he woke to a man breaking in just after 2 AM.
The businessman was armed. He thought the intruder was armed with a knife, so he shot the man once, hitting his hand. The intruder ran.
He left a blood trail heading north, and a passerby called 911 about a bleeding man up the block.
Officers found him, took suspected narcotics off of him, and applied a tourniquet before sending him off to the hospital, where he was listed in serious condition and later booked.
He was 42. We don’t know anything else about him — there’s been no public follow-up that I can find.
The businessman stayed on scene and cooperated with detectives.
There was one odd mismatch in the police report: They said both “The victim, 71, reported the burglar was armed with a knife and he shot him in self-defense” and “The sheers [sic] believed to be used by the suspect were also recovered.” That suggests to me that the intruder had shears, but the businessman believed it was a knife. The news sources make it seems like he was armed with a knife — which is also possible, if the shears were used for another purpose, but that’s not what the police report sounds like.
Sources
Primary
The SPD’s own blotter post is the source everyone else drew from — and the only one that mentions the shears.
Police Arrest Man After Being Shot During Burglary in South Seattle (SPD Blotter)
Local news
KOMO ran the release nearly verbatim, no independent reporting.
Seattle businessman shoots attempted burglar in ‘self-defense’ incident, police say (KOMO News)
Fox 13 added a neighborhood name and a different cross street, but also introduced a “clerk” label that doesn’t appear in SPD’s own account.
Seattle clerk shoots knife-wielding burglar in self-defense, police say (Fox 13 Seattle)
RVM News gave a good report, but it got the day of the week wrong.
Police: Knife-Wielding Burglar Shot In Self Defense By Store Clerk In Seattle (RVM News)
2A / specialist media
Brandon Curtis covered this incident at Concealed Nation:
Sleeping Clerk Wakes Up, Shoots Armed Burglary Suspect Who Entered Business
It's always interesting to me to see the differences in the reporting on these incidents, even when small -- a good reminder to exercise care about passing on what's heard in the news. I appreciate your noting the differences, too. It makes your reporting on them more trustworthy.