After pulling a knife on a man Thursday night in downtown Seattle, a robber headed for the last place you’d expect: the nearest police station.
Just before midnight Thursday, the suspect approached his victim near 7th Avenue and Stewart Street, pulled out a knife, demanded cash and fled northbound, toward SPD’s West Precinct.
As the suspect approached the precinct—just a block away from the scene of the robbery—the victim had already flagged down an officer, who had radioed out the suspect’s description.
Another officer, who happened to be standing just inside the front doors of the West Precinct, stepped outside and immediately saw the sweaty suspect dashing down Virginia Street.
The officer called out to the man and asked him why he was running. The sprinting suspect replied that he was trying to catch a bus.
The suspect kept running, but the officer gave chase and followed the man down several alleyways, until he ducked into the lot of a car dealership at 7th and Lenora.
Officers began searching between the cars parked in the lot, and found the suspect crouched down between two vehicles.
Police took him into custody, found the victim’s cash and the suspect’s knife, and booked the 24-year-old man into the King County Jail for investigation of robbery.