Man arrested after allegedly using online ads to visit Seattle homes, commit robberies

Seattle Police Department (SPD) detectives and the SWAT team arrested a man who allegedly committed multiple robberies after contacting victims online and meeting them at their homes.

The SPD Blotter published a blog post late Thursday night announcing the department’s arrest of a 26-year-old man Monday for multiple counts of armed robbery. The department’s post did not name the suspect.

The department’s online post reported SPD detectives have been investigating a series of Seattle armed robberies in the East and West Precinct areas in recent weeks.

During their investigation, they determined the suspect was contacting victims through online ads and meeting those people at their homes. Once he got inside, the suspect would pull out a gun and demand money from the victims, the post states.

Detectives located the suspect, served a search warrant on the residence where he was and arrested him Monday. The department’s detectives also found two firearms and multiple pieces of evidence at the scene.

The post concluded by saying the suspect was, subsequently, booked into King County Jail for four counts of first-degree robbery.

Crime blotter: Covering crimes committed in the Puget Sound region

Analysis: Washington robbery rate has jumped, burglary rate highest in the US

The number of robberies in Washington jumped a significant 29.5% between 2020 and 2022, according to crime data from the FBI. The law enforcement agency reports there were 5,209 robberies in the state in 2020 and 6,747 in 2022.

Going further, Washington has the highest burglary rate of any state in the U.S., according to an analysis of that FBI data conducted by Suzuki Law Offices reported by multiple outlets, including The Bellingham Herald.

Looking at the agency’s numbers from 2022, the Arizona-based law firm concluded the state of Washington saw 548.4 burglaries per 100,000 residents, more than double the national rate of 254.3, the Herald explained. Going further, Washington’s burglary rate was more than seven times higher than last place New Hampshire, which saw 76.2 burglaries for every 100,000 people.

‘Path of least resistance’: Vandals dump 100 old tires at Shoreline church

The state with the second highest burglary rate was New Mexico, with 481.1 burglaries per 100,000 residents. The next two on the list were Oklahoma at 456.3 and Arkansas at 433.6, the Herald stated, citing the law firm’s report.

Washington saw 43,481 burglaries total in 2022, a 5.8% jump from the previous year (41,092), the FBI crime data shows. The number of burglaries in the state rose every year from 2019 to 2022 after seeing a drop for the previous eight years before that.

Steve Coogan is the lead editor of MyNorthwest. You can read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here.