Man killed by police had air gun
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The man Seattle police shot dead in a University District storefront alcove Sunday was armed only with a pellet gun, Chief Gil Kerlikowske said yesterday.
But the heavy, black replica of a Colt semiautomatic pistol in Adam L. Alexander's waistband looked like a real firearm, police said — especially after Alexander took a hostage on a dark, rainy night on University Way Northeast.
"Whether it was dark and rainy or bright and sunny on a summer day, there aren't too many people who would be able to distinguish it from a real firearm," Assistant Police Chief Nick Metz said.
"The officers did an admirable job of putting themselves in harm's way to rescue the hostage, and they took the only action available to them at the time."
Yesterday, police wondered why Alexander, armed with just an air gun, had refused to back down to a police officer with a rifle. They had no explanation for his actions.
The 36-year-old man's family, who said they didn't blame police for what had happened, were left only to remember a struggling carpenter from Idaho who had battled alcohol and run afoul of the law for much of his life.
And merchants on University Way, or "the Ave," and U District residents were left smarting from yet another bad-news moment in a neighborhood they say has gotten an unfairly seedy reputation that has helped it slide downhill.
"The image of the Ave has been relatively negative for a long time," said Fred Hart, owner of La Tienda Folk Art Gallery and past president of the Greater University Chamber of Commerce.
Reputation aside, one police officer said University Way is now the North Precinct's biggest problem.
Police got call of man with gun
Alexander's life ended less than an hour after police got the first 911 call Sunday at 7:27 p.m. from someone in the 4700 block of University Way saying Alexander, dressed in a dark trench coat over a white T-shirt, was walking toward a Tully's Coffee shop with a pistol in his hand.
Alexander jammed the gun into his waistband — but made no effort to hide it — when he walked into the coffeehouse and ordered a drink, police said. He apparently joked to the baristas that the gun was real and indeed conspicuous, police said.
"The people who saw him were convinced what he was carrying was an actual firearm," Metz said.
Alexander took his drink and left Tully's at 7:31 p.m., police said. As he crossed University Way, he confronted a couple in a car and banged on it, police said. It was unclear why he did that, authorities said, but the motorists saw the pistol in Alexander's waistband and thought they were going to be carjacked. They drove away.
A minute later, North Precinct Officers Jeff Johnson, a nine-year veteran, and Stanley Streubel, on the force a little less than two years, arrived in separate cars. They shouted to Alexander to halt. He ran south down the Ave, the gun still in his waistband, police said.
Streubel drew his service pistol. Johnson grabbed an AR-15 tactical long rifle from his squad car. The special rifles, issued to only about 200 officers with special training, fire bullets designed to break apart when they hit their targets instead of passing through them and possibly endangering people behind.
In an alcove in front of a Rite Aid drugstore, Alexander grabbed a 30-year-old man who was talking on a cell phone. The hostage later told police he had believed the gun was real and felt Alexander trying to pull it out of his waistband.
"He said he feared for his life," Metz said. And Johnson "was in fear the suspect was either going to shoot this hostage or hurt one of the officers or the bystanders."
Johnson fired his rifle once, hitting Alexander in the head. Alexander fell, and the black gun clattered to the pavement. He was pronounced dead later at Harborview Medical Center.
Alexander and his five siblings grew up in Priest River, Idaho, and went their separate ways after high school, said his brother Edward, who lives in Wyoming.
Alexander, who has an ex-wife and two children in Spokane, had been arrested many times, with charges ranging from assault and weapons possession to driving without a license. A warrant for his arrest on a drug-possession charge was outstanding yesterday.
Alexander had wrestled with alcoholism for years, and it had torn the family apart, his brother said. Edward Alexander said he had spoken to his brother about three months ago, after a decade without contact. Adam assured him that he was straightening up, happy with a new girlfriend and working as a carpenter. More important, Adam said he had stopped drinking.
'Heart goes out to the officer'
But now Edward feels betrayed. "I'm mad more than I'm hurt — mad at him," he said. "He was supposed to be cleaning up."
As a former Stockton, Calif., police officer, Edward Alexander said he is willing to give Seattle police the benefit of the doubt. But because Seattle police told him his brother never pointed the gun at anyone, he wondered whether police needed to use deadly force.
"My heart goes out to the officer that was involved in this thing," he said. "I do hope it comes out a clean shooting."
Johnson was placed on paid leave, as is standard, while the shooting is reviewed internally. A public coroner's inquest will be ordered.
Johnson joined the force in February 1993, and fellow officers described him as a talented cop, a "field-training officer" who teaches rookies the ropes. A couple of years ago, while serving on a special drunken-driving patrol, Johnson was honored for catching more drunks than any other officer that year, a colleague said.
Officer sued by former peer
In 1997, Johnson was named as a defendant in a lawsuit against the Seattle Police Department by former Officer Paul Vang. Vang alleged that Johnson, one of Vang's training officers, participated in beating a teenage suspect in a West Precinct holding cell and helped drum Vang out of the force to cover it up.
But an internal investigation cleared Johnson, and the department denied Vang's claims and said Vang was emotionally unstable. A trial ended in a hung jury, and the city settled Vang's suit for $80,000 in 2000. Johnson has remained a training officer.
"He is considered one of the finer (training officers) the department has," said Duane Fish, a department spokesman.
Most recently, Johnson has helped patrol the vast North Precinct, which has been struggling for years to clean up the Ave.
North Precinct officers say they take about 500 dispatch calls a month on University Way, and the crime rate there held steady before dipping about 12 percent last year.
Police say that dip may have come partly because of new emphasis patrols and the addition of bicycle officers and some occasional foot patrols. And recent victories in cleaning up Aurora Avenue North have allowed some North Precinct officers to move from Aurora to the Ave.
"University Way is our biggest problem right now," one North Precinct officer said.
Indeed, the incident was another blow to a shopping district that has had plenty in recent years.
A combination of absentee landlords, a growing population of street kids and intense competition from University Village on the other side of the University of Washington campus has caused businesses such as McDonald's and Pier One Imports to close, though much of the Ave is doing well.
Hart, owner of La Tienda Folk Art Gallery, said the shooting was an anomaly that won't have lingering effect on the neighborhood. But, he conceded, shops have struggled against drug dealers and vagabonds for years.
Part of that image is created by the legions of young people who call the Ave home, he said.
Steven "Maus" Garrett, 23, rode a Greyhound bus to Seattle from Portland about three weeks ago. Hitchhiking around the country and sleeping in stairwells and parks, Garrett quickly learned that the Ave was a welcoming place for homeless people his age.
Though Alexander wasn't part of the regular homeless crowd there, Garrett worries that the police shooting will bring heaps of negative attention on him and other "Ave-ites."
"It's going to really suck around here," he said. "They are going to throw the blame on us."
Redevelopment to start soon
In the spring, the city will begin a $4 million face-lift of the Ave that will bring new sidewalks, streetlights and other amenities. It will be the Ave's first major redevelopment since trolley-car tracks were pulled up in the early 1940s.
It can't come soon enough for some local business owners.
Jana Ewer, a real-estate agent trying to lease a vacant shop that once held Off Campus Books and the Retro Viva boutique, said the property owner prefers to hold out rather than rent to a smoke shop or tattoo parlor. At least for a while.
"It's been a hard area," she said. "There's a lot of street activity that's not real positive."
Ian Ith can be reached at 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com. Alex Fryer can be reached at 206-464-8124 or afryer@seattletimes.com.