2 teens arrested for North Seattle murder last month



SEATTLE  --  Detectives arrested two people in connection with the June 19th murder of a man in North Seattle.  Investigators served two arrest warrants this morning and took an 18-year-old and 19-year-old man into custody.

Back on June 19th Seattle police were called to the 8400 block of Aurora Avenue North.  It was just after midnight when police say multiple shots were fired across Aurora.  Officers got there and found a 59-year-old man sitting on a bench on the west side of the street. He had been shot in the chest.

Seattle Fire Department medics rushed him to Harborview Medical Center where he later died.

“At this point, we know that there was a robbery on the street and some words were exchanged as the robbery suspects left. And one of the suspects in the robbery is also a suspect in the homicide. We believe that they circled the block and came back.

The victim heard about the robbery and made some comments and it appears that may have been heard by the robbery suspects,” says Captain Paul McDonagh with the Seattle Police Department.

Investigators say they believe both the 18-year-old and 19-year-old robbed someone on the street, then came back later and, SPD says, one of the robbers shot and killed that 59-year-old man. Investigators credit people in the community for helping them get to this point.

“It’s really good that we were able to get the subjects off the streets. This case is a little bit unique in that we had community members coming forward, we had patrol officers giving good information being active on the street, detectives were able to collect video evidence and they were able to take all of that work it together and backtrack to get an arrest and a search warrant,” says McDonagh.

Police say they are now working with the prosecutor’s office to move the case forward.  Both teenagers are in the King County Jail.