Police looking for group of West Seattle armed carjacking suspects

SEATTLE - Seattle Police are looking for a group of suspects who they say crashed their vehicle while running from police and later stole a truck at gunpoint in West Seattle. 

Police received a call around 2:40 p.m. for reports of three people trying to load a Jeep onto a trailer near 40th Ave. SW and SW Dakota Street. The 911 caller reported it as suspicious.

When the officers tried to contact the group, they quickly left the area. Officers found them in an SUV a short distance away and tried to stop them, but they refused. 

Police said the suspects were trying to weave around traffic to evade police, but ended up crashing into an oncoming vehicle at West Marginal Way SW.

The suspects then got out of their vehicle and confronted the driver a pickup truck, who was at a nearby drive-thru line. The driver put up a fight for his vehicle, but one of the suspects fired a shot and he ran off. 

It does not appear that the driver was injured.

The suspects took off in that stolen truck. 

A barista at Mighty Mugs who witnessed the carjacking said, "I saw the guy who’s getting his car stolen, and then I heard the gunshot, I was like you need to come over here, and I offered him to come to the stand, but the [suspect] just like ripped around and just left."

The initial crash and investigation blocked all northbound lanes of West Marginal Way SW at Highland Park Way SW. This roadway has been the main source of traffic in and out of West Seattle since the West Seattle Bridge shut down in 2020.

Seattle police were able to find the stolen truck in another location in West Seattle, but the search is still on for the suspects. 

A neighbor said the black truck was left abandoned in the back alley of near her home.

"Well that’s pretty scary to think about it, because luckily it was work time, the kids had just gotten home. Everybody was inside, but the thought that we could’ve been out here when all this happened. Somebody walking around the neighborhood with a gun, obviously they're violent," said Nanci Galaviz of West Seattle.

Police have not released any suspect information, other than two men and a woman were involved.

This is a developing story. FOX 13 will have updates as they become available.