The King County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s help regarding a commercial burglary alarm at White Center’s Grocery Plus in the 9600 block of 16th Ave SW (map below).
Police say that on Saturday evening, Feb. 20, 2021, deputies responded within minutes to a burglar alarm at that location.
Once on-scene, they learned an unidentified Hispanic male drove a stolen Chrysler minivan through the store’s front doors before stealing cigarettes and lottery tickets. He left behind significant damage, the van’s front bumper and a trail of oil that may have helped the Seattle Police department locate the Chrysler only hours later.
Technicians with King County AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) will work this week to obtain latent prints from the van while its secured in an impound lot. This effort, and the investigative skills of detectives assigned to King County’s southwest precinct, will likely result in multiple felony charges.
Grocery Plus, like so many other businesses, forms the fabric of the White Center community. The King County Sheriff’s Office wants these merchants to know that, for the deputies and detectives serving White Center, every call counts.
Owners believe this was a hate crime, and supporters have created a GoFundMe page here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-help-and-support-my-brothers-store.
Know something about this incident? Please call the King County Sheriff’s Office non-emergency line at (206) 296-3311 and share a tip. Please refer to case number: C21005701.
What action or actions make this a hate crime? This just sounds like another burglary. Nonetheless, sorry this happened regardless of the motivation behind it.
I think it’s because is was male Hispanic suspect and Asian owners of the grocery store . It might be about the incident that happen before the robbery of possible the same guy picking a meat clever up in the store and waving around at staff .