(Image: SPD)
UPDATE 1:20 PM: Police say the suspect in an assault and a woman were found dead as flames spread in a burning house in the Montlake neighborhood Wednesday morning:
When officers knocked on the door of the home, the man inside informed police he was armed and refused to come out. The suspect then told police the woman in the house was injured, and officers made entry into the home. The man barricaded himself inside a room and showed police he was armed with a knife. Officers then discovered the residence was on fire. Because of the risks posed by an armed suspect in a burning home—and reports of a possible gunshot at the scene—SPD SWAT, equipped with oxygen tanks, entered the home to locate the suspect and any possible victims.
Police say they found a dead male believed to be the suspect inside the home and later also located a dead woman in the fire damaged structure.
Original report: Seattle Police responding to a reported stabbing assault and fire at a Montlake residence Wednesday morning faced a possible armed person inside the burning home.
Police were called to the 2200 block 25th Ave E residence around 9:30 AM near the north end of the Washington Park Arboretum and reported a person and a possible “casualty” victim inside, per radio updates.
SPD reported a man possibly in crisis was reported armed with a knife and inside the burning home. Police said they believed another injured person was also inside the residence.
As SPD responded, flames were reported inside and spreading through the structure and threatening nearby homes.
Seattle Fire was carefully moved into position to begin fighting the flames amid concerns that a person inside the house had a firearm but subsequent radio updates said it was not believed the person was armed with a gun.
SFD was also in position to help treat the possible victim once the fire was controlled and police had secured the area.
The address of the fire is listed as a small, 1920s-built, one story home with a basement. Records show that it has had the same owners since 1993.
The major artery 24th Ave E was closed to traffic northbound near Boston during the response.
UPDATE 10:53 AM: Seattle Fire continued to bring the fire under control and reported it had transported one victim from the fire. It is not clear yet how many people if any were injured in the initial assault incident and the condition of the suspect has not yet been confirmed. Two Seattle Police officers who initially responded to the residence were taken to Harborview for treatment for smoke inhalation. Two more SPD respondents were also transported for treatment.
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“Police say they found a dead male believed to be the suspect”
What is this supposed to mean? Either the police suspect that the dead man committed the assault, in which case he is the suspect, or they do not suspect that he committed the assault, in which case he is not the suspect.
You really can’t figure this one out? Oh, boy.
Hal, “suspect” in this context is supposed to mean a person who police suspect of having perpetrated a crime, but who has not yet had a day in court. Right? A suspect is suspected of having committed the crime–is believed by police of having done so.
It’s rather nonsensical for police to say that they found someone that they believe may be the person they believe to have committed this assault–that they believe he may be the suspect.
Of course they know if the person they found is the suspect or is not the suspect–they are the ones who either suspect that person of guilt or do not suspect them of such.
I think that many, if not most, cops don’t actually think of people as being innocent until proved guilty. I think that because they’ve been told that they’re not allowed to operate this way, when they want to say “perp” they instead substitute “suspect.” That works well in most cases, because the public can keep imagining that police treat people like we are innocent unless and until a court finds us guilty.
Language gets complicated, though, when the cops aren’t confident that someone is guilty–when they haven’t determined that the person is the perpetrator of some crime. They could just say, “we suspect that we found the perpetrator of the assault,” but they reflexively substitute “suspect”, which would land them in the position of saying, “we suspect that we found the suspect,” but even a cop steeped in copspeak knows that sounds ridiculous, so it gets modified to “we believe that we found the suspect.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/83034-we-demand-rigidly-defined-areas-of-doubt-and-uncertainty