Local transient found dead in Ballard

Geeky Swedes Ballard

Updated: A local transient was found dead this morning behind the dumpsters of the market at 28th Ave NW and NW Market Street.

Detective Mark Jamieson tells us that a call of a deceased male came in at 7:20 a.m. Officers on the scene confirm to us that the individual is a local transient who has a history of seizures. According to police, there was no sign of trauma to the victim. “The King County Medical Examiner’s Office responded and took custody of the body,” the police blotter states. “They will conduct their own separate investigation to determine the cause of death.” (Thanks SB for the tip!)

Geeky Swedes

The founders of My Ballard

56 thoughts to “Local transient found dead in Ballard”

  9. What do you mean, “becoming,” …. are you new to Ballard or something? I’ve lived here MANY years and bums have ALWAYS played a part of the community, good or bad. Don’t be an idiot. I’m interested to know who it is… a lot of us have at least a “head nod relationship” with a lot of these people. RIP

  12. I’m always blown away by the amount of bile in comments on this site. Is everyone in Ballard really that angry?

    Godspeed, homeless guy.

  13. I’m saddened that someone died within feet homes homes where families are living. If he was ill, it’s incredibly horrifying that he couldn’t get the help he needed – if he was having a medical emergency – I wish someone would have knocked on a door and asked for help.
    I’m wondering if he was found in the dumpster though – because that’s where I saw the police really looking around when I drove past. If he was there, my guess is something more nefarious than a medical emergency occurred. Many homeless people walking around aimlessly in that area now.

    Horrifying, and extremely saddened.

  14. This is very sad. He apparently died of a heart attack. I just pass the location on my way home walking the dog. That dumpster area is where a few guys hang out most days as they buy stuff in the store and sit out there and eat and have a swig. I nodded to two guys there late yesterday afternoon. I assume one of them was the older guy who looked in bad shape, actually the younger guy didn’t look that good either. What can a person do? These folks need help but how does one give it to them and do they even want our help?
    Being angry towards them and trying to wish them away does not work, we really need to come up with some solution to this situation so that we can all get along. Or maybe this is the way we coexist, who knows.
    They are human beings and they are a part of our community.

  15. I know you intended “local transient” as respectful, but would it hurt to call him a “local man”? Or just “a man”? Or “a person”? The headline kind of gives the impression that you’re trying to say “somebody died, but before you get too concerned, it was just a transient, not an actual person who lived here.”

    I know that’s pretty much how a lot of people feel about it, but it seems like it wouldn’t take away from our property values any to give him a little bit of recognition as a fellow human being now that he’s dead.

  18. Uh, I took Lathum to be implying not that the presence of transients is becoming a disturbing trend, but that their deaths are becoming a disturbing trend (this one coming less than a month after a transient froze to death at the Locks).

    But maybe I’m just another “idiot”.

  19. Not sure where other Guest is getting his “heart attack” info from, but the P-I is reporting that the medical examiner has yet to determine cause of death and SPD is viewing the death as suspicious due to some marks on the man’s neck.

    As tragic as any death is, I’ve got my fingers crossed that this was indeed just a heart attack or something caused by an injury sustained during a seizure. There’s already been one (unsolved) murder of a transient this year, we certainly don’t need another.

  26. Um yes…if someone were having a medical emergency or were in dire need of help, then yes…please knock on my door – I don’t care who you are. We are all people and if we stop showing compassion then damn the world. Let’s hope to god you never suffer cardiac arrest on the sidewalk and everyone just walks on by….but I guess if you are a working individual with a home – you deserve a call to 911 and a homeless person doesn’t?

  27. I think you’re being hypersensitive to language which is actually useful in this case. It’s not a matter of caring about people but understanding the facts that are known. This is a news story not a eulogy.

    “Transient” suggests the possibility sleeping on the street might not have been uncommon for this man. And if he’s sleeps on the street, then being found dead on the street is not a total surprise.

    If a non-transient person is found dead on the street, then the death would invite other questions.

  28. If you’re going to quote the PI, at least cite the contradiction the story contains…

    Headline says: “Homeless man’s Ballard death called suspicious”

    Story reads: “Police said later in the day that the death was not suspicious.”

    So who called it suspicious if not the authorities, and then why should we care?

  29. did you count the police cars!? i had at least 5 until i was diverted and couldn’t get a full count. i would think at least one of them could have been doing something else. help me out here.

  30. And i think that since he made choices, we, as a community, respected those choices and let him alone. We ARE coexisting. You are not going to find utopia. You can set an example by your personal actions in doing what is right for you. He chose his lifestyle. He paid a price.

  32. True fact: No one was ever murdered in Old Ballard. Well, except these folks. But they were killed in the proper Old Ballard way—indoors. Killing folks behind dumpsters? Does New Ballard have no decency? It must be all the drugs New Ballard’s on.

    1898 – “Charles Ross, the Ballard salloon keeper, who shot and killed a highwayman in his salloon and was himself mortally wounded, died Sunday night.”

    1903 – “Fort Lawton Privates Beat a Man to Death in Ballard – As the result of a drunken row at the Log Cabin saloon at Ballard about 3 o’clock this morning, James Sullivan is dead.”

    1904 – “Paul Underwood and his wife were jointly charged with the murder of their infant daughter, which they threw into the bay off the bridge leading from Ballard to Seattle”

    1905 – “A charge of murder was filed against Napoleon Campbell … accusing him of the killing of his son in law, Paul Bourgett, in Ballard Friday night.”

    1921 – “Although Creighton Dodge … confessed that he fired the shot which killed Patrolman V. L. Stevens at Ballard last Friday, charges of murder will be filed against Dodge’s companions also.”

    1931 – “Murder Charged to Man who Shot His Son-in-Law – The shooting occurred in Spear’s home in Ballard Sunday afternoon.”

    1959 – “The defendant is Ralph E Anderson, 48, changed with first-degree murder in the 1953 robbery-slaying of James G McNamara, Ballard grocer.”

    1966 – “Ronnie Joseph Nichols, 19, and David Morris Sinclair, 15, last night were found guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of Torvald Vegsund in his Ballard home.”

    1967 – “James McGrath, 18, and Dean Bolstad, 19, charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of a Ballard widow.”

    1971 – “Janice Marie Yeager, 18, of 1409 NW 54th St, has been charged with first-degree murder and robbery in the shooting death of a Ballard grocer Tuesday night.”

    1975 – “Charles Boettger, 23, and James Miller, 24, were charged with first-degree murder yesterday in the shooting of Eric Hageselle, 19, outside a Ballard bowling alley.”

    1975 – “Two men, both 19, were charged yesterday with first-degree murder in the shooting death of John R. Standing, 66, in his Ballard home Friday”

    1976 – “Terry Markishtum, 17, was charged yesterday as an adult with second-degree murder in the stabbing of Glen L. Foster, 32, in Ballard April 9.”

    1978 – “Brian Young, 18, charged with first-degree robbery, is the same Brian Keith who was turned loose after serving less than two years for his part in the November 1975 slaying of an elderly Ballard man.”

    1980 – “First-degree murder charges have been filed against two Seattle teen-agers in the fatal pocket-knife stabbing of a 75-year-old Ballard woman last month.”

    1982 – “A 17-year-old youth has been charged with first-degree murder in the beating death of a 62-year-old Ballard widow who took troubled teen-agers into her home… Steven Billings and Roy Billings Jr, 18-year-old twin brothers, were charged in connection with the same slaying.”

    1983 – “The daughter of a missing Ballard man has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with his disappearance”

    1983 – “Billy Lee Callison, 45, an unemployed Ballard welder, has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the stabbing of a man with whom he argued about a chess game Sunday.”

    1991 – “A former roommate is in custody in connection with the slaying of Gregory R. Miller, who was found dead in his Ballard apartment Wednesday.”

    1994 – “Katerina Lundemo, 32, 800 block, Northwest 61st Street. Lundemo was shot by her husband, Patrick, who then killed himself. The family had a history of domestic problems.”

    1996 – “An 18-year-old Magnolia man has been arrested on first-degree-murder charges in the shooting death of 16-year-old Angela Garcia in Ballard this month.”

    1997 – “A man pleaded not guilty yesterday to a charge of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a Ballard locksmith and the attempted rape of the locksmith’s girlfriend.”

    1998 – “Murder-Suicide Claims 2 In Ballard – The bodies of an elderly woman and her daughter were found this morning inside the two-story house they shared in Ballard.”

    2001 – “The bodies of a man and a woman were found in a duplex near Ballard High School this morning, the possible victims of a murder-suicide, police said.”

    2001 – “Donna O’Steen may have been killed early Thursday morning during a break-in at her home in the Sunset Hill area of Ballard, police investigators say.” (Still unsolved!)

    2001 – “A 34-year-old Seattle man is being held on $2 million, cash-only bail, charged in the slaying of his fiancée in their Ballard apartment.”

    O! how I long for Old Ballard, where people mostly got killed by drunks in bars, or by teenagers in their own homes. Now we have to worry about the homeless too? Uff da!

  34. Yes all of these were the cause of death, don’t forget that he had smallpox, yellow fever and Ebola also. he was laying on the ground so long that a rat had nibbled off most if his nose and one ear..Anyone else care to blindly speculate how he died?

  35. I would appreciate it if you not let your dog crap and piss on my flowers and plants. By the way, nice detective work, I’m just wondering, do you specialize in forensics from a distance?

  36. Who let the guy from Bellevue make a comment? Just wait Bellevue, they will over there soon, after all it’s much safer there . right?

  37. Yeah kim, I’ll have to trust your expertise on law enforcement investigation, potential crime scene perimeter control, investigative interviewing, canvasing for nearby security cameras/tapes, and coordination with the incoming detectives and medical examiner personnel.

  38. if you had actually seen the area where this guy was laying, you would know that he was not visible from the sidewalk or parking lot. He was wedged laying face up behind two dumpsters and next to the building. The only way you would have seen him is if, like his buddies, you go behind the dumpster and urinate. I live 20 feet away and I will never answer my door at 5 a.m. emergency or not. This does not surprise me that it happened, more like disgusts me. So you better have an appointment with your emergency if you plan on knocking on my door and a damn good reason because you’ll be talking to the SPD, not me.

  39. Shhhhhhhhhh! not the M word. Homes are just starting to sell in Ballard again. Wait a minute…… you are from Bellevue and you’re jealous that your property value has decreased more than ours in Ballard. Well I outed you now go back to own blog in Bellevue and leave our cuddly homeless dudes alone!!

  42. There are lots of people who have a life and check this site when news breaks or to just check in. These are the neighborhood people keeping up with what’s going on and then there are those that sit there 24/7 ready to spill their vile on whatever story comes up. You decide…what is NORMAL?

  43. There are agencies landing in Ballard soon that many have been fighting. They will be the doors those in need in Ballard can knock on because whether you like it or not there is a huge amount of people in need in Ballard and they are not going away…We can all be part of the problem or part of the solution. It is my hope that everyone can look beyond their reality and realize there are a lot of people out there that need help. Help where you can and do what we can. If you have enough to survive…pass it on…It’s rough out there for so many.

  45. PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he
    knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so
    much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my
    state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that…

    No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece
    of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by
    the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
    well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s
    death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankinde, and
    therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for
    thee. — John Donne

  46. “There are agencies landing in Ballard soon”

    THose agencies will do nothing for Ballard’s bums. They are for those who’ve sobered up and are on the path to recovery. I can guarantee it they will do nothing to lower the number of bums we have in the area. Plus the scrub-a-bum facility will be yet another magnet for hobos from across the city.

  47. R.I.P Kenny….He was a good man with a huge heart. Always had kind words and a laugh. I would see him all the time walking in the alley behind my house and we would chat it up whenever we had moments to spare. His favorite band was The Cure, he was a very longtime Ballard resident and he grew up in Seattle. He was true blue. He often offered to help me with my garden or whatever project I might have going on knowing that most of my friends and family live out of state. He was full of great stories. I will miss my friend so much. Let’s have some respect for this man. “Better to die homeless than heartless.”

  48. I am also your neighbor and so glad I DON’T know you. If someone knocked at my door at 5 AM, I probably wouldn’t open it either but I would be smart enough and compassionate enough to call 911 and report an emergency. I protect myself this way but can still be human enough to get some help. You don’t have to take them in your house so go ahead and call SPD…you could actually save a life, although it seems as f you couldn’t really care much about anyone but yourself.

    If I see you in need, I’ll still help you… but you better hope when you need it, you are near someone like me and not someone like yourself, or you’re in deep doo doo!

  51. Kim Jong-Il – you are right that the agencies coming in to Ballard (Compass House) will do nothing for Ballard’s bums. They are bringing in bums from throughout the City that are already qualified for money from the city/state/county. Compass may rent office space to the non profit company that does needle exchanges so that may help the bums in Ballard. The Urban Rest Stop LIHI wants to build will provide laundry/shower services to those transients that have called first and made an appointment to go in.

  52. These people can get help at the ER, free of charge (or rather, at your expense). Don’t start that “they can’t get any help.”

  53. OK, well unless you live in Bellevue, you are not my neighbor. I like to get you Ballardites all worked up and whipped into a frenzy. It’s a little game called slum blogging. Life is very boring in the sterile eastside suburbs so I have to get my excitement by listening to my police scanner and pretending to live next to the dumpster. Anyway, I wouldn’t answer my door for anyone here in Bellevue either, I have a house keeper to do it for me! Oh Ballard, you and your ghetto little minds….keeping me entertained

  56. Why would someone reply with their name and address on a blog posting so they can be harassed by other users? Just because the person above doesn’t post their private information doesn’t mean you’ve proven your point. What they are talking about is situational ethics. If someone who was in a medical emergency knocked on their door, they would help. That is not an invitation to open their doors to everyone and compromise their privacy and the privacy of their family and neighbors. Your argument doesn’t make any sense and is framed so hyperbolically that no reasoned conversation can occur. Tone it down. You’re not running for president.

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