Seattle police arrested four teenagers and recovered a cache of weapons including a submachine gun after officers located a vehicle connected to a September 20 shooting near Lake Washington Apartments.
Officers responded around 3:45 p.m. September 22 to reports of an armed suspect near a suspicious Chevrolet Malibu spotted between apartment buildings along Seward Park Avenue South. Witnesses reported seeing a group of teens exchanging firearms.
Seattle police established an arrest team and approached the suspects. Upon seeing officers, the suspects exited the vehicle and fled, causing the car to roll forward and collide with a police cruiser, according to SPD.
Officers apprehended two 16-year-old boys and two girls aged 16 and 17. Two additional suspects remain at large.
Police seized the vehicle and executed a search warrant, recovering multiple firearms and evidence including a submachine gun with a 30-round magazine, handguns equipped with auto switches and extended magazines, a backpack containing a ski mask, an ammunition crate filled with rifle bullets, a cellphone, a high school geometry book, an identification card, and key fobs.
Three suspects were booked into juvenile detention at the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children & Family Justice Center. The 17-year-old girl was released to her parents at the South Precinct.
The Gun Violence Reduction Unit continues investigating the case. The weapons cache reflects ongoing concerns about youth access to firearms and involvement in violent crime.
Auto switches, which convert semi-automatic handguns into fully automatic weapons, are illegal under federal law and have become increasingly prevalent in gun violence cases nationwide. The presence of such devices alongside a submachine gun indicates sophisticated weapons access among the juvenile suspects.
The discovery of a high school geometry book among the seized items underscores the suspects’ ages and dual lives as students and alleged participants in serious criminal activity.
The incident adds to Seattle’s ongoing challenges with youth gun violence and illegal weapons proliferation, which have prompted increased enforcement efforts by specialized units like the Gun Violence Reduction Unit.
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