What in tarnation motivated Seattle Police to descend on Ballard last night with dozens of officers, hostage negotiators armed with bullhorns, and a SWAT team? “This was a high-risk search warrant,” says SPD Sergeant Sean Whitcomb. “A person had barricaded themselves in and that requires a lot of personnel and patience.”
Whitcomb cannot confirm the nature of the crime under investigation—or what made it such a high-risk procedure—but he says officers needed two perimeters, shutting down several intersection around the building being searched at Leary Way NW and NW 45th Street. But according to two witnesses at the scene, who spoke to officers on the scene, police were investigating an alleged chop shop, where stolen cars are disguised so they can be resold. A witness, Kris Nyrop, said the place is "sketchy as hell" and he has seen people welding in the building at 3:00 in the morning.
At 9:00 p.m. officers arrested Sean M. Campbell, the suspect who was holed up inside. He was booked in King County jail about 30 minutes later.
King County Superior Court records show that Campbell, 39, failed to appear for an arraignment hearing in March on charges of a stolen red Ford Explorer from an Avis car rental and a stolen laptop computer taken in a Bellevue car prowl. Campbell is also wanted for a felony probation violation, says King County Prosecutor’s office spokesman Dan Donohoe. However, in a booking form filled out in March, someone checked "no" in a box that asks "armed and dangerous."
But police may be frying a bigger fish than a missed arraignment and probation violation: "Because it was a search warrant, that leads us to believe it is part of a bigger investigation that is actively being pursued," Whitcomb says. “I would check for charges coming soon."
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