Updated 11:20 a.m.: The Seattle Times is reporting the suspect arrested early this morning is Kevin Todd Swalwell, and a second person of interest was arrested about 11 a.m. today. According to the King County Jail Register, Swalwell, age 46, was booked this morning on investigation of arson. The Times reports Swalwell has an extensive criminal history, including two felony arson convictions.
Seattle Police says a person of interest is in custody connected to the string of Greenwood arsons. A police spokesperson tells PhinneyWood that investigators discovered him in the vicinity of a large fire in an abandoned warehouse in Shoreline overnight. KIRO 7 is reporting that fire has now been determined to be arson. KING 5 has video of the arrest, which took place at 158th and Aurora, 12 blocks away from the fire in Shoreline:
SPD says it’s unclear if he’s connected to the Shoreline fire, but they have information to believe he may be connected to one or more of the Greenwood fires. He’s currently being questioned. The SPD spokesperson declined to say whether the man was being followed by investigators.
Firefighters rush down their ladder as flames quickly approach it during the early morning fire which destroyed N.W. Discount World near Aurora Avenue North and North 170th Street in Shoreline. (Photo by Cliff Despeaux, courtesy of the Seattle Times. More photos of the Shoreline fire here.) A Shoreline fire spokesperson called it “the biggest fire in recent memory.” There were no injuries, and fire investigators have yet to determine a cause. Aurora Avenue is closed at the fire scene. The Times has more coverage on the Shoreline blaze.
“It would sure be nice if this puts a stop to it all,” Taproot’s Producing Artistic Director Scott Nolte said moments after hearing the news. “I hope it puts an end to it all. It would certainly let people start sleeping, and let the business people put it aside and concentrate on letting the neighborhood get rebuilt, instead of nightly patrols.” Taproot Theatre was heavily damaged in the October 23rd fire that completely destroyed four other businesses in Central Greenwood.
There are 14 unsolved arsons to date, the vast majority in the Greenwood neighborhood area. You can see the fires plotted on a map here.
31 responses so far ↓
1 mark // Nov 13, 2009 at 7:59 am
Fox 13 is reporting on it now
2 Iron City Mike // Nov 13, 2009 at 7:59 am
First Post! Hope that’s the guy!
3 heh // Nov 13, 2009 at 8:00 am
first post? uh… ok….
4 Ghoul // Nov 13, 2009 at 8:24 am
i hope its him… but i have a sick feeling that its not.
5 Iron City Mike // Nov 13, 2009 at 8:30 am
@curse you Mark, you beat me by seconds!
Back on topic, this is where the police withholding some information regarding the case, as the y indicated in the community meeting, pays off - will be better able to determine if this is really the arsonist or not. Not surprised last nights fire (pretty sad that its almost a nightly occurrence) was NOT in Greenwood, with all the recent attention and patrols going going on, was probably too risky to try there again, so moved slightly north.
6 Jeremy // Nov 13, 2009 at 8:38 am
Thanks, SPD & FD! I hope this is the guy and all of this is over. Staying tuned…
7 Jon // Nov 13, 2009 at 8:44 am
ICM: Please, no more “First” posts. The internet has enough of that business. :/
I hope they finally caught the jerk. And if this is the right guy, I hope they throw the book at him.
8 Jason // Nov 13, 2009 at 8:46 am
I don’t want Fox. Too biased.
9 Ghoul // Nov 13, 2009 at 9:00 am
how is fox biased about arsonists?
10 anon_tipster // Nov 13, 2009 at 9:10 am
Are they bluring out his face because he/she is minor?
11 greenwood-neighbor // Nov 13, 2009 at 9:18 am
anon_tipster - they are blurring out his face because the “person of interest” has not been charged with any crime, they are only being questioned. After the person is charged, they are allowed to release their name and show their face.
12 DFH // Nov 13, 2009 at 9:19 am
I am so grateful to the SPD and the SFD, and feel for what Shoreline went through last night. Thank heavens no one was hurt in the warehouse fire.
Hopefully this is the guy and we’ll all be able to sleep better at night.
I’ve been very impressed at how our Greenwood neighborhood has pulled together throughout all of this, and how great our fire and police departments are.
13 Ghoul // Nov 13, 2009 at 9:32 am
or let me rephrase that,
“how is Fox biased about arson stories?”
14 Philbert // Nov 13, 2009 at 9:36 am
Well, there was that story they ran about Obama being a secret muslim Kenyan commie arsonist. . . but, yes, otherwise, they seem trustworthy.
15 Ghoul // Nov 13, 2009 at 9:38 am
lol!
16 Whopper // Nov 13, 2009 at 9:41 am
I’m organizing a mob to storm the jail…who’s in?
17 SPG // Nov 13, 2009 at 9:57 am
“who’s in?”
You will be.
18 Patrick // Nov 13, 2009 at 10:00 am
Glenn Beck is not a correspondent for Q13, our FOX affiliate station. If there’s rampant bias from our local station and, as Ghoul pointed out, there’s some relevance to their ability to cover arson, then discussion of that might be useful. Otherwise, “I don’t want Fox. Too biased.” is really the definition of trolling, Jason, and you’ll get yourself ignored on the blog if you keep it up. Just look at Whopper
19 Silver // Nov 13, 2009 at 10:13 am
SPG - LOL!!
20 Patrick // Nov 13, 2009 at 10:15 am
I’m hopeful from the arrest, but even then I’m sad to see the statistic from the Seattle Times article previously posted by phinneywood:
Ugh. So without a confession, what evidence do you have to convict an arsonist? Apparently, most of the time it’s not enough.
Related to that, I completely understand why the police don’t want to divulge a ton of information about what they know. They could be positive that this person they just arrested is the arsonist and they could be right, but if they can’t prove it they can’t put him behind bars. I remember after the community meeting some posts from frustrated community members that the police didn’t seem to know much. If the arsonist thinks the police are onto him, he could stop, go somewhere else, skip town, etc. so it seems to me that they’re much better off if they can keep the investigation happening while they get enough evidence to convict. That doesn’t mean “let him keep lighting fires” but rather “don’t convince him to go commit this crime somewhere else where the investigation will have to start from scratch.”
standard many thanks to phinneywood for keeping great updates on this - I’ll be paying closer attention to my tweets today!
21 Silver // Nov 13, 2009 at 10:17 am
I heard third hand this morning that the guy that was arrested is white and has hair that falls to the tops of his shoulders.
Doesn’t sound familiar to me, but I’m over in Ballard. It is interesting, though, because one of the guys that was contacted as a “suspicious person” more than once was a black male.
22 Silver // Nov 13, 2009 at 10:20 am
Well said, Patrick! And Iron Mike, too!
Sometimes people confess to things they didn’t actually do. That’s another reason for police and fire to hold back key information from the public.
23 Ghoul // Nov 13, 2009 at 10:24 am
@ #20
great post. I agree 100%
24 R // Nov 13, 2009 at 11:38 am
This is not a random arrest. “Kevin Swalwell” has been a suspect for a while. The question now becomes whether the police now have enough to convict.
25 E // Nov 13, 2009 at 11:54 am
“The question now becomes whether the police now have enough to convict.”
Do you mean enough to press charges? The police don’t convict anyone. The district attorney does. Because, ya know, America! Freedom! Yay.
26 Matt // Nov 13, 2009 at 12:03 pm
@E: that’s a bit nitpicky. I think the intended statement was “… whether the police now have enough [evidence] for a conviction”.
And it’s hard to interpret tone on the Internet, but you seem to be implying that the fact that we have separate investigative and prosecutorial branches is a bad thing because … it affords criminals the same freedom we enjoy? Or something? Not sure what the point is there, but I feel pretty strongly that the checks and balances we have in our legal system are a good thing.
27 R // Nov 13, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Thank you Matt.
The question now becomes whether the police now have enough evidence for a conviction.
Hmmm, the sentence still seems clumsy. How about…
The question now becomes now whether the police now have enough evidence for a conviction now.
Is that now more now clear now?
In the arrest video, there appears to be a backpack, perhaps his, perhaps containing a water bottle (filled with?) or flares, or something else suspicious.
Soon we will have a 2009 photo for him and people will post whether (and where) they saw him at the big neighborhood meeting.
Have yourself a SUPER day. Celebrate with the Greenwood art walk, and then resume patrols. If someone wants us to think that this is NOT over, then they will choose to strike in the coming few days (opinion).
28 kD // Nov 13, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Oh fer pete’s sake, guys. The point is, we can go drink beer tomorrow with a reasonable hope of not smelling smoke, right? See you there!
http://www.phinneycenter.org/events/beer.shtml
29 john walker // Nov 13, 2009 at 7:28 pm
he apparently has confessed. http://seattlecrime.com/
30 john walker // Nov 13, 2009 at 7:30 pm
a friend out on patrol yesterday said that he was suspicious of a guy with a page boy haircut. the arrest video shows that haircut. he also said the guy had a sidekick.
31 R // Nov 14, 2009 at 9:22 am
John Walker, please see (http://www.phinneywood.com/2009/11/13/arson-suspect-admits-to-several-fires/#comment-10948).
Leave a Comment