The photos are from a resident near 18th and Orchard, reporting confirmed gunfire in the 7100 block of 18th last night. He reports, “10:19 pm. 6 shots fired. Took SPD an hour to respond and they said ‘well, we looked around earlier and didn’t see anything.” I had to lead them to the pile of shell casings on the street.” Police, he adds, left some of the casings behind, and they were still in view this morning:
They didn’t bother to take any statements despite the fact that there was a witness present who saw the car that did the shooting. A supervisor came by around 11:45 and told the officer present to bag the four shell casings they had found. And then everyone left.
I went back to the scene this morning only to find the two shell casings I had pointed out to the officer still there (including one that he had comically left his business card tented over), 6 bullet holes in the pavement, and a spent round.
I called cops again and they sent an officer out to collect the evidence and he was confused that they hadn’t picked up the casings that I showed them last night. He said that their watch shift was unaware that there had even been a shooting in the area and assumed that since there was no property damage or anyone hurt it just hadn’t been passed on to new shifts.
We suggested that the concerns/questions raised by how this unfolded be brought to the SPD community meeting this Thursday at Delridge Community Center.