SEATTLE — The Seattle Police Department held a press conference Wednesday to address the ongoing robberies of students in North Seattle. So far SPD said there have been 14 attacks on students walking home from school.
“There have been uses of force, there’s been guns displayed, there has been some violence against the victims here and generally they are looking for phones,” Assistant Chief Todd Kibbee said.
He said the group has been primarily targeting teenage boys, demanding their cell phones and passcodes.
“The cell phone is, doesn’t mean much without a passcode so most of these robberies the victims are being made to give up the passcode to the phones,” he said.
SPD said some students were even kidnapped and held for short periods of time so that they would give up their passcodes. Others were threatened with guns. A mom of one of the victims spoke with us on the phone. She wants to remain anonymous.
“Calling 911 in an emergency wasn’t proven to be an effective strategy and our kids shouldn’t normalize being robbed at gunpoint walking home from school,” she said.
We asked Kibbee about this lack of response and he said, “I apologize if no one showed up, I don’t know that particular case and why we didn’t show up but we are taking this as our priority right now and so if someone called 911 they should get an officer to take the information from victims.”
Kibbee said the suspects are using stolen cars to target their victims. He said two have been recovered so far and they’re processing it for fingerprints and evidence. However, they still don’t have any suspects in custody.
“I can’t give any specifics about who they are but I think I’m comfortable saying it’s probably the same group of kids and I say kids, kind of late teens but we don’t have a sense right now of any organization or any kind of specific group,” he said.
SPD said it moved a mobile precinct to the Ballard area and will put extra patrols out when staffing allows.
“I think the keyword there is when they have enough staffing,” the mom said.
SPD said they believe these robberies are underreported and are asking any victims to come forward. They’re also asking for anyone with video or information to come forward.
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