12 p.m. update: Police say the man taken into custody is not connected to the shooting of Officer Brenton. “It was determined fairly quickly that he was not connected to the case,” Seattle Police Detective Mark Jamieson tells us. Jamieson says that every tip is being followed up on, but since this was happening right then, the decision was made to move in.
A large police force descended on Old Ballard last night to take a man into custody for questioning. Witnesses say a man at the Lock & Keel was making “suspicious comments,” and the Seattle Times reports the man had made a statement that was threatening to police. Officers are taking such comments very seriously after the recent killing of Seattle Police officer Timothy Brenton and wounding of fellow officer Britt Sweeney.
My Ballard reader Angelatini was next door at Conor Byrne last night when the police arrived on scene. “A friend rushed in and told me there was a SWAT team outside,” Angelatini writes in the forum. “I went over to the door and sure enough there were about 15 police cruisers and unmarked cars with cops everywhere. They had already arrested a suspect and he was in the backseat of a cruiser by the time I got outside.”